Ladies and gentlemen, your shareholders. Good morning. Because of the health measures imposed in the context of COVID-nineteen epidemic and an application of the emergency measures adopted by the French government we are exceptionally holding this getling general meeting behind closed doors that is without the physical presence of shareholders and any other participant in order to apply 25th March 2020. I would like to warmly thank the shareholders who have spoken and who will follow these presentations on our website. Seeing the number of votes recorded remotely, I'm pleased to see that you have made a point of participating in the deliberations and that you give full support to our company, a great deal of loyalty to our company, which is valuable to us in the coronavirus crisis that we're currently experiencing.
Ladies and gentlemen, I declare the general meeting open. As usual, I will briefly present the formalities for the opening of our general meeting, which I chair and which are recalled on page number 3, In accordance with legal and regulatory provisions, your board of directors has notified the shareholders by means of the notice of meeting and the notice to attend the meeting published in the Belo and in the daily La Petite Lafish on 4th March 8th April 2020, respectively. This ordinary and extraordinary meeting is held on 1st call. I remind you that in order for it to deliberate validly, it is necessary for the shareholders present or represented to own at least 20 percent of the shares with voting rights for ordinary resolutions and at least 25% for extraordinary resolutions. The quorum the count of which will be confirmed to you at the end of his presentation shows that the general meeting can validly deliberate.
The rate of participation and the result of the votes will be explained at the end, as I have just said. The following item or point has to do with the constitution of the general meeting office. With regard to the letter and in accordance with the legal and regulatory provisions, which I've mentioned earlier, we have, as continues, the FCPE, the Gettling Collective Investment Fund representative, for the group's employees, Mr. Marcell Ordine and Mr. Michael Schueller, who is the Co Head of Investors Relations Department.
These 2 shareholders agree to be scrutineers. In agreement with them, Mrs. Claire Picola will secretary to the Bureau Office of a General Meeting of Shareholders. I confirm that the documents required by law for the proper conduct of the general meeting have been filed and made available to shareholders within the prescribed time limits. In particular, through the company's website, in the section dedicated to this general meeting.
Finally, I would like to point out the up subutally fundamental presence, our 2 statutory auditors, Mr. Schirke, from KPMG, and Mr. Sanchez from Maza. I now turn to the agenda, which on the following pages, pages 4 to 7 recalls the ordinary resolutions relating to this agenda and As is customary, I thank you for dispensing with the need to read it in full. The last important practical information I would like to inform you is that no request for the inclusion of items on the agenda or draft new resolution has been filed by shareholders.
I now suggest that we move to the presentation of the general meeting as, chapter page 8 does present. This presentation, page 9, will be structured as usual around the financial results. There will be a focus on governance and obviously, we shall be raising the issues of CSR and future perspectives of the company. The financial results of the group in 2019, Page 10, are preceded, and I think it's useful to mention this in the current context page 11 by the highlights or key events of the year 2019. The main highlights of 2019, let's recall and the first quarter of 2019, all the aspects which are linked to the Brexit preparation.
And the fact that we had had some top level governmental contacts which were extremely sustained to be fully consistent with the needs of a government. And then in spring 2019, this led to this risk of Brexit on the 31st March led to a massive strike by French customs officers which paralyze massively our activities and those of Eurostar between March May, and we will see later on the financial impact of this later on in the presentation. This has not prevented us from preparing the future and has allowed us to launch a midlife refurbishment program for passenger shuttles and trusting bombardier transport to carry out an important mission And this is an investment program, which is going to take place over 7 years. On 4th July 2019, we wanted to celebrate the 25th anniversary of a tunnel unveiling a superb artwork by the artist eyes on the portal wall of a tunnel. And I do remind you that the in this perspectives in which we want to use all the competencies of the group on the 25th November 2019, we signed a partnership with the French RATP to prepare ourselves for the opening up of regional express trains to competition.
