The tunnel carries high-speed Eurostar passenger trains, the Eurotunnel Shuttle for automobiles and other road vehicles—the largest such transport in the world—and international rail freight trains. The tunnel connects end-to-end with the LGV Nord and High Speed 1 high-speed railway lines.
Ideas for a cross-Channel fixed link appeared as early as 1802, but British political and press pressure over compromised national security stalled attempts to construct a tunnel. The eventual successful project, organised by Eurotunnel, began construction in 1988 and opened in 1994. At £4.650 billion, the project came in 80% over its predicted budget. Since its construction, the tunnel has faced several problems. Fires and cold weather have both disrupted operation of the tunnel. Illegal immigrants have attempted to use the tunnel to enter the UK, causing a minor diplomatic disagreement over the siting of the Sangatte refugee camp, which was eventually closed in 2002.
Origins
Proposals
and attempts
Key
dates
|
|
1802
|
Albert Mathieu put forward a
cross-Channel tunnel proposal.
|
1875
|
The Channel Tunnel Company Ltd
began preliminary trials
|
1882
|
The Abbot's Cliff heading had
reached 897 yards (820 m) and that at Shakespeare Cliff was 2,040 yards
(1,870 m) in length
|
January 1975
|
A UK–France government backed
scheme that started in 1974 was cancelled
|
February 1986
|
|
June 1988
|
First tunnelling commenced in
France
|
December 1988
|
|
December 1990
|
The service tunnel broke through
under the Channel
|
May 1994
|
|
Mid-1994
|
Freight and passenger trains
commenced operation
|
November 1996
|
A fire in a lorry shuttle severely
damaged the tunnel
|
November 2007
|
High Speed 1, linking London to the tunnel, opened
|
September 2008
|
Another fire in a lorry shuttle
severely damaged the tunnel
|
December 2009
|
Eurostar trains stranded in the
tunnel due to melting snow affecting the trains' electrical hardware
|
In 1802, Albert
Mathieu, a French mining engineer, put
forward a proposal to tunnel under the English Channel, with illumination from
oil lamps, horse-drawn coaches, and an artificial island mid-Channel for
changing horses.
In the 1830s, Aimé Thomé de Gamond, a Frenchman, performed the first geological and
hydrographical surveys on the Channel, between Calais and Dover. Thomé de
Gamond explored several schemes and, in 1856, he presented a proposal to Napoleon III
for a mined railway tunnel from Cap Gris-Nez to Eastwater
Point with a port/airshaft on the Varne sandbank
at a cost of 170 million francs, or less
than £7 million.
In 1865, a deputation led by George Ward Hunt
proposed the idea of a tunnel to the Chancellor
of the Exchequer of the day, William Ewart Gladstone.
Around 1866, William Low
and Sir John Clarke Hawkshaw promoted ideas, but apart from preliminary geological
studies
none were implemented. An official Anglo-French protocol was established in
1876 for a cross-Channel railway tunnel. In 1881, the British railway
entrepreneur Sir Edward Watkin and Alexandre
Lavalley, a French Suez Canal
contractor, were in the Anglo-French Submarine Railway Company that conducted exploratory work on both sides of the
Channel. On the English side a 2.13-metre (7 ft) diameter Beaumont-English
boring machine dug a 1,893-metre (6,211 ft) pilot tunnel from Shakespeare
Cliff. On the French side, a similar
machine dug 1,669 m (5,476 ft) from Sangatte. The
project was abandoned in May 1882, owing to British political and press
campaigns advocating that a tunnel would compromise Britain's national
defences.
These early works were encountered more than a century later during the TML project.
In 1919, during the Paris
Peace Conference, the British prime minister, David Lloyd George, repeatedly brought up the idea of a Channel tunnel as a
way of reassuring France about British willingness to defend against another
German attack. The French did not take the idea seriously and nothing came of
Lloyd George's proposal.
In 1929 there was another proposal
but nothing came of this discussion and the idea was shelved. Proponents
estimated construction to be about US$150 million. The engineers had addressed
the concerns of both nations' military leaders by designing two sumps—one near the coast of each country—that could be flooded at
will to block the tunnel. This design feature did not override the concerns of
both nations' military leaders, and other concerns about hordes of undesirable
tourists who would disrupt English habits of living.
Military fears continued during World War II.
After the fall of France, as Britain prepared for an expected German invasion, a Royal Navy officer in the Directorate of Miscellaneous Weapons Development calculated that Hitler could use slave labour
to build two Channel tunnels in 18 months. The estimate caused rumours that
Germany had already begun digging.
In 1955, defence arguments were
accepted to be irrelevant because of the dominance of air power, and both the
British and French governments supported technical and geological surveys. A
detailed geological survey was carried out in 1964–65.
Construction work commenced on both sides of the Channel in 1974, a
government-funded project using twin tunnels on either side of a service
tunnel, with capability for car shuttle wagons. In January 1975, to the dismay
of the French partners, the British government cancelled the project. The
government had changed to the Labour Party and there was uncertainty about EEC membership, cost estimates had ballooned to 200% and the
national economy was troubled. By this time the British tunnel boring machine
was ready and the Ministry of Transport was able to do a 300 m
(980 ft) experimental drive.
