[130] At Folkestone there are 20 kilometres (12 mi) of main-line track, 45 turnouts and eight platforms. [192], The three tunnels contain 6,000 tonnes (6,600 tons) of air that needs to be conditioned for comfort and safety. [54] A full public service did not start for several months. Reinforced concrete blocks of 100 kg support the rails every 60 cm and are held by 12 mm thick closed cell polymer foam pads placed at the bottom of rubber boots. [9] This compares with 11.7 million passengers, 2.6 million lorries and 2.2 million cars by sea through the Port of Dover. [13] An early unsuccessful attempt at building a tunnel was made in the late 19th century, on the English side, "in the hope of forcing the hand of the English Government". This fell back to 1.21M tonnes in 2007, increasing slightly to 1.24M tonnes in 2008. Around 1866, William Low and Sir John Hawkshaw promoted ideas,[29] but apart from preliminary geological studies[30] none were implemented. He kept to the 50 km/h speed limit. The most serious, on November 18, 1996, damaged 500 metres of the tunnel, affecting operations for six months. Tunnelling was a major engineering challenge, with the only precedent being the undersea Seikan Tunnel in Japan, which opened in 1988. France is part of the Schengen Agreement, which has largely abolished border checks between member nations, but the United Kingdom is not. Heavy goods vehicle (HGV) shuttles also have two halves, with each half containing one loading wagon, one unloading wagon and 14 carrier wagons. Signalling in the tunnel is coordinated from two control centres: The main control centre at the Folkestone terminal, and a backup at the Calais terminal, which is staffed at all times and can take over all operations in the event of a breakdown or emergency.

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. Each half has two loading/unloading wagons and 12 carrier wagons. To commemorate the 2014 Tour de France, which started in Leeds, England and finished in Paris, Chris Froome of Team Sky rode through the service tunnel, becoming the first solo cyclist to do so. The introduction of a pet travel scheme in 2000 has seen more than two million dogs and cats travel through the tunnel.