And then in December, we were affected again by the sensitive strikes in the context of the social protest against pension reform. In 2020 on 21st January 2020, the United Kingdom left the European Union, but until the end of year 2020, I remind you, and this is particularly important today that Great Britain is still considered as a member of Europe because it is a transition period. And then, of course, and I will come back to this at the end of the presentation, the COVID-nineteen pandemic and the impacts that this has on our activities. Finally, for this year, 2019, Page 12, we had very good performance in this hectic and difficult context. First of all, the group's revenues is tables shows the power and resilience.
Despite the second point, the impact of strikes around 1,000,000 in our EBITDA, which therefore fell slightly, but in the end, held up very well, which did not prevent us from increasing our net profit by more than 20%. I will come back to this figures in details, but they have been known for a long time. It's on page 13. The and 1,000,000, the consolidated net result of 1,000,000 thanks to the cost of a net financial debt, I will come back to this down by 5% to €253,000,000 that is less than half of EBITDA produced. Page 14, you have the free cash flow data for the group with, an operating cash flow of nearly 1,000,000, which is, quite considerable, the debt service, but I've mentioned at 1,000,000 and an investment excluding LECLINK of 1000000.
One way mark concerning Brexit, we have an agreement with the British government, which has allowed us to collect GBP 11,000,000 in 2019 and another GBP 11,000,000 in 2020. In addition, we have implemented installations on behalf of the French authorities in the region of 1,000,000 to be exact. For which we've asked the French government to make a reimbursements, we've sent a request on the 2nd December without getting any answer To date, the next video is going to show you the nature of installations which are absolutely crucial for the future of your tunnel. On page 15, I turn to the level of debt which in the present case in terms of net financial debt amounts to 1,000,000,000, which is in line with our repayment capacity given our level of cash production and BDA. The average cost of a debt is only a 3.8%.
Everybody knows where we, come from, 15 years ago. Finally, the last observation of the covenants related to the long term debt is that some people are questioning the impact of a coronavirus. As of today, we have sufficient cash flow in reserve and sufficient cash flow to come to consider that there is no need to open, reflections or discussions on the level of covenant. Page 16, I remind you, the key elements that make the success of your internal shuttles Since 2015, for trucks, thanks to a very good quality work, we have an increase of market share of 315 basis points, which is huge and it's even better with a passenger with 430 basis points. The capacity to increase the average yield amounts to more 3% in 2019 So you know that we're in a constant trade of high quality, with, which means that we do not have any particular concern And the following video will allow you to, make the same journey as our freight customers Page 17, the Eurostar High Speed Service was, considerable commercial success in 2019, thanks to the opening of a London Amsterdam service Eurostar has exceeded 11,000,000 passengers, which is an absolute record, and, the long term potential of its railway activities of course, is absolutely significant.
It's an ecological transport. It's in the logic of a European green deal and the merger between Eurostar and Thales, which I hope will become a reality, will open up interesting perspectives independently of the contacts that we have made with new operators, I will come back to this. Slide 18, I recall the, revenues and EBITDA concession, stability of the turnover, but the important point is the control of the operating costs, which have only progressed by 2% allowing to produce an EBITDA of 1,000,000. Slide 19, speaking of Europoort, and profitability. It is perhaps the only rail freight company, whose turnover was increased by, 4% operating costs have been a slight increase at €102,000,000 you report has an EBITDA of 1,000,000 and a net result of 1,000,000.
But overall, it is an activity that will also be driven by the environmental concern that is now everyone's concern. The possibilities of device diversification are extremely interesting for your report, and I talked about the agreement with the French RATP, and we're here dealing with a set of, specialties or trades, which are sufficiently varied. So that whatever impacts of the COVID, we have significant rebound at capacities as the small video that follows will show you. On page or slide 20, you have 2 photos illustrating the electric electrical interconnection. Project.
On the left, you have the, converter stations, which allow us to switch from alternating current and the French networks to cable in direct current, which will be pulled through the railway tunnel. The converter stations are now finished completed, and I hope to test them in summer. This summer, on the right hand side, you have gigantic helix, which was built up at the cable that is rolled upon it, can be pulled into the tunnel. At this stage, no budget issue. We just have a on the expected decision of the IGC so that we can resume pulling work or pulling operations in the tunnel.
