Boulogne Maritime
In the 1960s, BR and SNCF collaborated to set up a cross channel hovercraft service called Seaspeed and the mainstay of the service became the giant SR N4 hovercraft that could carry vehicles and passengers. Seaspeed merged with a competitor service (Hoverlloyd) at the start of the 1980s to become Hoverspeed. Shown here is GH2006 'The Princess Margaret' coming ashore at Boulogne Hoverport in August 1989. The channel tunnel brought about the demise of these leviathan machines and they made their last flights in 2000. GH2006 managed to survive as a museum exhibit for many years after withdrawal, but it was finally scrapped in 2018. It is a pause for thought that BR was diversifying into revolutionary hovercraft travel at a time when it was still busy finding reasons to prune its network.
Location: Boulogne Maritime
Original line: Hoverspeed
Photographer: Mark Dufton
Contact photographer: Mark Dufton
Date: 08/1989
Image number: 75707
Other photographs of Boulogne Maritime on RailScot
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