Travellers using Eurostar services are paying “over the odds” for their tickets, according to the European Commission.
The EC has criticised the “excessive” fees being charged by the tunnel operator Eurotunnel to operators of both passenger and freight trains using the Channel Tunnel.
The commission has formally asked the governments of the UK and France to “comply with EU rules against excessive track access charges for passenger and freight trains in the Channel Tunnel”.
EC vice president Siim Kallas said: “The Channel Tunnel is not being used to its full capacity because of these excessive charges.
“As a result, more freight is being carried on lorries instead of by rail, freight operators and their customers are being overcharged, and passengers are paying over the odds for their tickets. The current regime is also stifling growth in the rail sector.”
The commission has asked the two governments to “end an agreement which currently reserves capacity for certain train operators in a restrictive way”. It also attacked the tunnel’s current regulator, the Intergovernmental Commission (IGC), for being “weak” and “not independent”.
The UK and French governments now have two months to respond to the EC’s criticism of Channel Tunnel fees. If they fail to respond, they could both be taken to the European Union’s Court of Justice.
The EC says that currently 43 per cent of tunnel capacity is currently unused while rail passenger traffic has only been increasing slowly – up by 200,000 passengers to 9.9 million per year between 2011 and 2012.
Eurotunnel responded to the EC announcement by pointing out that the process was “targeted at the states and not at the company”.
The company added: “Eurotunnel has always sought the development of cross-Channel traffic and concentrates significant resources on this goal.
“To Eurotunnel’s knowledge, only Eurostar is contesting a claimed lack of transparency in 2014 access charges, finding issue with a contract which it has applied for 19 years.”