The Channel Tunnel, one of the wonders of modern engineering, I first learned about it from the magazine “Technology for Youth”, in 1988, or a little later. The tunnel was just under construction at that time, and I, a Soviet “October” from the Urals, did not even imagine that I would one day ride through this very English Channel. To be fair, it must be said that the tunnel connecting Britain and France is not the longest underwater tunnel in the world; it was surpassed by Seikan in Japan, leading to the island of Hokkaido. The European tunnel is 50 kilometers long, and the Japanese one is 55. It’s just that the European tunnel is, for obvious reasons, more “promoted”. Contrary to the popular belief that the tunnel contains both a highway and Railway, in fact, there are only rails there, there is no road through the tunnel. It is impossible to drive your car through the Channel Tunnel; your car will simply be loaded onto a freight train that will take you in the right direction. Buses and heavy-duty trucks will also enter there.
Train travel from London to Brussels and Paris starts from Pancras station, you can buy a ticket from a machine on the spot, or buy it in advance on the Eurostar website. It’s better to buy in advance; it will be significantly cheaper, sometimes up to 50-60 euros. The vast majority of people arrive at the station 30-40 minutes before the train departs and have printouts in their hands electronic ticket. You apply this ticket to the reader and enter the control area -
Yes, you guessed it, French (Schengen) passport control is carried out right at London train station. The logic is simple: if you don’t have a Schengen visa, then it’s easier to “turn it in” right here, rather than take it to France and then think about how to send it back. Exactly the same system on the French side, where when the train departs from Paris/Brussels to the UK, the British check your passports at Brussels and Paris stations -
Then follow the signs to the desired platform, in principle everything is clear -
Two trains leave 3 minutes apart, one to Paris, the other to Brussels -
My train is Brussels -
Friends, you were probably waiting for a lot of photos from the Channel Tunnel? But they do not exist and cannot exist. Do you know what crossing a tunnel looks like? First, just starting from London, the train picks up enormous speed (up to 330 km/h) and in half an hour “flies” to the coast, where it goes into a tunnel and rushes in pitch darkness under the bottom of the strait for another fifteen minutes. And then it takes off on the French side. Absolutely nothing is visible and there is absolutely nothing to photograph.
Already at the entrance to the city of Calais you see double rows of fences with barbed wire stretching along the line. They perform two tasks: the first, of course, is the safety of the tunnel itself (imagine a version of “September 11” under the English Channel, this is the plot for a Hollywood disaster blogbuster, how the tunnel flies up into the air and the depths of the sea absorb the trains, and no tearful Leonardo Di Caprio will not save), and the second reason is more prosaic - illegal migrants. There are tens of thousands of them on the French side of the English Channel and they are all trying to break into Great Britain at any cost. Often, illegal immigrants who climbed through the fence and ran into the tunnel are hit by trains.
Railway station French city Calais -
Don't think that the train is running empty or anything like that. It’s just that I photographed it after arriving in Brussels, when the passengers got off the platform. In fact, the trains are full to capacity!
Actually, the final station, Brussels-Midi -
Channel Tunnel
More than two centuries ago, the first, naive by modern standards, project was born to establish a land connection between the continent and British Isles. In 1750, the University of Amiens announced a competition for the best project for connecting France with England. The project of engineer N. Desmarais was approved by Louis XV, but the matter did not go beyond approval, and could not have gone with the technology of that time.
“In 1802, a similar project was proposed to Napoleon,” writes Yu. Frolov, “it provided for the construction of a tunnel suitable for carriage traffic and illuminated by gas lamps. In 1803, it was proposed to build a tunnel made of large-diameter cast-iron pipes along the seabed.
Finally, in 1880, the first practical steps were taken towards the realization of a long-standing dream: on July 16, one of the large English railway companies bought a plot of land from Dover and, after test drilling, began laying a gallery with a diameter of 2.8 meters. An reconnaissance gallery was also established in France. The Prince of Wales had already organized a banquet at the bottom of the first mine in honor of the beginning of the construction of the century; the total length of the sections covered from both banks had already reached 1840 meters, when in July 1882 the British Ministry of Defense demanded the cessation of all work, which it regarded as undermining the security of the island. And the military achieved their goal, although many politicians subsequently fought to revise this decision, including Winston Churchill, who was then little known.