This short tunnel was reused as the starting and access point for tunnelling
operations from the British side.
In 1979, the "Mouse-hole
Project" was suggested when the Conservatives came to power in Britain.
The concept was a single-track rail tunnel with a service tunnel, but without
shuttle terminals. The British government took no interest in funding the
project, but Margaret Thatcher, the prime minister, said she had no objection to a
privately funded project. In 1981 Thatcher and François Mitterrand, the French president, agreed to set up a working group to
look into a privately funded project, and in April 1985 promoters were formally
invited to submit scheme proposals. Four submissions were shortlisted:
- a rail proposal based on the 1975 scheme presented by Channel Tunnel Group/France–Manche (CTG/F–M),
- Eurobridge: a 4.5 km (2.8 mi) span suspension bridge with a roadway in an enclosed tube
- Euroroute: a 21 km (13 mi) tunnel between artificial islands approached by bridges, and
- Channel Expressway: large diameter road tunnels with mid-channel ventilation towers.
The cross-Channel ferry industry
protested under the name "Flexilink". In 1975 there was no campaign
protesting against a fixed link, with one of the largest ferry operators
(Sealink) being state-owned. Flexilink continued rousing opposition throughout
1986 and 1987.
Public opinion strongly favoured a drive-through tunnel, but ventilation
issues, concerns about accident management, and fear of driver mesmerisation
led to the only shortlisted rail submission, CTG/F-M, being awarded the
project.
Arrangement
The British Channel Tunnel Group
consisted of two banks and five construction companies, while their French
counterparts, France–Manche, consisted of three banks and five
construction companies. The role of the banks was to advise on financing and
secure loan commitments. On 2 July 1985, the groups formed Channel Tunnel
Group/France–Manche (CTG/F–M). Their submission to the British and French
governments was drawn from the 1975 project, including 11 volumes and a
substantial environmental impact statement.
The design and construction was done
by the ten construction companies in the CTG/F-M group. The French terminal and
boring from Sangatte was undertaken by the five French construction companies
in the joint venture group GIE Transmanche Construction. The English
Terminal and boring from Shakespeare Cliff was undertaken by the five British
construction companies in the Translink Joint Venture. The two
partnerships were linked by TransManche Link
(TML), a bi-national project organisation.
The Maître d'Oeuvre was a supervisory engineering body employed by Eurotunnel
under the terms of the concession that monitored project activity and reported
back to the governments and banks.
In France, with its long tradition
of infrastructure investment, the project garnered widespread approval. In
April the French National Assembly gave unanimous support and, in June 1987,
after a public inquiry, the Senate gave unanimous support. In Britain, select
committees examined the proposal, making history by holding hearings away from
Westminster, in Kent. In February 1987, the third reading of the Channel Tunnel
Bill took place in the House
of Commons, and was carried by 94 votes
to 22. The Channel Tunnel Act gained Royal assent
and passed into law in July.
Parliamentary support for the project came partly from provincial members of
Parliament on the basis of promises of regional Eurostar
through train services that never materialised; the promises were repeated in
1996 when the contract for construction of the Channel
Tunnel Rail Link was awarded.
The tunnel is a
build-own-operate-transfer (BOOT) project with a concession.
TML would design and build the tunnel, but financing was through a separate
legal entity, Eurotunnel. Eurotunnel absorbed CTG/F-M and signed a construction
contract with TML, but the British and French governments controlled final
engineering and safety decisions, now in the hands of the Channel
Tunnel Safety Authority. The
British and French governments gave Eurotunnel a 55- (later 65-) year operating
concession to repay loans and pay dividends. A Railway Usage Agreement was
signed between Eurotunnel, British Rail
and the Société
Nationale des Chemins de fer Français
guaranteeing future revenue in exchange for the railways obtaining half of the
tunnel's capacity.
Private funding for such a complex
infrastructure project was of unprecedented scale. An initial equity of
£45 million was raised by CTG/F-M, increased by £206 million private
institutional placement, £770 million was raised in a public share offer
that included press and television advertisements, a syndicated bank loan and letter of credit
arranged £5 billion.
Privately financed, the total investment costs at 1985 prices were
£2600 million. At the 1994 completion actual costs were, in 1985 prices,
£4650 million: an 80% cost overrun.
The cost overrun was partly due to enhanced safety, security, and environmental
demands.
Financing costs were 140% higher than forecast.
Construction
Working from both the English side
and the French side of the Channel, eleven tunnel boring machines or TBMs cut through chalk marl to construct two rail tunnels and a service tunnel. The
vehicle shuttle terminals are at Cheriton (part of Folkestone)
and Coquelles, and are connected to the English M20 and
French A16 motorways respectively.
Tunnelling commenced in 1988, and
the tunnel began operating in 1994.
In 1985 prices, the total construction cost was £4.650 billion (equivalent to
£12 billion today), an 80% cost overrun. At the peak of construction
15,000 people were employed with daily expenditure over £3 million.
Ten workers, eight of them British, were killed during construction between
1987 and 1993, most in the first few months of boring.
Completion
A two-inch (50-mm) diameter pilot
hole allowed the service tunnel to break through without ceremony on 30 October
1990.