You know that it has now been 3 years that this, pulling authorization was suspended by the IGC We have, after many exchanges, presented a full, submission dossier on the 12th September 2019. The IGC asked us to redraft it. We write it in a different order format, which we did, In short, in early January 2020, the IGC said that he was able to take a decision on the 23rd April 2020, that is last week. Which was not the case because the IGC told us that due to the difficulties to organize by national meetings, related to the COVID-nineteen situation. It was not able to keep this particular deadline and have no new, time scale yet.
So two comments. For years to take a decision, it's not surprising because when Deutsche Bank wanted to open a roadway service between London and Cologne in Germany, we were directly in this in the strictly way we feel with the leading European operator of the IGC to 3 years to grant to Deutsche Bank its way restated certificate. As far as we're concerned, we've been following closely the European method of this type of project, which is the common security method, allowing to verify that this direct current cable, which moreover provides infinity less electromagnetic disturbances than the 25 kv itinerary currently in the tunnel, could be installed safely without difficulty in complete, security, which is confirmed by the independent words selected by the common safety method. In despite this, the IGC, as I've just mentioned, is taking its time but I hope that we will soon have a decision enabling us to restart this project. The, interest of which in terms of energy transition is recognized by all the French British and European authorities.
I now move Page 21 to governance and more precisely page 22 on the separation of functions, which you will recall, last year I wanted it to take effect as of the 1st July, 2020, with a process carried out in a very precise way by the nomination committee and the board of directors, we have chosen as future, chief executive officer Jan Lourich, who will introduce himself in the following video.
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Page 23, I now raise the issue of the renewal of a board of directors, and I would like to pay a special tribute to Mrs. Colette Naveel, who today, completes the term of office as director after 12 years of intense and dedicated work and I dare say fervent support for the company and the board of directors has asked me to publicly thank her for her very useful contribution to all our work. As far as this board of directors is concerned, we have, thanks to the Nomination Committee chaired by Perrette, we have committed, a progressive stable renewal of mandates or terms of office while keeping free essential data. 1st, a high level of independence of directors, a very strong internationalization and, an almost ideal, male female parody. Concretely, page 24, Resolution 5 will, propose you ratified the computation of mister Quincy as director to replace mister Castellucho who has left the board and resigned, we will propose a renewal of grant renewal of 4 directors to the board of directors, which are absolutely paramount to the functioning of a board of directors and resolutions 1011 will ask you to approve the election of 2 new directors to replace Mrs.
Colette Nabil we appoint Mr. Jean Marc, who will also be introduced by a video, which is coming and at the end September 2020 by Mrs. Sharon Flute in replacement of Mr. Philippe Basser. I now let you watch these two videos where our 2 future direct to say how happy they are to join us.
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Good morning. My name is Sharon Flood. I am 54, married with a 9 year old son and a sixteen year old daughter. I am a dual British Irish citizen and currently live and work primary in the UK. I'm delighted to be proposed by the get link board for election to their board at the next AGM.
I have a interest in the infrastructure sector and have lived, studied, and worked in France at various points of my career. So I'm pleased to use these experiences for the benefit of Get Link. I'm a graduate in mathematics from the University of Bar a fellow of the chartered Institute of Management Accountants and was lucky enough to study for a year at in Fontumbler, where I gains an MBA with distinction. My career has covered a number of finance and strategy roles, starting with Unilever in the UK where I help Finance and operational roles. I then joined OCNC Strategy Consultants working on a number of consumer oriented projects before joining Kingfisher as head of strategy for BNQ, their DIY business.
I was fortunate to work air during the merger with Castorama, helping the leading European business in the sector, which built my understanding of working across European borders. During this time, I was also responsible for John Lewis Department Stores, the UK's leading department store group, which has a unique employee ownership structure, I had the privilege of being part of the team building 1 of the most successful multi channel retail businesses in the K. Since leaving John Lewis, I spent 2 years as an operating partner at Sun European Partners, leading private equity turnarounds in businesses across Europe. I then moved into a plural career as a board director with 2 initial roles spending 4 years as President of Network Rail, the owner of the UK's Rail Infrastructure. These two roles bring great experience link.
