Does the Eurotunnel make a profit?

While the aviation industry remains in chaos with airports and airlines racking up billions of pounds of losses, the Channel Tunnel has returned to profit. Eurotunnel operates the sub-sea link between England and France, running Le Shuttle trains for cars and lorries.



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Financing Eurotunnel. Eurotunnel is the largest privately- financed infrastructure in history by a long way. In what it has achieved it has been a stunning success—in its current financial situation it is obviously also a failure at this stage if measured by return on investment.

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Getlink, previously Groupe Eurotunnel (until 2017), is a public company that manages and operates the Channel Tunnel, including the Eurotunnel Shuttlevehicle services, and earns revenue on other trains through the tunnel (DB Schenker freight and Eurostar passenger trains).

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Eurotunnel is now highly profitable, after a difficult start when it was held down by massive debts from the tunnel construction. Debt restructuring in 2007 reversed the company's fortunes — at the expense of thousands of small shareholders who saw their holdings slashed in value.

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Monopoly tunnel Eurostar has been the sole operator of passenger services on the line since its opening in the early 1990s, with these running between London and various destinations in Europe, including Paris.

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For a few worrying months, with lockdowns in places and travel quarantines required for most, the high-speed train service was operating a single service a day to Paris and Brussels from London, provided mainly for key workers. In 2019, the last “normal” year of travel, Eurostar recorded a healthy £62.4m profit.

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The cost of flights and car hire has significantly increased since the pandemic, making Eurotunnel a much cheaper way to travel to Europe, particularly for groups and families. If you have multiple people in your car it's likely to work out cheaper than flights.

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Eurostar trains are for foot passengers only, so are ideal if you don't need or want a vehicle for your trip. Eurotunnel Le Shuttle carries freight and all forms of vehicle, including cars, motorbikes, campervans, caravans, coaches and lorries.

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No - we do not oversell any of our departures.

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It is 50.5km long and comprises an undersea section of 38km, still the longest in the world.

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Strong cash generation has enabled Eurostar Group to repay €127m of debt and at the end of December 2022, total debt stood at €964m. We have turned the page on the COVID crisis and are now moving towards a new chapter of building the new Eurostar Group, bringing Eurostar and Thalys together”, says Gwendoline Cazenave.

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The state-owned company's net profit of €2.4 billion is to be used to modernize the network and reduce the company's debt.

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How does Transport for London generate profits? TfL does not generate profit. Any income is reinvested in improving the transport network.

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A spokesperson for Eurotunnel Le Shuttle said: A train has broken down in the tunnel and we are in the process of transferring customers to a separate passenger shuttle via the service tunnel, to return to our Folkestone terminal. We apologise sincerely for this inconvenience.

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The tunnel does leak, but it is designed to. Seawater from the rocks above the tunnel drips through and is then pumped away.

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