On 1 December 1990, Englishman Graham Fagg and Frenchman Phillippe Cozette
broke through the service tunnel with the media watching.
Eurotunnel completed the tunnel on time,
and the tunnel was officially opened one year later than originally planned by Queen
Elizabeth II and the French president, François Mitterrand, in a ceremony held in Calais on 6 May 1994. The Queen travelled through the tunnel to
Calais on a Eurostar train, which stopped nose to nose with the train that
carried President Mitterrand from Paris.
Following the ceremony President Mitterrand and the Queen travelled on Le Shuttle to a similar ceremony in Folkestone.
A full public service did not start for several months.
The Channel Tunnel Rail Link (CTRL),
now called High Speed 1, runs 69 miles (111 km) from St Pancras
railway station in London to the tunnel portal at
Folkestone in Kent. It cost £5.8 billion. On 16 September 2003 the prime
minister, Tony Blair, opened the first section of High Speed 1, from Folkestone
to north Kent. On 6 November 2007 the Queen officially opened High Speed 1 and
St Pancras International station,
replacing the original slower link to Waterloo
International railway station.
On High Speed 1 trains travel at up to 300 km/h (186 mph), the
journey from London to Paris taking 2 hours 15 minutes, to Brussels
1 hour 51 minutes.
In 1994, the tunnel was elected as one of the seven modern Wonders of the World.
In 1995, the American magazine Popular Mechanics
published the results.
Engineering
Surveying undertaken in the 20 years
before construction confirmed earlier speculations that a tunnel could be bored
through a chalk marl stratum. The chalk marl was conducive to tunnelling, with
impermeability, ease of excavation and strength. On the English side the chalk
marl ran along the entire length of the tunnel, but on the French a length of 5
kilometres (3 mi) had variable and difficult geology. The tunnel consists
of three bores: two 7.6-metre (25 ft) diameter rail tunnels, 30 metres
(98 ft) apart, 50 kilometres (31 mi) in length with a 4.8-metre
(16 ft) diameter service tunnel in between. There are also cross-passages
and piston relief ducts. The service tunnel was used as a pilot tunnel, boring
ahead of the main tunnels to determine the conditions. English access was
provided at Shakespeare Cliff, French access from a shaft at Sangatte. The
French side used five tunnel boring machines (TBMs), the English side six. The service tunnel uses
Service Tunnel Transport System (STTS) and Light Service Tunnel Vehicles
(LADOGS). Fire safety was a critical design issue.
Between the portals at Beussingue
and Castle Hill the tunnel is 50.5 kilometres (31 mi) long, with 3.3
kilometres (2 mi) under land on the French side and 9.3 kilometres
(6 mi) on the UK side, and 37.9 kilometres (24 mi) under sea.
It is the second-longest rail tunnel in the world, behind the Seikan Tunnel
in Japan, but with the longest under-sea section.
The average depth is 45 metres (148 ft) below the seabed.On the UK side, of the expected 5 million cubic metres
(6.5×106 cu yd)
of spoil approximately 1 million cubic metres (1.3×106 cu yd)
was used for fill at the terminal site, and the remainder was deposited at
Lower Shakespeare Cliff behind a seawall, reclaiming
74 acres (30 ha)
of land.
This land was then made into the Samphire
Hoe Country Park. Environmental impact assessment
did not identify any major risks for the project, and further studies into
safety, noise, and air pollution were overall positive. However, environmental
objections were raised over a high-speed link to London.
Geology
Successful tunnelling required a
sound understanding of the topography and geology and the selection of the best
rock strata through which to tunnel. The geology generally consists of
northeasterly dipping Cretaceous strata, part of the northern limb of the
Wealden-Boulonnais dome. Characteristics include:
- Continuous chalk on the cliffs on either side of the Channel containing no major faulting, as observed by Verstegan in 1698
- Four geological strata, marine sediments laid down 90–100 million years ago; pervious upper and middle chalk above slightly pervious lower chalk and finally impermeable Gault Clay. A sandy stratum, glauconitic marl (tortia), is in between the chalk marl and gault clay
- A 25–30-metre (82–98 ft) layer of chalk marl (French: craie bleue) in the lower third of the lower chalk appeared to present the best tunnelling medium. The chalk has a clay content of 30–40% providing impermeability to groundwater yet relatively easy excavation with strength allowing minimal support. Ideally the tunnel would be bored in the bottom 15 metres (49 ft) of the chalk marl, allowing water inflow from fractures and joints to be minimised, but above the gault clay that would increase stress on the tunnel lining and swell and soften when wet.
On the English side, the strata dip is less
than 5°; on the French side this increases to 20°. Jointing and faulting are
present on both sides. On the English side, only minor faults of displacement
less than 2 metres (7 ft) exist; on the French side, displacements of up
to 15 metres (49 ft) are present owing to the Quenocs anticlinal
fold. The faults are of limited width, filled with calcite,
pyrite and remoulded clay. The increased dip and faulting restricted the
selection of route on the French side. To avoid confusion, microfossil assemblages
were used to classify the chalk marl. On the French side, particularly near the
coast, the chalk was harder, more brittle and more fractured than on the
English side. This led to the adoption of different tunnelling techniques on
the two sides.