In 1954, already as Prime Minister, he declared that England no longer had any objections to a strong connection with the mainland. However, it was not until 1965 that workers descended into the abandoned mines again. Ten years later, the work was interrupted again: there was not enough money. By this time, 1200 meters had been covered on the French side, and 800 on the English side.”
Finally, in April 1986, the specially created powerful Anglo-French company Eurotunnel and its partner Transmanche Link, a consortium of French and English construction firms, got down to business seriously. It is curious that a third of the funds for construction came from Japan, 13 percent from Germany, 18 percent from France, and only 9 percent from England.
A competition of projects took place. In Putten's project, two tidal power plants in the form of dams partially block the strait on both sides, leaving a six-kilometer fairway. Trains and cars move along the causeway, then descend into tunnels and cross the fairway.
Euromost proposed to build a blind pipe 70 meters above the water, suspended from trusses on pontoons.
The Euroroad project is the most complex: vehicles along the nine-kilometer suspension bridge reaches an artificial island, they slide down a helical slope into a nineteen-kilometer-long tunnel. Then they get to the second artificial island and over the next bridge they arrive at the coast. In the middle of the strait is the third man-made island.
As a result, the “France – English Channel” option was chosen: three tunnels - two transport tunnels and a service tunnel between them.
On December 15, 1987, tunneling began on the English side. On the French side, drilling began only on February 28, 1988. Since before, at Sangat, a few kilometers from Calais, they had to build a huge cylindrical shaft with a diameter of 55 and a depth of 66 meters. The fact is that off the coast of France, a layer of blue chalk - a fairly easy-to-dig and at the same time waterproof rock, in which the tunnel trajectory is designed - goes sharply deeper. To get to it and start drilling, a “hole” was needed in Sangat. From this mine, three French drilling machines went northwest, towards Dover, and the other two - towards the village of Coquelles, the future French station. One of these two machines made a service gallery, the other, with a larger diameter, having reached the place where the railway tracks should come to the surface and go to the station, turned back and dug a second transport tunnel to the “pit”.
In the same mine at Sangat there were pumps for pumping out quicksand, which made it difficult to work off the French coast. Pumping took place through pipes with a diameter of a quarter of a meter and a total length of thirteen kilometers. The sludge accumulated in a special storage facility on the seashore, eight hundred meters from the mine in Sangat.
At the height of the work, up to eleven unique tunneling machines, created by the American company Robbins, were simultaneously in the tunnels. Each of them was 250-300 meters long and had its own name: Robert, Brigitte, Catherine, Virginia... The crew of the car was 40 people. The French's shift lasted 8 hours, the British - 12. The machines working on the French side, where they had to deal with quicksand, were sealed like submarines. They are able to withstand water pressure of up to eleven kilograms per square centimeter. The tungsten cutters of the head bit into the rock, making 2-3 revolutions per minute, and moved forward due to hydraulic pistons fixed at the base on nozzles that rested on the ground. “Teeth” made of tungsten carbide made it possible to “gnaw”, depending on conditions, up to 300 meters per week.
The total length of all three underground pipes is more than 150 kilometers, the length of one path is 52.5 kilometers, of which approximately 38 kilometers pass under the sea. 6.5 million cubic meters of rock were removed, crushed by rotating heads, if such a diminutive name is suitable for a disk with a diameter of 8.8 meters.
To prevent cars and people along with them from getting lost in the blue chalk, operators adjusted the route using computers and video monitors. The laser beam, perceived by the light-sensitive device of the car, prompted the driver in the direction. Before excavation, satellite observatories helped calculate the trajectory...
