Has the Chunnel made 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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At €1.049 billion, Eurotunnel revenue saw an increase of 63% at a constant exchange rate, a level never before seen for this business. Revenue from the Shuttle business increased by 53% to €732 million compared to 2021, in a context marked by the return of tourist traffic, thus confirming people's appetite for travel.

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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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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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From the customers' point of view, however, the project has been a great success in that the Tunnel effectively broke the ferry operators' cartel that had been operating for decades on the cross-Channel routes and led to significant price reductions. For investors, the project has been disastrous.

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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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A rail tunnel was chosen over proposals for a very long suspension bridge, a bridge-and-tunnel link, and a combined rail-and-road link, and the project was privately financed by a consortium of British and French corporations and banks; the Anglo-French company operating the tunnel is called Eurotunnel.

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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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The Channel Tunnel (often called the 'Chunnel' for short) is an undersea tunnel linking southern England and northern France. It is operated by the company Getlink, who also run a railway shuttle (Le Shuttle) between Folkestone and Calais, carrying passengers in cars, vans and other vehicles.

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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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Although the government thought higher profits could increase the price tag, it decided to sell to avoid uncertainty and risks. However, the timing was “primarily driven by the desire to sell prior to the 2015 general election”, said the NAO.

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The Eurostar monopoly for the potentially lucrative London and Paris trade faces a challenge from a name that will be familiar to British readers: National Express. To all the prosaic names associated with the Channel Tunnel, there is one more waiting in the wings.

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But then, why has the Eurostar train company decided to stop the famous service, coveted by many British people? The company points out financial issues caused by the covid-19 pandemic and new logistics related to Brexit.

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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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What does the Eurotunnel look like underwater? This may be a disappointing answer, but you can't actually see the sea from the Eurostar. When you go through the tunnel and look out of the window, all you can see is your reflection in the glass because it's quite dark outside.

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