At Network Rail, I've shared both their audit and Treasury committees. More recently, I've also established an shared a board committee focused on environmental sustainability and then working with the team to establish a clear strategy on climate change. And other environmental issues before I stand down after my second term in August 2020. I also have a pleasure of serving on 2 other FTSE 250 boards. Chris Nicholson, a leading house builder, and pets at home a pet care business, covering both retail and veterinary services.
In addition, I have a long history of not for profit work. Having lived in India, I helped establish and run an educational charity, supporting projects on the Indian Subcontinent. I then spent 6 years on the board of shelter, the UK's leading charity tackling homelessness. I'm currently a charity of the Science Museum Group and a trustee of Cambridge University. I'm particularly excited to be considered for the link board as it allows me to combine so many of my experiences and passions.
Working between the UK and France allows me reinforce my knowledge of a special bond between our countries. I'm pleased about the role that Euro Tunnel can play in addressing climate change by providing the most sustainable way of transport between the UK and mainland Europe. Link's potential to optimize energy supplies and the opportunity to manage freight in a sustainable way. I feel sure that serving on the Get Link board will be a stimulating experience opportunity to meet GetLinks employees, shareholders, and stakeholders in the near future. Thank you for your time.
Page 25, I now raised the issue of the remuneration of corporate officers. As you know, There are the export and exemptive voting mechanisms, which are in line with the best recommendations of the asset made up codes and the Sapa 2 law, it is based on simplicity, transparency, and stability. There's nothing new in this and so you will allow me to talk quite briefly about this since this is all well known, made public as well. And I'm sure we've had plenty time to read it. On page 26, you have the details of my own remuneration for the 2019 financial euro on the left hand side of a slide.
You have a list of everything that I don't have in the middle of the page. You have the breakdown of the objectives, which are set for me in terms of performance. And on the right hand side, you have a result of these performances. Same thing for the, deputy chief executive officer, page 7, you know, that Mr. Francois Guate left his mandate as, Deputy chief executive, on 15th March 2020.
Resolution number 16, which is a explained on page 28 gives my remuneration as a chairman and chief executive officer for the 1st half 2020 with here again for breakdown of variable remuneration and of course the fact that I have no longer any long term remuneration in 2020 since I will be leaving my executive function in or on the 30th June 2020 as Chairman of the Board of Directors for the second half of the year or twenty twenty, page 29, with the objective of ensuring the best liaison link with the new chief executive officer, you have, in Resolution 17, the elements of the Exane vote for the second half of the year 2020. Page 30, you have the details of the remuneration of the chief executive officer for the second half of the year twenty twenty. On the right hand side, you have everything he doesn't have in accordance with a very strict and rigorous policy of a company, then on the rest of this page, you have the breakdown between the fixed remuneration, the salary part, the variable remuneration component, and the long term incentive part of our remuneration, which I will comment in greater details on page 41, it will be a resolution number 18.
Mr. Yannarich, we received a fixed annual remuneration of salary with some EBITDA criteria, net results, Alec Link. It's integration into the company, And of course, the CSR index, which is very important to continue to ensure, continuity on these subjects on which I will come back later on. Page 32, you have in, resolutions 2021, The reminder of a long term incentive plan set up in the company, LGI. Firstly, with a collective and call or egalitarian plans or the allocation of free shares to group employees, to a maximum of 462,500 shares Then the incentive program for the main leaders of the group, which only amounts to 265,000 ordinary shares, that is less than for the collective one, in view of its concentrations on the key stakeholders in the company with the same levers as in previous years, that is the same particular the stock market performance of the share, the performance in terms of EBITDA and VCSR performance.