The Channel Tunnel is 31.4 miles long, making it the 13th longest tunnel in use (the longest is the Delaware Aqueduct, at 85.1 miles), and the fourth longest used by rail passengers. Diesel locomotives for rescue and shunting work are Eurotunnel Class 0001 and Eurotunnel Class 0031. The tunnel was closed to all traffic, with the undamaged South Tunnel reopening for limited services two days later. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website. Continuous chalk on the cliffs on either side of the Channel containing no major faulting, as observed by. a.twitter-follow { TVM430, as used on LGV Nord and High Speed 1, is used in the tunnel. [13] This short tunnel was reused as the starting and access point for tunnelling operations from the British side. Signed at Canterbury on 12 February 1986", "Parliamentary note on the Channel Tunnel Rail Link", "On this day: Tunnel links UK and Europe", "Thirteen workers die as safety standards are ignored in race to build Olympic sites", "On This Day – 1994: President and Queen open Chunnel", "Powerful Machines Readied for Channel Tunnel", "Fran-Scan (G2, P/C 450) – A Hi-Cube Intermodal Corridor to Link the UK, France and Scandinavia", "IGC grants Deutsche Bahn access to Channel Tunnel", "DB puts London – Frankfurt plans on ice", "The Channel Tunnel and its impact on Tourism in the United Kingdom", "Plans for UK-Germany high speed rail services shelved due to 'significantly changed economic environment, "Eurotunnel 2008 traffic and revenue figures", "Eurotunnel: 2005 Traffic and revenue figures", "Eurotunnel 2007 Traffic and Revenue figures: a remarkable year", "Eurotunnel 2009 traffic and revenue figures", "Eurotunnel 2010 traffic and revenue figures", "2012 revenue and traffic figures for the Eurotunnel Group", "Groupe Eurotunnel SA: traffic and revenue for 2013", "Eurotunnel Group 2014 Traffic and Revenue", "Chunnel cash row threatens freight trains", "Megaprojects and Risk: An Anatomy of Ambition", "Facts and figures Eurotunnel 2000-2004/Forecast 2005: Commentry and a suggestion", "Eurostar hails 'record-breaking' year as profits jump", "Eurostar finally launches direct service from Amsterdam to London", "Brexit: No-deal plan for Channel Tunnel operations", "Eurotunnel revenues boosted by shuttle demand", "Eurotunnel calls for government support after record £1.3bn loss", "Debt-laden Channel tunnel rail link is 'nationalised, International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, "Britain and France Scramble as Channel Becomes Choke Point in Migration Crisis", "Calais: man killed as migrants make 1,500 attempts to enter Eurotunnel site", "More refugees attempt to reach Britain through Channel Tunnel | News | DW | 30 July 2015", "2001 World Press Freedom Review: France", "Blunkett reaches deal to shut Sangatte camp", "Calais mayor threatens to block port if UK fails to help deal with migrants", "Cross-Channel transport improving after Calais migrant chaos", "Calais: Polizei kesselt Hunderte Flüchtlinge am Eurotunnel ein", "Migrant dies on UK-bound freight train near Calais", "Migrant reportedly dies trying to board Channel tunnel freight train", "Calais in Frankreich: 2000 Flüchtlinge in einer Nacht am Eurotunnel", "Sudanese Migrant Tries to Reach England by Walking Length of Channel Tunnel", "Van driver dies as he crashes into tail-back after migrants set up roadblock near Calais", "Inquiry into the fire on Heavy Goods Vehicle Shuttle 7539 on 18 November 1996", Fire on HGV shuttle in the Channel Tunnel 21 August 2006, "Channel tunnel fire causes further cancellations", "Channel Tunnel closed and services hit after lorry fire", "Fire on board a freight shuttle in the Channel Tunnel", "Severe Weather Brings Eurostar to a Halt", "Eurostar blames 'fluffy' snow for weekend chaos", "Eurostar services cancelled as snow brings havoc", "Passengers trapped on Eurostar trains relive ordeal", "Passengers home after trapped in Channel Tunnel", "Chaos in Eurotunnel as several trains break down", "Eurostar transports 500 vulnerable passengers to France", "Eurostar rapped over Channel Tunnel breakdown", "Eurostar disrupted after new breakdown in Channel tunnel", "Stricken Eurostar train towed out of Channel Tunnel", "Formula One: Surtees drives through Channel Tunnel", "Chris Froome cycles through the Channel Tunnel", "Christopher Froome a traversé la Manche à vélo", "EE and Vodafone offer Channel Tunnel network coverage", "Eurotunnel completes mobile telephone and internet connections in Channel Tunnel", "EE and O2 now providing full 2G, 3G, and 4G access in Eurotunnel", Documents and clippings about Channel Tunnel, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Channel_Tunnel&oldid=988292070, Buildings and structures in Pas-de-Calais, Articles with dead external links from April 2015, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles with unsourced statements from August 2011, Wikipedia articles that are too technical from May 2014, Articles with unsourced statements from December 2011, Wikipedia articles in need of updating from May 2020, All Wikipedia articles in need of updating, All articles with vague or ambiguous time, Wikipedia articles needing clarification from March 2017, Wikipedia articles with SUDOC identifiers, Wikipedia articles with WORLDCATID identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.

Eurostar was initially limited by the lack of a high-speed connection on the British side. background-image: url('/wp-content/themes/cassiopeia/assets/icons/facebook-icon.svg'); background-image: url('/wp-content/themes/cassiopeia/assets/icons/twitter-icon.svg'); Much of the chalk marl spoil bored on the English side was deposited at Lower Shakespeare Cliff in Kent, now home to the Samphire Hoe Country Park. [198] To celebrate the 2014 Tour de France's transfer from its opening stages in Britain to France in July of that year, Chris Froome of Team Sky rode a bicycle through the service tunnel, becoming the first solo rider to do so. The Channel Tunnel linking Britain and France holds the record for the longest undersea tunnel in the world – 50km (31 miles) long. The cost finally amounted to £9 billion (equivalent to £16 billion in 2016), well over its predicted budget. Swinging states: Are these 10 under-the-radar US states worth visiting? [138][139][140], Illegal immigrants and would-be asylum seekers have used the tunnel to attempt to enter Britain. A British film from Gaumont Studios, The Tunnel (also called TransAtlantic Tunnel), was released in 1935 as a futuristic science fiction project concerning the creation of a transatlantic tunnel. However, it was specifically designed to prevent the disease from returning to the island. Surveying undertaken in the 20 years before construction confirmed earlier speculations that a tunnel could be bored through a chalk marl stratum. It has the longest undersea portion of any tunnel in the world (23.5 miles). Delays and cost overruns led to the price dropping; during demonstration runs in October 1994 it reached an all-time low.

To achieve design output at the French terminal, the shuttles accept cars on double-deck wagons; for flexibility, ramps were placed inside the shuttles to provide access to the top decks.