What was the problem with the construction of the Channel Tunnel?

www.cnplus.co.uk Page 2 Inevitably, important design aspects were wholly inadequate. For example, the designers failed to foresee high- speed trains would generate significant heat in the tunnel from air friction. Retrospectively, a chilled water air conditioning system was added to the design at enormous cost.



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Soon after the start of operations, Eurotunnel reached a delicate financial situation which resulted from the escalation of construction costs, a large overestimation of the cross-Channel market and the underestimation of the cross-Channel ferry operators' competitive response which led to a very damaging price war.

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The tunnel extends beneath the English Channel at the Strait of Dover. It is the only fixed link between the island of Great Britain and the European mainland. It allows the city of London to be directly connected by train to Paris, Lille, Brussels, Amsterdam and Cologne – thanks to the Eurostar and Thalys train lines.

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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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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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It is not possible to drive through the Channel Tunnel or Eurotunnel. You must drive onto the Eurotunnel Le Shuttle train, which boards at the Channel Tunnel terminals in Folkestone and Calais in order to use the service.

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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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At 37.9 kilometres (23.5 mi), it has the longest underwater section of any tunnel in the world and is the third longest railway tunnel in the world. The speed limit for trains through the tunnel is 160 kilometres per hour (99 mph). The tunnel is owned and operated by the company Getlink, formerly Groupe Eurotunnel.

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The project to build the undersea leg between England and France began in earnest in 1986. But as work progressed, the owner, Eurotunnel, and the Anglo-French consortium responsible for design and construction, TransManche Link, were plagued by severe cost, schedule, and safety problems.

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