Page 33, A reminder on the dividend policy, with a decision which was very difficult to take and which is very, very painful, the fact that the Board of Directors decided to exceptionally cancel the payment of a dividend for 2019, not because we didn't have the financial means to do so, but because in the current context of uncertainty, it seemed wise to do so, having of course a possibility to keep the capacity to distribute an interim dividend at the end of this year, depending on the lifting of lockdown procedures in the countries which are particularly interested for us. And I can confirm that the group's intention is to assume as soon as possible a dividend distribution policy that continues to grow Reminding you that since the first dividend in 2008, we have distributed in total 1,000,000,000 to you shareholders. I now turn, and this is, on page 34, as it is announced, I give the floor to our statutory auditors were going to give us a usual opinion on the various elements. I have presented to you. Gentlemen, You have the floor.
Thank you, Chairman, ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders, on behalf of the College of Statutory auditors, I present to you the reports we have drawn up for you for the financial year ended 31st December 2019. These reports are as follows. I will report on the annual financial statements Our report on the consolidated financial statements, our special report on regulated agreements, our reports on the share capital operations provided for in resolutions 20 to 20 3 on which you're invited to vote. In addition, the KPMG cabinet as an independent third party has issued a report on the, extra financial performance statement included in the group's management report. These reports are detailed in the documents that have been made available to you.
I will now summarize the contents of these reports. In our report, dated 26th February 2020 on the annual financial statements for the financial year ended December 31, 2019, presented in accordance with the French standards and set out on pages 96 to 98 of a 2019 universal registration document end in our report dated 26th February 2020 on the consolidated financial statements for the year ended December 31 2019, presenting recordings with the IFRS standards as adopted in the European units and set out On pages 41 to 44 under 2019 universal registration document, we present the characteristics of our missions we confirm that they have been carried out in compliance with independence rules applicable to us will recall the respective responsibilities of the company's management and governance and all the statutory auditors were respective or consolidated and annual financial statements, respectively. We issue an opinion without reservation on the annual and consolidated financial statements. In these two reports, we have justified our assessments By bringing to your attention, the key points of the audit relating to the risk of material misstatement, which in our professional judgment were the most important for the 2019 audit as well as the responses we made to these risks With regard to the consolidated financial statements, the key points of the audit is concerned, the recoverable value of the allocating fixed assets the recoverable value of the concessions, fixed assets, the accounting treatment of financial debts.
With regard to the annual financial statements, the key point of the audit was the valuation of equity investments and intergroup receivables. Our work consisted in particular for these key points of the audit in assessing the approach adopted by the company and in ensuring the reasonableness of a significant estimates made and the appropriateness of related information in The notes are annexed to the financial statements. Finally, these two reports we confirm that we've made the specific verifications required by law and we have no observation to make. In our report on the consolidated financial statements, we have certified that the consolidated statement of financial performance required that the French commercial code is included in the group's management report and that we have also certified the information relating to remuneration benefits and commitments in favor of executive officers. In our special report on regulated agreements dated 26th February 2020, appearing on pages 190 and 196 of a 2019 universal registration document will indicate in the first part with respect to the agreement submitted to the approval of a general meeting that we have not been advised of any new agreements in the second part with respect to the agreements that have already been submitted to for the approval of your shareholders meeting and which remained enforced during the financial year 2019, we have not been advised of any agreement that have already been approved and which remained enforced during the financial year 2019.
With regard to the extra financial performance statements in the report of independent third party organization appearing on pages 258 and 2 to 268 of a 2019 universal registration document, the latter confirms that it has not identified any significant anomaly regarding compliance of a consolidated extra financial performance statement with a regulatory provisions in force. Finally, with regard to capital transactions, We issued reports on the 23rd April 2020 on the delegations and authorizations to be given to the board of directors to carry out the following transactions. Authorizations to make a free allotment of shares, tool, employees of the company except to members of the management. Of Resolution 20, authorizations to grant existing or future ordinary shares to employees and or executive officers of the group Resolution 21, reduction of a share capital of the company by canceling treasury shares, Resolution 2022, capital increases with withdrawal of a shareholders preferential right of subscription by the issue of ordinary shares or transferable securities reserved to the employees who signed up to a company savings plan that is Resolution 23. As the final terms and conditions of this capital increase have not been set, we do not express any opinion on this capital increase and consequently on the proposed cancellation of a preference is a crucial right made to you under this resolution.