The mined rocks entered the conveyor and were sent to the freight train. In total, almost 10 million cubic meters of rock were extracted, which allowed the British to make a small reserve of it. And the French mixed it with water, the resulting semi-liquid mixture was pumped onto the shore and dumped nearby behind a dam 53 meters high.
Having drilled one and a half meters, the machine covered the wall with reinforced concrete segments, manufactured on the surface and transported to the work site. The concrete ring, consisting of six segments, weighed up to nine tons. In total, about a hundred thousand of these rings were used for the triple tunnel, each with a number marked with indelible paint. The walls are almost one and a half meters thick. For added strength, the concrete is reinforced with granite mined from the depths of the Scottish mountains.
After completion of work, remove giant cars on the surface it turned out to be too expensive, although the cost of each of them was at least one hundred million francs. Dismantling machines that have been used and are unlikely to be suitable for further work is too complicated and time-consuming. Therefore, they decided to leave them underground, in short drifts that turn to the side or down from the tunnel. The last meters were covered using traditional methods - with a jackhammer.
During the work in the tunnel, disagreements arose between Eurotunnel and Transmanche Link. The cost of construction, originally estimated at 5.23 billion pounds, was predicted in 1990 to be 7 billion. The tunnel ended up costing £10 billion. Rumors spread about the imminent bankruptcy of Eurotunnel. The partners showered each other with mutual claims. The amicably begun work threatened to end just as ingloriously as many times before...
But then the Bank of England decisively intervened in the monetary battle. In 1993, he called the rowdy partners to order, threatening arbitration. No one wanted to spoil relations with financiers. Work got busy again. The opening of the facility was originally scheduled for May 1993, then postponed to August, then to December. Only on May 6, 1994, the dream of many generations came true. English journalist Cathy Newman could not hide her joy: “If the tunnel adds even a little to our mutual understanding, what does 13.5 billion dollars mean between friends?...”
What is this architectural and technical miracle, called the “project of the century”, in the construction of which 15,000 workers participated?
The most important thing is that there are three parallel tunnels: the two outer ones - with a diameter of 7.6 meters - are railway, the middle one - 4.8 meters in diameter - is service. The distance between transport tunnels is 30 meters. The depth of occurrence under the seabed is 40 meters. The total length of the route is 49.4 kilometers, of which 38 are under water. For example, the closest relative of the English Channel underground route is the Seikan Tunnel, which connects japanese islands Honshu and Hokkaido are longer: it is 54 kilometers long, but only about 24 of them are under water.
There are two crossings with switches underground so that the train, if necessary, can move from one tunnel to another without going to the surface. The sidings are located in underground halls, each 60 meters high and 20 meters wide. One of them is located 8 kilometers from the English coast, the other is 17 kilometers from the French coast.
Transverse communications for service and fire protection purposes are located every 375 meters. Every 320 meters there are air ducts to equalize pressure, because a rushing train leaves behind rarefied air.
In addition to regular passenger and freight trains of the Eurostar company, special Eurotunnel trains, the Shuttle, run under the strait. They are designed for transporting vehicles. The Shuttle's through carriages are the widest in the world. The length of each train is 8800 meters: 12 double-tier cars for cars, 12 single-tier cars for buses and trucks, plus a locomotive and two cars with special ramps - loading (rear) and unloading (front). Cars, in order of priority (by size), enter the tail train and move through the entire train until it is full. The procedure lasts about eight minutes.
Movements international trains Eurostar company operates 24 hours a day and provides high speeds. In order not to disturb this harmony, their locomotives are adapted to the standards adopted in England, France and Belgium: mains voltage, signaling systems and electrical equipment. During peak hours, the tunnel carries up to twenty trains per hour in each direction. From a single center in Folkestone, computer control of train movement is carried out, including automatic speed control.