The Quaternary undersea valley Fosse
Dangaered, and Castle Hill landslip at the English portal, caused concerns. Identified
by the 1964–65 geophysical survey, the Fosse Dangaered is an infilled valley
system extending 80 metres (262 ft) below the seabed, 500 metres
(1,640 ft) south of the tunnel route in mid-channel. A 1986 survey showed
that a tributary crossed the path of the tunnel, and so the tunnel route was
made as far north and deep as possible. The English terminal had to be located
in the Castle Hill landslip, which consists of displaced and tipping blocks of
lower chalk, glauconitic marl and gault debris. Thus the area was stabilised by
buttressing and inserting drainage adits.
The service tunnel acted as a pilot tunnel preceding the main tunnels, so that
the geology, areas of crushed rock, and zones of high water inflow could be
predicted. Exploratory probing took place in the service tunnel, in the form of
extensive forward probing, vertical downward probes and sideways probing.
Surveying
Marine soundings and samplings by
Thomé de Gamond were carried out during 1833–67, establishing the seabed depth
at a maximum of 55 metres (180 ft) and the continuity of geological strata
(layers). Surveying continued over many years, with 166 marine and
70 land-deep boreholes being drilled and over 4,000-line-kilometres of
marine geophysical survey completed.Surveys were undertaken in 1958–1959, 1964–1965, 1972–1974 and 1986–1988.
The surveying in 1958–59 catered for
immersed tube and bridge designs as well as a bored tunnel, and thus a
wide area was investigated. At this time marine geophysics surveying for
engineering projects was in its infancy, with poor positioning and resolution
from seismic profiling. The 1964–65 surveys concentrated on a northerly route
that left the English coast at Dover harbour; using 70 boreholes, an area
of deeply weathered rock with high permeability was located just south of Dover harbour.
Given the previous survey results
and access constraints, a more southerly route was investigated in the 1972–73
survey and the route was confirmed to be feasible. Information for the
tunnelling project also came from work before the 1975 cancellation. On the French
side at Sangatte a deep shaft with adits was made. On the English side at Shakespeare Cliff, the
government allowed 250 metres (820 ft) of 4.5-metre (15 ft) diameter
tunnel to be driven. The actual tunnel alignment, method of excavation and
support were essentially the same as the 1975 attempt. In the 1986–87 survey,
previous findings were reinforced and the nature of the gault clay and the
tunnelling medium (chalk marl that made up 85% of the route) were investigated.
Geophysical techniques from the oil industry were employed.
Tunnelling
Tunnelling was a major engineering
challenge, with the only precedent being the undersea Seikan Tunnel
in Japan. A serious risk with underwater tunnels is major water inflow due to
the water pressure from the sea above under weak ground conditions. The tunnel
also had the challenge of time: being privately funded, early financial return
was paramount.
The objective was to construct two
7.6-metre (25 ft) diameter rail tunnels, 30 metres (98 ft) apart, 50
kilometres (31 mi) in length; a 4.8-metre (16 ft) diameter service
tunnel between the two main tunnels; pairs of 3.3-metre (11 ft) diameter
cross-passages linking the rail tunnels to the service tunnel at 375-metre
(1,230 ft) spacing; piston relief ducts 2-metre (7 ft) diameter
connecting the rail tunnels at 250-metre (820 ft) spacing; two undersea
crossover caverns to connect the rail tunnels.The service tunnel always preceded the main tunnels by at least 1 kilometre
(0.6 mi) to ascertain the ground conditions. There was plenty of
experience with tunnelling through chalk in the mining industry. The undersea
crossover caverns were a complex engineering problem. The French cavern was
based on the Mount Baker Ridge freeway tunnel in the US. The UK cavern was dug from the
service tunnel ahead of the main tunnels to avoid delay.
Precast segmental linings in the
main TBM drives were used, but different solutions were used on the two sides.
On the French side, neoprene and grout sealed bolted linings made of cast iron
or high-strength reinforced concrete were used. On the English side, the main
requirement was for speed and bolting of cast-iron lining segments was only
carried out in areas of poor geology. In the UK rail tunnels, eight lining
segments plus a key segment were used; on the French side, five segments plus a
key segment.
On the French side, a 55-metre (180 ft) diameter 75-metre (246 ft)
deep grout-curtained shaft at Sangatte was used for access. On the English
side, a marshalling area was 140 metres (459 ft) below the top of
Shakespeare Cliff, and the New
Austrian Tunnelling method (NATM)
was first applied in the chalk marl here. On the English side, the land tunnels
were driven from Shakespeare Cliff, the same place as the marine tunnels, not
from Folkestone. The platform at the base of the cliff was not large enough for
all of the drives and, despite environmental objections, tunnel spoil was
placed behind a reinforced concrete seawall, on condition of placing the chalk
in an enclosed lagoon to avoid wide dispersal of chalk fines. Owing to limited
space, the precast lining factory was on the Isle of Grain in the Thames
estuary,
which used Scottish granite aggregate delivered by ship from the Foster Yeoman
coastal super quarry at Glensanda.