We'll prepare an additional report if necessary when the board of directors Next use of this delegation. We thank you for your attention. Thank you, Mr. Sher Key. Thank you very much for this proposal on behalf of the College of Statutory auditors and thank you for the high quality of your work, the work that you do for us and which is absolutely the pancable to us.
Now ladies and gentlemen, I now would like to, mention the perspective of a group because we have and we're quite certain, we have capacities to achieve even more great things. Thanks to a fundamentals of group. On page 42, I would like to come back on the development of rail traffic. 2 aspects are particularly important. You may recall that back in 2019, there was a protest movement coming from Sweden against short distance flight connections in the European environment.
And today, unfortunately, in view of the coronavirus crisis that I cannot say I'm happy with, we see that air transport is deeply affected and that it will need, quite a long time to recover. There is therefore, for us, at the level of the European Railway high speed network, possibility, which is extremely interesting, possible development, and we are working on it. And in particular, this is a second point, thanks to our capacity to get infrastructure managers to work together. Because the real issue in relation to a way, way, service or link is to find in the different networks used by the operator some time slots which are compatible and relevant. We started this work.
It is the one which has allowed us to open the service loan in Amsterdam, and we continue with our spec perspectives. And we hope that in the context of the European green deal, There will be a massive support to the development in the countries which are particularly relevant to us of the new European signaling system called E RTMS, which allows to increase in a considerable way the capacity and safety of railway flows. We are in contact, as I have already mentioned, and I do confirm with with a large number of operators, we're ready to derive profit from this renewed interest for the railway compared to the air transport. And in this context, as I re called the incredible situation of Deutsche Bank, which 10 years ago, took 3 years to obtain a railway safety certificate which, in view of the hassles they had, to face, as we also face today with the situation with Elic Link, I'd finally renounced to do it. We are working on the implementation of new authorization rules for passenger equipment inverte channel tunnel, which corresponds to new services in line with the European prescriptions called TSIs, which take into account, our competence and capacity acquired, overhauled, 26 years of operations in the channel tunnel.
It's a very time consuming work, but we're determined to achieve it. We don't forget Rayway, fret, freight, which also represents interesting capacities in terms of development. And in this context, we are currently finalizing a negotiation with a British government to take over the exit of the tunnel located at Dollinsmoor so that we could have an entrance at credain and an exit at Dollinsmoor and vice versa, which can be managed in, smart and, of course, performing way in view of the use of a tunnel and this, why not, in the perspective, are the rail motorway? It is something that the British government supports in an extremely relevant way. Slide 43 recalls the commitments, which are ours in terms of CSR performance.
Of course, and I've already mentioned there is customer service, which level of satisfaction, which is extremely high, and for for which we want to keep on improving We have, and I will come back to this some extremely remarkable results in terms of environment protection, we are not outside the real world and we work intensely to help partnerships around our installations for the benefit of all, we of course particularly careful about social aspects. We have signed recently a group gender equality charter unanimously approved by of course, trade union organizations, and we wish to continue to decrease work related accidents, which have a frequency rate today, which has significantly improved itself, and I've also mentioned the separation of functions, which is an, issue, which is particularly appreciated by Anglo Saxon Investors. The environmental performance of the group, I would like If you do allow me to summarize it through the following Page 44, let me come back on the reduction of CO2 emissions. Carbon based gases, greenhouse effect gases, of course, in order to assess our results, which is reduction by 33% of our emissions, you need to bear in mind, but at the same time, the revenue of the group, but it's just a traffic increase by 28% And therefore, if you combine the two figures, you end up with an absolutely remarkable result you have in the right hand side set of the slide, the details of all the actions that we implement.
Of course, far from lyrical musings, you know that we are at absolutely concrete. We work small doses per small doses step by step, and this allows us to end up with remarkable results and which have been certified, for a long time, and we are the only ones on the cross channel segment, which, had their results certified, but the best international organizations. On page 45, we've also worked on the basis of the risk of climate change on a low carbon economy concept as, this is the dedicated terminology to be used. I think we're well prepared to follow recommendations in these fields. I'd like to remind you that we were the first on the market to, implement, charging points for electric vehicles at both extremities of a tunnel, this resulted in 12,000 customers, which have used these facilities in 29, and we have many other projects in progress in your report for rail freight also has some capacities in the context of a rail freight recovery to move forward in this field.
