HAULIERS have been forced to deliver tonnes of cargo destined for UK customers by road after the Channel Tunnel was closed to rail freight traffic.

French train operators SNCF were forced to suspend rail freight traffic as the problem with asylum seekers attempting to get on trains at Calais heading for the UK reached crisis point earlier this year.

Blackburn-based Gilbraith TranStore, which relies on rail transport for 50 per cent of its supplies, said the problems were now worse than ever as the majority of customer orders now come by road. And since politicians and railway chiefs met earlier this month at Frethun yard at Calais -- promising that full services would be resumed -- only a trickle of trains are making it across the border.

Martin Norris, operations manager for the rail freight terminal on Great Bolton Street, Blackburn, said: "We are worse off than ever because we have to wait for everything to come by road. Now service is totally sporadic and we don't know what is coming from one day to the next."

And the company complains of an 'operational nightmare' unloading the 15 road vehicles instead of one train, as the European companies use road transport to meet demands of increasingly nervous customers.

Mr Norris said: "We do not know what is being done and very little news filters down to us at this level.

"We are forced to keep customers happy by using road alternatives which forces business and efficiency down."

The train company used by Gilbraith TranStore, English Scottish and Welsh Railways (EWS), has lost £500,000 a week since trouble began last November.

Director of planning Graham Smith, said: "International freight is in crisis."

Spokesperson Andy Lichfold said: "There is a limited service running now but there are still would-be illegal immigrants making it through.

"The French authorities are working to increase security in the area. But we feel really sorry for the companies who are being drawn into this mess."

"We understand their difficulties and hope that they will return to rail freight when services return to the levels enjoyed last year."