On the French side, owing to the greater
permeability to water, earth pressure balance TBMs with open and closed modes
were used. The TBMs were of a closed nature during the initial 5 kilometres
(3 mi), but then operated as open, boring through the chalk marl stratum.
This minimised the impact to the ground and allowed high water pressures to be
withstood, and it also alleviated the need to grout ahead of the tunnel. The
French effort required five TBMs: two main marine machines, one main land
machine (the short land drives of 3 km (2 mi) allowed one TBM to
complete the first drive then reverse direction and complete the other), and
two service tunnel machines. On the English side, the simpler geology allowed
faster open-faced TBMs.
Six machines were used, all commenced digging from Shakespeare Cliff, three
marine-bound and three for the land tunnels.
Towards the completion of the undersea drives, the UK TBMs were driven steeply
downwards and buried clear of the tunnel. These buried TBMs were then used to
provide an electrical earth. The French TBMs then completed the tunnel and were
dismantled.
A 900 mm (35 in) gauge railway was used on the English side during
construction.
In contrast to the English machines,
which were given alphanumeric names, the French tunnelling machines were all
named after women: Brigitte, Europa, Catherine, Virginie, Pascaline, Séverine.
Railway
design
Communications
There are three communication
systems: concession radio (CR) for mobile vehicles and personnel within
Eurotunnel's Concession (terminals, tunnels, coastal shafts); track-to-train
radio (TTR) for secure speech and data between trains and the railway control
centre; Shuttle internal radio (SIR) for communication between shuttle crew and
to passengers over car radios.
This service was discontinued within one year of opening because of drivers'
difficulty setting their radios to the correct frequency (88.8 MHz).
Power
supply
All tunnel services run on
electricity, shared equally from English and French sources. Power is delivered
to the locomotives via an overhead line
(catenary)
at 25
kV 50 Hz.[56]
The traditional railway south of
London initially used a 750 V DC third rail
to deliver electricity, but since the opening of High Speed 1 there is no need
to use the third rail system. High Speed 1,
the tunnel and the LGV Nord has power provided via overhead catenary at
25 kV 50 Hz. The railways on "classic" lines in
Belgium are also electrified by overhead wires, but at 3000 V DC.
Signalling
A cab signalling system gives
information directly to train drivers on a display. There is a train protection system that stops the train if the speed exceeds that indicated on
the in-cab display. TVM430, as used on LGV Nord and High Speed 1,
is used in the tunnel.
The TVM signalling is interconnected with the signalling on the high-speed
lines either side, allowing trains to enter and exit the tunnel system without
stopping. The maximum speed is 160 km/h.
Track system
The American Sonneville
International Corporation track system was chosen, consisting of UIC60 rails on
900A grade resting on microcellular EVA pads, bolted into concrete.
The tunnel and its terminal areas use a very large loading gauge
to allow drive-in shuttle rolling stock. Through traffic is allowed up to
European GC loading gauge via High Speed 1 to St Pancras for passenger traffic
or as far as Barking in east London for freight traffic.
Ballasted track was ruled out owing to maintenance constraints and a need for
geometric stability.
Rolling
stock
Eurotunnel
Shuttle
Initially 38 Le Shuttle
locomotives were commissioned, with one at each end of a shuttle train. The
shuttles have two separate halves: single and double deck. Each half has two
loading/unloading wagons and 12 carrier wagons. Eurotunnel's original order was
for nine tourist shuttles.
HGV shuttles also have two halves,
with each half containing one loading wagon, one unloading wagon and
14 carrier wagons. There is a club car behind the leading locomotive.
Eurotunnel originally ordered six HGV shuttle rakes.
Freight
locomotives
Forty-six Class 92 locomotives for
hauling freight trains and overnight passenger trains (the Nightstar project, which was abandoned) were commissioned, running on
both overhead AC and third-rail DC power. However, RFF does not let these run on French railways, so there are
plans to certify Alstom Prima II locomotives for use in the tunnel.
At the end of 2009, extensive
fire-proofing requirements were dropped and Deutsche Bahn
(DB) received permission to run German Intercity-Express
(ICE) trains through the tunnel. On 19 October 2010 DB ran the first ICE train
through the tunnel, arriving in St Pancras after evacuation tests in the tunnel
were a success.
Around the same time, Eurostar ordered ten trains from Siemens based on
its Velaro product.
Service
locomotives
Diesel locomotives for rescue and shunting work are Eurotunnel Class 0001 and Eurotunnel Class 0031.
Operation
Usage
and services
Services offered by the tunnel are:
- Eurotunnel Le Shuttle roll-on roll-off shuttle service for road vehicles,
- Eurostar passenger trains,
- through freight trains.
Both the freight and passenger
traffic forecasts that led to the construction of the tunnel were
overestimated; in particular, Eurotunnel's commissioned forecasts were
over-predictions.
Although the captured share of Channel crossings was forecast correctly, high
competition and reduced tariffs led to low revenue. Overall cross-Channel
traffic was overestimated.
With the EU's
liberalisation of international rail services, the tunnel and High Speed 1
have been open to competition since 2010. There have been a number of operators interested in running
trains through the tunnel and along High Speed 1
to London. In June 2013, after several years, DB obtained a license to operate
Frankfurt – London trains, not expected to run before 2016 because of delivery
delays of the custom-made trains.
