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Would the Forumites think it a good idea to re-establish a rail link to Western Docks, to carry future increases in freight by rail to established destinations around the U K? There are laws in Britain regarding carbon emissions, which must be kept under control, and DHB envisages that freight and car traffic passing through Dover will increase by about 100% over the next thirty years. This is the reason why they want to build new berths at Western Docks, to handle such an increase.
However, the technology that allows a container to be loaded onto a chassis trailer of a lorry is not new, and providing the rail-wagons were low enough to pass under the tunnel through which the rail tracks pass from Dover to Folkestone, it could be convenient to organise a part of freight traffic by rail and send the containers to destinations from which they could be picked up by lorries and transported to the factories of destination. For example, ten containers to the Leeds area passing from the continent (Europe) to Britain through Dover could be sent by rail to as near as possible to Leeds, and picked up there by lorries and taken to the various factories which imported the freight. This would cut down enormously on the carbon tyre-print.
The proposal of a rail link to Western Docks and the transport of increased freight by rail was part of my representation to gov. in February 2010 to block DHB's privatisation plans of Dover's Port (or Ports), of which a copy went to DHB.
Such a project would also reduce the cost of petrol imports from abroad.
May I note that the idea of "non-carbon" petrol made from mais or other bio products can not work out, as the increasing world population cannot afford to produce billions of tonnes a year of food to make petrol with. Tens of millions of people would starve or die of malnutrition while multi billion companies reap enormous profits, which is out of the question. Oil could be running out for all we know, so to be realistic, would it be feasible to re-examine this proposal of a rail link in Dover to our Western Port? If more berths have to be built, it's better to build them in the right way, for rail traffic, if this should prove convenient.
What is your opinion?