Has the Channel tunnel ever made a profit?

The Channel Tunnel project (the Chunnel) to connect the UK and France was the largest privately financed transport megaproject of the 20th century. Despite nearly 25 years of successful operation and growing profitability, the Chunnel is frequently portrayed as a failure.



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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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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 Channel Tunnel train operator will stop running the service on June 23 2023, just ahead of the summer holidays when tens of thousands of British families head to the theme park. Eurostar said the economic circumstances, partly due to the pandemic and Brexit, meant the route had to be reviewed.

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The project was financed entirely by private sector capital, including five banks who were part of the TransManche Link consortium. Financing originated partly from investment by shareholders and partly from GBP8 billion of debt (about USD12. 2 billion, 1994 prices).

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Construction delays, cost overruns and demand for services far below forecast, combined with a massive debt burden meant that Eurotunnel, the private company running the project, stumbled from financial crisis to financial crisis over the following decade.

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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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At its deepest, the tunnel is 75 metres (246 feet) below the sea level. That's the same as 107 baguettes balancing on top of each other. The English Channel is much deeper than the tunnel, with its deepest point measuring 175 meters (574 feet) below sea level.

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The lining of the tunnel is designed to last for 120 years. 18. It takes around 35 minutes to travel the length of the Channel Tunnel.

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You can pay a lot to just turn up without a booking. There are plenty of crossings (up to 4 per hour) and it runs all night, so it is never fully booked for days on end, though you might have fewer choices of departure time still available when you do book. Guess your arrival time as best you can.

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The tunnel is owned by Getlink, a French public company based in Paris.

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