Passenger
traffic volumes
Cross-tunnel passenger traffic
volumes peaked at 18.4 million in 1998, dropped to 14.9 million in 2003,
then rose to 17.0 million in 2010.
At the time of the decision about
building the tunnel, 15.9 million passengers were predicted for Eurostar
trains in the opening year. In 1995, the first full year, actual numbers were a
little over 2.9 million, growing to 7.1 million in 2000, then
dropping to 6.3 million in 2003. Eurostar was limited by the lack of a
high-speed connection on the British side. After the completion of High Speed 1
in two stages in 2003 and 2007, traffic increased. In 2008, Eurostar carried
9,113,371 passengers, a 10% increase over the previous year, despite traffic
limitations due to the 2008
Channel Tunnel fire.
Eurostar passenger numbers continued to increase, reaching 9,528,558 in 2010.
Economic
performance
Shares in Eurotunnel were issued at
£3.50 per share on 9 December 1987. By mid-1989 the price had risen to £11.00.
Delays and cost overruns led to the price dropping; during demonstration runs
in October 1994 it reached an all-time low. Eurotunnel suspended payment on its
debt in September 1995 to avoid bankruptcy.
In December 1997 the British and French governments extended Eurotunnel's
operating concession by 34 years, to 2086. Financial restructuring of
Eurotunnel occurred in mid-1998, reducing debt and financial charges. Despite
the restructuring, The Economist reported in 1998 that to break even Eurotunnel would have
to increase fares, traffic and market share for sustainability.
A cost benefit analysis of the tunnel indicated that there were few impacts on
the wider economy and few developments associated with the project, and that
the British economy would have been better off if it had not been constructed.
Under the terms of the Concession,
Eurotunnel was obliged to investigate a cross-Channel road tunnel. In December
1999 road and rail tunnel proposals were presented to the British and French
governments, but it was stressed that there was not enough demand for a second
tunnel.
A three-way treaty between the United Kingdom, France and Belgium governs
border controls, with the establishment of control zones wherein the
officers of the other nation may exercise limited customs and law enforcement
powers. For most purposes these are at either end of the tunnel, with the
French border controls on the UK side of the tunnel and vice versa. For some
city-to-city trains, the train is a control zone.
A binational emergency plan coordinates UK and French emergency activities.
In 1999 Eurostar posted its first
net profit, having made a loss of £925m in 1995.
Terminals
The terminals sites are at Cheriton (near
Folkestone in the United Kingdom) and Coquelles
(near Calais in France). The terminals are designed to transfer vehicles from
the motorway onto trains at a rate of 700 cars and 113 heavy vehicles
per hour. The UK site
uses the M20 motorway for access. The terminals are organised with the frontier
controls juxtaposed with the entry to the system to allow travellers to go onto
the motorway at the destination country immediately after leaving the shuttle.
The area of the UK site was severely constrained and the design was
challenging. The French layout was achieved more easily. To achieve design
output, the shuttles accept cars on double-deck wagons; for flexibility, ramps
were placed inside the shuttles to provide access to the top decks.
At Folkestone there are 20 kilometres (12 mi) of main-line track,
45 turnouts and eight platforms. At Calais there are 30 kilometres
(19 mi) of track and 44 turnouts. At the terminals the shuttle trains
traverse a figure eight to reduce uneven wear on the wheels.
There is a freight marshalling yard west of Cheriton at Dollands
Moor Freight Yard.
Regional
impact
A 1996 report from the European Commission predicted that Kent and Nord-Pas de Calais had to face increased traffic volumes due to general growth
of cross-Channel traffic and traffic attracted by the tunnel. In Kent, a
high-speed rail line to London would transfer traffic from road to rail.
Kent's regional development would benefit from the tunnel, but being so close
to London restricts the benefits. Gains are in the traditional industries and
are largely dependent on the development of Ashford International passenger
station, without which Kent would be totally dependent on London's expansion.
Nord-Pas-de-Calais enjoys a strong internal symbolic effect of the Tunnel which
results in significant gains in manufacturing.
The removal of a bottleneck by means
like the tunnel does not necessarily induce economic gains in all adjacent
regions. The image of a region being connected to the European high-speed
transport and active political response are more important for regional
economic development. Some small-medium enterprises located in the immediate
vicinity of the terminal have used the opportunity to re-brand the profile of
their business with positive effect, such as The New Inn at Etchinghill
which was able to commercially exploit its unique selling point as being 'the
closest pub to the Channel Tunnel'. Tunnel-induced regional development is
small compared to general economic growth.
The South East of England is likely to benefit developmentally and socially
from faster and cheaper transport to continental Europe, but the benefits are
unlikely to be equally distributed throughout the region. The overall
environmental impact is almost certainly negative.
Since the opening of the tunnel,
small positive impacts on the wider economy have been felt, but it is difficult
to identify major economic successes directly attributed to the tunnel.
The Eurotunnel does operate profitably, offering an alternative transportation
mode unaffected by poor weather.
High costs of construction did delay profitability, however, and companies
involved in the tunnel's construction and operation early in operation relied
on government aid to deal with debts amounted.