Particular attention is paid to safety. “Trains traveling in one direction are spatially isolated,” A. Kireev writes in the journal “Technology for Youth,” which eliminates the risk of a head-on collision. Raised platforms that run along the track in each tunnel protect trains from falling in the event of a derailment. The transverse galleries are equipped with fire doors that can withstand temperatures up to 1000 degrees. The service tunnel is ventilated with slightly pressurized (1.1-1.2 atmospheres) air, so that in the event of a fire in the railway tunnel, smoke does not penetrate into the service tunnel. To remove smoke, there are powerful auxiliary ventilation systems. Each train has two locomotives - at the head and at the tail: a train that catches fire will immediately go to the final station that is closer (after all, it is clear that it is easier to extinguish the fire on the shore). If both motor cars are faulty, a specially equipped diesel locomotive will arrive at the scene and tow the train “outside”.
To prevent excessive heating of the air by rushing trains, 84 tons of cold water are constantly circulated through a water supply network with a total length of 540 kilometers, consisting of steel pipes with a diameter of about half a meter. The network is powered by two refrigerated plants - one per French coast, another in English.
And, of course, for everyday life The English Channel Tunnel is supervised by computers combined into three information control and communication systems... It is more difficult with terrorists, but strict inspection of passengers and vehicles should be quite effective. The task is made easier by the fact that access to the tunnel is possible only through two entrances on the coasts.”
From the book Your Body Says “Love Yourself!” by Burbo Liz From the book 100 Great Intelligence Operations author Damaskin Igor AnatolievichBerlin Tunnel The history of the Berlin Tunnel, which received the Anglo-American names Operation Stopwatch, Operation Gold (Gold), became one of the most high-profile intelligence operations of the Cold War. By 1997, there were already 18 documentary studies, a novel and
From the book The Newest Book of Facts. Volume 3 [Physics, chemistry and technology. History and archaeology. Miscellaneous] author Kondrashov Anatoly PavlovichWhat is the longest tunnel in Europe? The Eurotunnel is considered the longest in Europe (50.5 kilometers). It is laid under the bottom of the Strait of Dover (Pas de Calais) and since 1994 connects English city Folkestone and French
From the book Foreign Literature of the 20th Century. Book 2 author Novikov Vladimir IvanovichWhat is the longest tunnel in the world? The world's longest tunnel (53.9 kilometers) was built in Japan. Lying under the bottom of the Tsugaru (Sungara) Strait, since 1998 it has connected the islands of Honshu and
From the author's bookThe Tunnel (Der Tunnel) Novel (1913) The rich of New York, Chicago, Philadelphia and other cities gather for an unprecedented number of world-famous celebrities participating in a concert in honor of the opening of the newly built
English Channel - the strait between two European countries- England and France. In 1994, the Channel Tunnel, a major engineering feat, was opened. Its total length is more than fifty kilometers, thirty-eight kilometers are laid under water. The creation of this unique structure has a long history. In 1802, the French architect Albert Mathieu developed a project for the construction of a bridge, and a year later a similar plan appeared in England.
In fairness, it must be said that in those days there was no talk about the need for a tunnel under the English Channel, the construction of a bridge over the strait was discussed. It was supposed to be a huge structure, consisting of spans five kilometers long, suspended on especially strong cables. The idea was rejected; experts were alarmed by the scale of construction. Until this time, bridges of this size had not yet been built.
Until the mid-twentieth century, engineers and scientists from the two countries developed projects and plans. They started thinking seriously about building a Channel Tunnel in 1955. And they not only thought about it, but also began construction, dug pits, but the energy crisis forced the construction to be mothballed for eleven long years, when the governments of the two countries announced their intention to continue work. True, the agreement stipulated that only private companies could build on both sides at their own expense.
Nine of the most worthy projects were selected and carried out throughout the year.
Negotiation. A year later, the best project was selected. At first it was planned to build two railway lines in the tunnel, and next to them a highway, but the idea of building car tunnel under the English Channel had to be abandoned.
The arguments were very convincing: a vehicle accident in a tunnel is much more likely than a train crash, and its consequences can paralyze traffic in it for a long time. In addition, the mass of cars on both sides would lead to gas pollution in the tunnel, and in order to get rid of it, the construction of a powerful ventilation system would be required.