Page 46 We are mentioning hazardous or non hazardous with, of course, a significant reduction which has to be, offsetted against the increase of the activity and in terms of waste recycling rate, we come to an absolutely acceptable rate of 94.4%. Once again, it is day to day work, It has to do with the 1 of the staff. It's not visible work, but of course, results are visible. Page 47, we are mentioning our biodiversity dimension. We are reducing the amount of water taken from the public networks And from the natural environment in order to maintain the cooling of a tunnel tunnel, you know that we have the nature reserve of some fire hole which has just received its 14th green flag award.
It shows that it's something huge, very important, which is, by the way, accessible to the general public, and we, in France, work on eco pasture on plots of lands which are available to us, Therefore, we are improving carefully and we use in a very careful way all our capacities to improve our indicators. Page 48. And to come back on this issue of climate change, we are perfectly aware of this, we want to be part of the, national or international policies, which were raised by the public authorities. This, goes with a stronger organizations in the CSR And Environment Department in which we have recruited high level directors. It has to do a structuring of climate reporting and a set of concrete acts in order to face climate change, and you have in the blue section of page 48, the motto, I would say, the statement, the commitment of the Board of Directors on this policy in favor of the fight against global warming.
Now let me, mention page 49 an issue, which is particularly painful, that we are all experiencing today, which is the COVID-nineteen pandemic and the way according to which we manage it. First, I would like to recall that, our customers being international, we have been aware of the need to take lockdown measures as early as 9th March as soon as Italy did so and well before France and well before the United Kingdom. And this has allowed us while being fully aware of what this represented, this has allowed us to commit very rapidly, very close collaboration with both the French and British authorities to deliver adapted service and approval to implement both of our protection of our workforce and protection of our customers, everything we could implement with installation of hand sanitizing dispensers in buildings on board shuttles, a reminder of a protection protocol and, social distancing. We have also caused, strength and cleaning operation and disincentions, and we have implemented a work organization, which is adapted, and having understood what Italy on 9th March and Spain of the of March were deciding before the lockdown measure in France, we have switched as early as this to remote working facilities for support services.
In a nutshell, we've been among the first operators to react in a significant manner, an important manner to this situation, which is extremely difficult Page 50, you have, for example, the quantity of hydroalcoholic gel, sanitizing gels by we have used, so far, the number of masks that we have purchased, and that, we are currently renewing, thanks to some orders that we have launched in China, but not only at the international level. Number of gloves, distributed, but I think the most simple thing to do is to show you for lower drivers the measures we have implemented against COVID-nineteen for the video, which follows. Page
51,
I come back on 2 particularly important issues in the context of the management of this COVID-nineteen crisis. First of all, I think we need to continue to strengthen our commercial activities. We have sleeve for passengers shuttles when borders are open. Passengers will do remain onboard their vehicles. So this is extremely reassuring for them.
And I think it will probably be an really strong sales agreement argument when, borders are reopened to attract maybe new passenger customers for lower drivers who, as you may know, had no access to showers and toilet facilities. We have provided free as to showers and toilet facilities to them. We have installed these facilities. We are providing them with a snack pack and give them, €8 or £8 voucher to use in France and the UK to complement their meals or elements that they need. It goes without saying that this success success has allowed us to maintain a very good level of, freight traffic and to even witness an increase in figures.
We have obviously largely communicated with, lower drivers and hauliers in general, for the whole of services and operations, we have taken or we have adapted our services and work processes to take into account COVID. It's very simple. This was carried out for a staggering of working hours and rotations of people don't meet. We have reduced the number of vehicles and the movements. We have postponed, in the interest of savings, all the investments we were neither linked to safety nor to urgency, we have taken a very courageous, decision to reduce the capacity a load factor of our freight shuttles, of 30 two trucks, from 30 two trucks to 24 trucks, so that there is more space between lower drivers in the club car, which is the rail wagon, which is meant to transport them, and we have multiply collection buses to make sure that there aren't too many people on board those collection buses.
