Is the Eurotunnel a financial success?

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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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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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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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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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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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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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 typical Eurotunnel Train Driver salary is £44,322 per year. Train Driver salaries at Eurotunnel can range from £28,298 - £53,034 per year.

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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 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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The quickest way to cross the channel is using Eurotunnel, which takes around 35 minutes compared to the 90-minute crossing of the quickest cross-Channel ferry from Dover to Calais.

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No - we do not oversell any of our departures.

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Engineers used two systems of tunnel linings – cast iron segments bolted together and precast concrete rings. The TBMs excavated a huge amount of chalk. On the French side, the chalk was crushed, mixed with water, and pumped inland behind a specially built dam 37m high.

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Dover - Calais ferry tickets start at around €36 for foot passengers and at about €80 for passengers who travel with a vehicle. On the other hand, prices for the Eurotunnel start at over €100 for a one-way drive to France from the UK. Conclusion: the ferry from the UK to France is usually cheaper than the Eurotunnel.

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Ticket prices can increase over time as the day of travel gets closer as the amount of space available on our shuttles decreases. To book the best fares, we recommend booking as early as possible in advance.

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