Eurotunnel has been described as being in a serious situation.
Incidents
Fires
There have been three fires in the
tunnel, all on the heavy goods vehicle (HGV) shuttles, that were significant
enough to close the tunnel, as well as other more minor incidents.
During an "invitation
only" testing phase on 9 December 1994, a fire broke out in a Ford Escort
car whilst its owner was loading it on to the upper deck of a tourist shuttle.
The fire started at about 10:00 with the shuttle train stationary in the
Folkestone terminal and was put out about 40 minutes later with no passenger
injuries.
On 18 November 1996, a fire broke
out on an HGV shuttle wagon in the tunnel but nobody was seriously hurt. The
exact cause is unknown, although it was not a Eurotunnel equipment or rolling stock problem; it may
have been due to arson of a heavy goods vehicle. It is estimated that the heart
of the fire reached 1,000 °C (1,800 °F), with the tunnel severely
damaged over 46 metres (151 ft), with some 500 metres (1,640 ft)
affected to some extent. Full operation recommenced six months after the fire.
The tunnel was closed for several
hours on 21 August 2006, when a truck on an HGV shuttle train caught fire.
On 11 September 2008, a fire
occurred in the Channel Tunnel at 13:57 GMT. The incident started on an HGV
shuttle train travelling towards France.
The event occurred 11 kilometres (6.8 mi) from the French entrance to the
tunnel. No one was killed but several people were taken to hospitals suffering
from smoke inhalation, and minor cuts and bruises. The tunnel was closed to all
traffic, with the undamaged South Tunnel reopening for limited services two
days later.
Full service resumed on 9 February 2009
after repairs costing €60 million.
The tunnel was closed for a couple
of hours on 29 November 2012 after a truck on an HGV shuttle caught fire.
Train
failures
On the night of 19/20 February 1996,
about 1,000 passengers became trapped in the Channel Tunnel when Eurostar trains from London broke down owing to failures of electronic
circuits caused by snow and ice being deposited and then melting on the circuit
boards.
On 3 August 2007, an electrical
failure lasting six hours caused passengers to be trapped in the tunnel on a
shuttle.
On the evening of 18 December 2009,
during the December
2009 European snowfall, five
London-bound Eurostar trains failed inside the tunnel, trapping 2,000 passengers
for approximately 16 hours, during the coldest temperatures in eight years.
A Eurotunnel spokesperson explained that snow had evaded the train's winterisation
shields,
and that the transition from cold air outside to the tunnel's warm atmosphere
had melted the snow, resulting in electrical failures.
One train was turned back before reaching the tunnel; two trains were hauled
out of the tunnel by Eurotunnel Class 0001 diesel locomotives. The blocking of the tunnel led to the
implementation of Operation Stack, the transformation of the M20 motorway
into a linear car park.
The occasion was the first time that
a Eurostar train was evacuated inside the tunnel; the failing of four at once
was described as "unprecedented".
The Channel Tunnel reopened the following morning.
Nirj Deva,
Member
of the European Parliament for South
East England, had called for Eurostar chief executive Richard Brown to resign
over the incidents.
An independent report by Christopher Garnett (former CEO of Great
North Eastern Railway) and Claude Gressier (a French
transport expert) on the 18/19 December 2009 incidents was issued in February 2010,
making 21 recommendations.
A Brussels–London Eurostar broke
down in the tunnel on 7 January 2010. The train had 236 passengers on board and
was towed to Ashford; other trains that had not yet reached the tunnel were
turned back.
Asylum
and immigration
Immigrants and would-be asylum seekers
have used the tunnel to attempt to enter Britain. By 1997 the problem had
attracted international press attention, and the French Red Cross
opened a refugee centre at Sangatte in 1999,
using a warehouse once used for tunnel construction; by 2002 it housed up to
1500 people at a time, most of them trying to get to the UK.
In 2001, most came from Afghanistan,
Iraq and Iran, but
African and Eastern European countries were also represented.
Most immigrants who got into Britain
found some way to ride a freight train, but others used Eurostar. Though the
facilities were fenced, airtight security was deemed impossible; refugees would
even jump from bridges onto moving trains. In several incidents people were
injured during the crossing; others tampered with railway equipment, causing
delays and requiring repairs.
Eurotunnel said it was losing £5m per month because of the problem.
A dozen refugees have died in crossing attempts.
In 2001 and 2002, several riots
broke out at Sangatte and groups of refugees (up to 550 in a December 2001
incident) stormed the fences and attempted to enter en masse.
Immigrants have also arrived as legitimate Eurostar passengers without proper
entry papers.
Local authorities in both France and
the UK called for the closure of Sangatte, and Eurotunnel twice sought an
injunction against the centre.
The United Kingdom blamed France for allowing Sangatte to open, and France
blamed the UK for its lax asylum rules and the EU for not having a uniform
immigration policy.
The cause célèbre nature of the problem even included journalists detained as
they followed refugees onto railway property.
In 2002, after the European Commission told France that it was in breach of European Union rules
on the free transfer of goods because of the delays and closures as a result of
its poor security, a double fence was built at a cost of £5 million,
reducing the numbers of refugees detected each week reaching Britain on goods
trains from 250 to almost none.