And in view of a virtual disappearance of the passenger traffic, we have innovated putting into service as of the 23rd April, on behalf of 1 passenger shuttle, you know that, shuttle passenger is 8 hundred meters longs, but it has four hundred meter single deck at a very high height for coaches and then behind 2nd half double deck shuttle where vehicles are parked on two floors and two decks, we only run the single deck wagons, which is four hundred meters long. It is less costly in terms of operating costs, maintenance and energy costs, And we have worked in a very determined way, on the basis of the cost reduction skins without putting at risk, neither quality of service, nor safety, which is absolutely fundamental. Slide 52, recalls the traffic figures of the first quarter 2020 with a decrease of both truck and passenger traffics as well as your and freight trains. I recall, after our first international impact of a lockdown as early as the Italian measure of early March. So therefore, these figures are to be considered with a March impact after months of January February, which were particularly good.
I raised second essential issue for cost reduction and the adaptation of our organization, it is the impact of the implementation of part time working for 2200 Fagan employees of the group in France, that is 300 employees on furlough in the UK, in France, as it as the world indicates, it is partial employment in the UK, it's the all or non principle, either the employee works or he or she stops working completely. This is why the reason why this figure of 300 can't be compared to 202,239. Managers were not submitted to part time working and voluntarily decreased the urban duration by 10% as of the 1st April, and I think we can praise their decision. I have myself announced that I was reduced seeing my remuneration as of 1st April by 25%. And I am pleased to say that the board of directors expressed is solidarity because, directors have decided as of 1st April to reduce their monthly attendance fees by 10%.
All this to say that the company is fully mobilized to face this particular difficult crisis you have on the right hand side, the total revenue of the group in the 1st, quarter with a breakdown between your tunnel and your port. Your tunnel is not decreasing its performance much because it is, an infrastructure, which is particularly useful and, it is, by the way, mentioned, Europort had been impacted and affected by the trikes for the pension reform of ESSCF from the 1st to 25th January. This was quite a strong impact, but this is not what I to mention. I will need to say that your report has run specific trains, which when all part of his work program, to transport 250,000 tons of benzene, which is, as we all know, the fundamental ingredient of product for the making of hydroalcoholic gels. Therefore, this is another interesting aspect of your report, these additional trains which run-in this context.
I would conclude by saying I remind you and confirm we have no difficulty with our financial situation, we have taken cash flow, preservation measures or protection measures for our cash flow and we can, we have enough or a good level of liquidity, which enables us to face with no difficulty, the reimbursements of the debt There's no hesitation on this. The capital reimbursement is of only 1,000,000 this year. We have great teens, but I would like to publicly congratulate here today because they have adapted to the crisis with agility, speed, and determination, And these teams are fully dedicated to being in a capacity to benefit from a recovery plan should it present itself, and as soon as it should present itself, we have an economic model, which is extremely solid and robust. We are fully in line the expectations of populations in terms of social and health protections and environment, preservation, We obviously ensure a mission of public service between Europe and Great Britain and this will continue in the future and we are a benchmark player in the field of eco responsible transport. From Slide 54 onwards, you will have on the website of the group on the page dedicated to the general meeting, the result of a number of voters, and the results of votes per resolution, you shall see that once again, you have massively supported the company, and I do thank you for this.
I hope that this presentation, which was very specific, has met your expectations. I'm sorry for the possible difficulties or errors in diction that I might have made in this presentation because it is true contact with you, direct contact with you in a room, with you, shareholders is something that I miss We work together for the benefit of this company and we've been doing so for many years now, results are there and, we all face an app absolutely exceptional unknown crisis with no reference and what I can assure you is that we organize ourselves to get through it as best as possible and that we should be there performing efficiently as soon as we recover the path towards activity. And shall certainly be among those who shall reap the best benefits of this situation. Ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders, thank you for accepting this presentation behind closed doors. Thank you for your support.
And I hope to see you very, very soon. Thank you very much. And I now officially close this general meeting 2020. Thank you.