Since everyone knows that driving in a tunnel tires the driver, it was decided to go with a design written in 1960 and finally finalized in the 70s. Work began first in England, and three months later in France. Huge specialized machines worked at a speed of one kilometer per month. The work was carried out at a depth of forty-five meters
The completion of the Channel Tunnel railway tunnels occurred in June 1991. But the construction was not completed. It was also necessary to dig a service or operational tunnel, and lay rails in two. As a result of a competition in which more than 2,000 companies participated, Russian construction organizations received the order.
The Channel Tunnel officially opened in 1994. French President Mitterrand also took part in the solemn event. There are 3 tunnels built under the English Channel - 2 railway tunnels, through which trains travel in two directions. The third is service: it performs operational functions.
Eurotunnel, Channel Tunnel(French tunnel sous la Manche, English Channel Tunnel, also sometimes simply Eurotunnel listen)) is a double-track railway tunnel approximately 51 km long, of which 39 km pass under the English Channel. Connects continental Europe with the UK by rail. Thanks to the tunnel, it became possible to visit London from Paris in just 2 hours 15 minutes; In the tunnel itself, trains take from 20 to 35 minutes. It was inaugurated on May 6, 1994.
The Eurotunnel is the third longest railway tunnel in the world. The longer ones are the Seikan Tunnel (length 53.85 km) and the Gotthard Tunnel (length 57.1 km). However, the Eurotunnel holds records for its length under water - 39 km (for comparison, the underwater segment of Seikan is 23.3 km), as well as for being the longest international tunnel.
The Eurotunnel operator is Eurostar.
History of origin
The idea of building a tunnel under the English Channel arose at the end of the 18th - beginning of the 19th century in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region.
According to the project, the tunnel was supposed to connect two cities: Calais on the French side and Folkestone on the English side (this route is not the shortest possible). It was supposed to dig in an easily pliable chalk geological layer, so the tunnel had to run deeper than planned, about 50 meters below the bottom of the strait, and the southern part should run deeper than the northern one. Because of this, the French first had to build a shaft 50 m in diameter and 60 m deep to reach the sandstone.
Construction
During operation, these machines simultaneously reinforced the walls with concrete segments, forming one and a half meter rings encircling the tunnel shaft. Each ring required an average of 50 minutes to install. British machines on average drilled about 150 meters per week, while French ones - 110 due to different machine designs and drilling conditions.
A laser positioning system was used to accurately align the tunnel parts under construction. Thanks to this system, both sides met at the intended point on December 1, 1990, at a depth of 40 meters from the bottom of the strait. The error was 0.358 meters horizontally and 0.058 meters vertically. In total, the British side completed 84 km of tunnel, and the French side - 69 km. British and French drillers did the last meters of the tunnel manually - using picks and shovels. After this, the main tunnels were connected and the British tunneling shields were taken to underground depots, and the French ones were dismantled and removed from the tunnel.
To guide the machines, the operator looked at computer screens and video monitors. Before the tunnel work began, satellite observatories helped calculate the exact path in every detail. Thin drills were used to probe samples of lime clay, showing which direction to go for more than 150 meters. A laser beam directed at a light-sensitive point on the combine helped the driver choose the right direction.
6-8 km from the coast, tunneling machines built passages under the English Channel, along which, when necessary, trains could be transferred from one tunnel to another. Every 375 meters, teams of tunnelers, equipped with small-sized equipment, laid passages to connect the main tunnels with service ones.
Pressure reduction channels were installed in the arch above the service tunnel, which connected the two main tunnels.
The project was completed in 7 years by 13 thousand workers and engineers.
Safety system
The Eurotunnel consists of three tunnels - two main ones, with a track for trains traveling north and south, and one small service tunnel. The service tunnel has passages every 375 meters that connect it with the main ones. It is designed for access to the main tunnels of maintenance personnel and emergency evacuation of people in case of danger.
Every 250 meters, both main tunnels are connected to each other by a special ventilation system located on top of the service tunnel. This airlock system eliminates the piston effect generated by moving trains by distributing air flows into an adjacent tunnel.
