PM Johnson to chair emergency response meeting on COVID travel, freight [Reuters - 21:22 hrs]

r00fie1

r00fie1

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UK
December 20, 20209:22 PMUpdated 2 hours ago

PM Johnson to chair emergency response meeting on COVID travel, freight​

By Reuters Staff
2 Min Read

uk.reuters.com

PM Johnson to chair emergency response meeting on COVID travel, freight

Prime Minister Boris Johnson will chair an emergency response meeting on Monday to discuss international travel, in particular the flow of freight in and out of Britain, a spokeswoman for his office said on Sunday.
uk.reuters.com uk.reuters.com

LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister Boris Johnson will chair an emergency response meeting on Monday to discuss international travel, in particular the flow of freight in and out of Britain, a spokeswoman for his office said on Sunday.

Earlier on Sunday, several European countries began closing their doors to travellers from Britain after the country tightened COVID restrictions in London and southern England to try to curb the spread of a new strain of the coronavirus.


France said it would bar all people coming from the UK for 48 hours from Sunday night, including freight carriers, whether by road, air, sea or rail. Britain’s port of Dover said its ferry terminal was closed.

“The prime minister will chair a COBR (emergency response) meeting tomorrow to discuss the situation regarding international travel, in particular the steady flow of freight into and out of the UK. Further meetings are happening this evening and tomorrow morning to ensure robust plans are in place,” the spokeswoman said.


Transport minister Grant Shapps urged Britons, especially hauliers, not to travel to ports in Kent in southern England, warning on Twitter that “we expect significant disruption in the area”.

The travel restrictions come at a difficult time for many British companies, which are engaged in last-minute stockpiling before Dec. 31, when a status quo transition period with the European Union ends and new customs rules come into effect.

Doug Bannister, chief executive at the port of Dover, told Reuters earlier this month that Europe’s biggest trucking port was already seeing almost record volumes of trade.

Reporting by Elizabeth Piper and Kate Holton; Editing by Daniel Wallis and Peter Cooney
 
My town is going to become a trailer park 11 days earlier than anticipated FFS

How long before food shortages start, I mean 48 hours will disrupt supplies, much longer and it will start to cause serious, serious food shortages.
 
BoroMart said:
My town is going to become a trailer park 11 days earlier than anticipated FFS

How long before food shortages start, I mean 48 hours will disrupt supplies, much longer and it will start to cause serious, serious food shortages.
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I reckon its time we upgraded the likes of Felixstow, Harwich, Kings Lynn, Grimsby and Hull to take a lot more cross - channel traffic.
Its a long way to the Kent coast from anywhere apart from London.
It doesnt make sense driving down the motorways from the north to the tiny South East Corner of the country and squeeze all ferry traffic across the channel.
 
r00fie1 said:
I reckon its time we upgraded the likes of Felixstow, Harwich, Kings Lynn, Grimsby and Hull to take a lot more cross - channel traffic.
Its a long way to the Kent coast from anywhere apart from London.
It doesnt make sense driving down the motorways from the north to the tiny South East Corner of the country and squeeze all ferry traffic across the channel.
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Makes sense in theory.
 
buffaloboro said:
Makes sense in theory.
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Millions would need to be spent on infrastructure - but it makes sense [unless you are a politician]: we have an increasing tonnage of goods by Air Freight - but it can be considerably more expensive than road.

East Midlands Airport is the best example in the UK:

Cargo | East Midlands Airport

Information about Cargo services at East Midlands Airport, the UK's busiest pure cargo airport
www.eastmidlandsairport.com www.eastmidlandsairport.com
"East Midlands Airport is the UK’s busiest pure cargo airport and second only to Heathrow, handling over 320,000 tonnes of flown cargo every year. We are the UK hub for DHL and UPS, and support operations for TNT and Royal Mail."

The issue is that those goods are not perishable food stuffs because you need the cold storage facilities at the airport. There are huge hangers and Unit storage - access to the M42 / M1 / M6 which make it highly serviceable and accessible. HS2 will provide a hub at Toton and provide access to express rail for the airport.

The sea ports on the East Coast have potential to increase freight and passenger traffic, but the roads and railway networks which serve Hull / Grimsby / Kings Lynn / Lowestoft and Felixstow are appalling. West to East transport in this country is virtually non - existent. All roads appear to lead to London! We really do need a major rethink. The South East corner cannot sustain the Island like it once did.
 
This is as a direct result of the governments appalling handling of the pandemic and it really illustrates what teh rest of the world thinks of our choice as leader and it's a fairly damning verdict.

I would cut him a little slack as the mutated virus may be raging around the world already, but we identified it more accurately because of our genomic capability, not sure.

In any event Kent seems to be the new Wuhan
 
r00fie1 said:
I reckon its time we upgraded the likes of Felixstow, Harwich, Kings Lynn, Grimsby and Hull to take a lot more cross - channel traffic.
Its a long way to the Kent coast from anywhere apart from London.
It doesnt make sense driving down the motorways from the north to the tiny South East Corner of the country and squeeze all ferry traffic across the channel.
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I presume it the cost of longer ferry travel. If it's similar to cars, it's much cheaper crossing from the north east than Newcastle or Hull
 
Laughing said:
This is as a direct result of the governments appalling handling of the pandemic and it really illustrates what teh rest of the world thinks of our choice as leader and it's a fairly damning verdict.

I would cut him a little slack as the mutated virus may be raging around the world already, but we identified it more accurately because of our genomic capability, not sure.

In any event Kent seems to be the new Wuhan
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I live in Kent and the F^*&ker knew about this 3 months ago and told me to send my kids to school. In fact my sons school shut a week early as there was an explosion of cases, and my daughters remained open right until the end of term. That buffoon decided to risk my children and me, their single parent, for his ideological bull****. I'm furious at his inaction, he could have made my kids orphans and for what? I just wish I had the opportunity to ask him this to his stupid pompous gormless face.
 
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Good of him to bother this time. Doesn't he have more children to father? Caribbean islands to lounge on?

I was going to the supermarket tonight so that I didn't have to bother later in teh week, it'll be full of panic buyers. Fukkin great.
 
bear66 said:
I presume it the cost of longer ferry travel. If it's similar to cars, it's much cheaper crossing from the north east than Newcastle or Hull
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I think thats the issue.
I can research the cost in terms of fuel / times spent travelling / loading / off - loading / roads maintenance costs / logistics / administration / drivers wages / delivery tarrifs / environmental costs / administration, etc. [Il try later].

Roll - on Roll - off demands excellent road / rail connections to the ports.

I wonder how many millions of tonnes of cross - channel freight traffic originates from the North of England?

We have rapidly improving infrastructure for container-shipping at Southampton, Lutterworth, Birmingham , etc - and there are increasing demands for train - paths to transport huge shipping containers to the North of England.

Is it not beyond the bounds of possibility to learn from mainland Europe, USA, South America and China how they plan and co-ordinate mass transit of freight and the logistics there of?

Our current rail network is 150+ years old in some cases and unable to cope with increased demand: and that is also justification for new passenger lines [including HS2] to free up the aging infrastructure for freight and improve local and regional passenger services.

This is not just about Brexit and Covid.
But I suspect our politicians will bend to vested interests and fill their business friends pockets with our money.:mad:(n)
 
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