Getlink Group — Written evidence (EBM0025)

Getlink Preparations for EES - Lords Committee Inquiry Follow Up

I wanted to follow up to provide the information you requested regarding Getlink’s expenditure on Entry Exit System (EES) infrastructure – please see the details below.

Capital expenditure 

• Getlink has invested a total of €80 million, including capital and operational expenditure across both our UK and French terminals.  
• The caped covers modifications to terminal layout, new roads, a covered area for enrolment kiosques, enabling up to 52 vehicles to be handled simultaneously.

Operational expenditure

• This includes the recruitment of an additional 70 staff in the UK to support our customers to complete the enrolment process. 

Potential savings were the application to be ready in time for EES implementation

• We anticipate that 80% of our customers travelling from the UK to the EU will be required to enrol on the system during the first year of operation. However, we are unable to calculate an accurate figure for potential savings without operational data on numbers of passengers who are required to enrol on EES and the return rate of those customers within the three year window for EES.

As stated during the Committee session, due to our preparatory work we do not anticipate the implementation of EES to result in any significant delays to Eurotunnel crossings. Our check-in area at the Folkestone Terminal is capable of processing more than 750 cars per hour. Getlink’s modelling has shown that, as a result of this very substantial investment, EES enrolment will likely add only 5 to 7 minutes per vehicle (based on an average occupancy of three passengers) to total journey time, which will not impact on forecast traffic flows through the terminal.

25 April 2024