Other measures included CCTV cameras and increased police patrols.
At the end of 2002, the Sangatte centre was closed after the UK agreed to take
some of its refugees.
The service tunnel is used for
access to technical equipment in cross-passages and equipment rooms, to provide
fresh-air ventilation and for emergency evacuation. The Service Tunnel
Transport System (STTS) allows fast access to all areas of the tunnel. The
service vehicles are rubber-tyred with a buried wire guidance system. The 24
STTS vehicles are used mainly for maintenance but also for firefighting and in
emergencies. "Pods" with different purposes, up to a payload of
2.5–5 t (2.8–5.5 tons), are inserted into the side of the vehicles. The
vehicles cannot turn around within the tunnel, and are driven from either end.
The maximum speed is 80 km/h (50 mph) when the steering is locked. A
fleet of 15 Light Service Tunnel Vehicles (LADOGS) was introduced to supplement
the STTSs. The LADOGS have a short wheelbase with a 3.4 m (11 ft)
turning circle, allowing two-point turns within the service tunnel. Steering
cannot be locked like the STTS vehicles, and maximum speed is 50 km/h
(31 mph). Pods up to 1 tonne can be loaded onto the rear of the
vehicles. Drivers in the tunnel sit on the right, and the vehicles drive on the
left. Owing to the risk of French personnel driving on their native right side
of the road, sensors in the vehicles alert the driver if the vehicle strays to
the right side.
The three tunnels contain 6,000
tonnes (6,600 tons) of air that needs to be conditioned for comfort and safety.
Air is supplied from ventilation buildings at Shakespeare Cliff and Sangatte, with each building
capable of providing 100% standby capacity. Supplementary ventilation also
exists on either side of the tunnel. In the event of a fire, ventilation is
used to keep smoke out of the service tunnel and move smoke in one direction in
the main tunnel to give passengers clean air. The tunnel was the first
main-line railway tunnel to have special cooling equipment. Heat is generated
from traction equipment and drag. The design limit was set at 30 °C
(86 °F), using a mechanical cooling system with refrigeration plants on
both sides that run chilled water circulating in pipes within the tunnel.
Trains travelling at high speed
create piston-effect pressure changes that can affect passenger comfort,
ventilation systems, tunnel doors, fans and the structure of the trains, and
drag on the trains.
Piston relief ducts of 2-metre (7 ft) diameter were chosen to solve the
problem, with 4 ducts per kilometre to give close to optimum results.
Unfortunately this design led to unacceptable lateral forces on the trains so a
reduction in train speed was required and restrictors were installed in the
ducts.
The safety issue of a fire on a
passenger-vehicle shuttle garnered much attention, with Eurotunnel noting that
fire was the risk gathering the most attention in a 1994 Safety Case for three
reasons: ferry companies opposed to passengers being allowed to remain with
their cars; Home Office statistics indicating that car fires had doubled in ten
years; and the long length of the tunnel. Eurotunnel commissioned the UK Fire
Research Station to give reports of vehicle fires, and liaised with Kent Fire
Brigade to gather vehicle fire statistics over one year. Fire tests took place
at the French Mines Research Establishment with a mock wagon used to
investigate how cars burned.
The wagon door systems are designed to withstand fire inside the wagon for
30 minutes, longer than the transit time of 27 minutes. Wagon air
conditioning units help to purge dangerous fumes from inside the wagon before
travel. Each wagon has a fire detection and extinguishing system, with sensing
of ions or ultraviolet radiation, smoke and gases that can trigger halon gas to
quench a fire. Since the HGV wagons are not covered, fire sensors are located
on the loading wagon and in the tunnel. A 10-inch (250 mm) water main in
the service tunnel provides water to the main tunnels at 125-metre
(410 ft) intervals.
The ventilation system can control smoke movement. Special arrival sidings
accept a train that is on fire, as the train is not allowed to stop whilst on
fire in the tunnel, unless continuing its journey would lead to a worse
outcome. Eurotunnel has banned a wide range of hazardous goods from travelling
in the tunnel. Two STTS (Service Tunnel Transportation System)
vehicles with firefighting pods are on duty at all times, with a maximum delay
of 10 minutes before they reach a burning train.
Mobile
network coverage
Since 2012, French operators Bouygues Telecom,
Orange and SFR cover the southern part of the tunnel.
In January 2014, UK operators EE
and Vodafone signed ten-year contracts with Eurotunnel.
The agreements will enable both operators' subscribers to use 2G and 3G
services. Both EE and Vodafone plan to offer LTE services on the route; EE said it expects to cover the
route with LTE connectivity by summer 2014. EE and Vodafone will offer Channel
Tunnel network coverage for travellers from the UK to France. Eurotunnel said
it also held talks with O2 and 3UK but is yet to reach an agreement with either operator.
On 6 May 2014, Eurotunnel announced
that they have installed equipment from Alcatel Lucent
to cover the North Running Tunnel and simultaneously to provide mobile service
(GSM 900/1800 MHz
and UMTS 2100 MHz)
by EE, O2 and Vodafone. The service of EE and Vodafone commenced on
the same date as the announcement. O2 service is expected to be
available soon afterwards.
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