This compares favourably with the published fares of the two main ferry companies which for December are £72.
However, both P&O and Stena Sealink said they would be continuing the practice of previous years of having special offers in the slack January to March period which would be around £20 for the car plus £1 for passengers as this enables them to keep theirships, which have turned into floating supermarkets, running through the winter.Eurotunnel appears to have learnt from its past mistakes. Last January it announced fares for its service, which was then due to start in May, that were in line with the peak summer fares of the ferries. This time it has attempted to undercut the ferriesand has not announced its summer fares until it is certain that it will be able to operate its full service of four shuttles per hour.Eurotunnel also says that until it can run more trains, passengers will be able to book. Previously, Eurotunnel had said it would only operate a “turn up and go” service.Initially, there will be one shuttle per hour in each direction with a capacity of 120 cars every day from 8am to 8pm and Eurotunnel hopes in January that the service will become 24-hour.However, Ian Todd, P&O’s spokesman, dismissed the prospect of competition from the tunnel: “They are running one shuttle per hour with room for 120 cars, while we have a ship going every 45 minutes with room for five times that number and Stena has one an hour with similar capacity.”Mr Garnett denied that Eurotunnel was entering a price war: “Our prices are competitive.

While we will not enter a price war, we are confident that we will attract customers to our fast, reliable and hassle-free system.”Mr Garnett hopes that people will be attracted to try the Channel tunnel as a result of the lower fares and then use it to book summer holidays at the premium rate. He said yesterday that he was confident that Eurotunnel would meet its target of obtaining just under 50 per cent of the cross-Channel market by the end of 1996.However, many travel experts feel that Eurotunnel faces an uphill task because the journey through the tunnel is spartan compared with the modern ferries which offer shopping, restaurants, duty-free,and views of the white cliffs of Dover.However, the tunnel is undoubtedly quicker, with Eurotunnel promising motorway to autoroute in an hour, compared with over two hours on ferries.The opening of the car shuttle services next Thursday means that all four services through the tunnel – Le Shuttle car and freight, Eurostar, and through freight trains – will all be bringing in revenue to help Eurotunnel begin to pay off the £10.5bn cost of the project.. The most comprehensive sale of the work of the surrealist American painter and photographer Man Ray is being sold by his late widow’s executors, writes Marianne Macdonald. The two-day March auction at Sotheby’s of more than 500 works will include paintings, drawings, objects, photographs and lithographs, estimated to fetch £2.2m-£3.2m.
They comprise the contents of Man Ray’s studio when he died in 1976 and, in many cases, are works he was particularly fond of or had refused to sell. The highlight is Le Beau Temps, which Man Ray refused to sell despite numerous offers from museums. The 1939 painting inspired by a series of vivid nightmares is one of his greatest works and estimated to fetch up to £800,000.Man Ray was born Emmanuel Rudnitzky in Philadelphia in 1890.

He became famous for his paintings and for founding the New York Dada movement, the nihilistic precursor of surrealism. Later he became known for his photography, documenting works of fellow Dadaists and concentrating on portraiture and nude studies. He photographed Picasso, Stravinsky and the model and photographer Lee Miller with whom he lived, threatening suicide when she left him in 1932.Many of his works were so startling and original that he influenced generations of artists. For example, he expunged his emotions over Miller by painting Observatory Time – The Lovers, a mournful depiction of a giant pair of the model’s lips floating against a mackerel sky. It is now in a private collection.In Hollywood, he created Palettable, an artist’s palette which rested on legs to become a table (estimated to fetch £8,000 to £12,000) and painted a baguette blue, put it on scales and christened it Pain Peint – Blue Bred: Favorite Food for the Blue Birds (£15,000-£20,000).Last year Man Ray made the world record for a single print when his surrealist photograph of a face dotted by glass tears sold for £122,500 at Sotheby’s.