All three tunnels have two interchanges, allowing trains to move freely between the tunnels.
Transport system
TGV line built for Eurotunnel LGV Nord Europe, thanks to which you can get from Paris to London in 2 hours 15 minutes.
Eurostar trains travel through the tunnel itself in 20 minutes, and Shuttle trains in 35 minutes.
There are four types of trains on the Eurotunnel line:
- high speed passenger trains TGV Eurostar, operating between London St Pancras railway station, Paris Gare du Nord ( Gare du Nord) and Midi/Zuid station in Brussels with stops in Ashford, Calais and Lille.
- passenger shuttle trains Eurotunnel Shuttle transporting buses, cars and vans between Sangatte and Folkestone. Thanks to a special loading system, the entire process of entering a car into a carriage takes no more than eight minutes, while passengers remain inside their cars.
- freight trains Eurotunnel Shuttle with open cars in which trucks are transported, while the drivers themselves ride in a separate car.
- freight trains. These trains can carry a variety of cargo and containers between mainland Europe and the UK.
Emergencies
The Eurotunnel's security system has been tested eight times in real emergency situations.
November 18, 1996
The first fire occurred in the tunnel - a shuttle train carrying trucks caught fire. 34 people from the burning train, mostly car drivers, were evacuated into the service tunnel by the arriving French rescue service. Eight victims were taken out of the tunnel in ambulances. The rest were evacuated by another train traveling in the opposite direction. The fire brigade put out the fire for several hours, battling low water pressure in the fire extinguishing system, a strong draft in the ventilation and high temperatures.
200 meters of the tunnel were seriously damaged, another 200 meters were partially damaged. Some sections of the tunnel were burned through 50 mm (the thickness of the concrete ring enclosing the tunnel is 450 mm). The last cars and locomotive of the train were completely disabled.
All victims subsequently fully recovered. There were no casualties, mainly due to the design of the tunnel and the coordinated work of the security services of France and Great Britain.
The Eurotunnel was reopened three days later, on November 21, but only one tunnel was open and only for freight trains: safety rules prohibited passenger transportation during emergencies. They were resumed only on December 4th. The Eurotunnel became fully operational on January 7, 1997.
October 10, 2001
One of the trains suddenly stopped in the middle of the tunnel. Panic arose among the passengers, many were susceptible to attacks of claustrophobia. People spent about five hours underground until they were evacuated through a service tunnel.
August 21, 2006
One of the trucks transported by the shuttle train caught fire. Traffic through the tunnel was suspended for several hours.
September 11, 2008
A fire occurred in the French section of the tunnel - in one of the carriages of a freight train traveling from Great Britain to France. The train was transporting trucks. There were 32 people in it: mostly drivers accompanying their cars. All people were evacuated. As a result of the fire, 14 people were hospitalized, suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning or receiving minor injuries during the evacuation. The tunnel continued to burn all night and even in the morning. In the UK, Kent saw huge traffic jams as police blocked roads to prevent vehicles from driving close to tunnel entrances.
After this accident, traffic in the tunnel was fully restored only on February 23, 2009.
December 18, 2009
Due to the failure of the tunnel's power supply system as a result of a sharp temperature change and snowfall in northern France, five trains stopped in the tunnel.
The breakdowns occurred due to the fact that the trains were not ready for operation in winter conditions; their conductive lines and undercar space were not sufficiently protected. Eurostar noted that all trains undergo annual maintenance taking into account cold weather, but the measures taken were not enough.
January 7, 2010
A Eurostar passenger train carrying 260 passengers from Brussels to London was stuck in the Channel Tunnel for two hours. Teams of specialists were sent to the train, as well as an auxiliary locomotive, which took the faulty train in tow. Representatives of the Eurotunnel company stated that the cause of the breakdown of the train was snow. It got into the train's electrical equipment compartments and melted after entering the tunnel.
March 27, 2014
Train traffic through the tunnel was disrupted due to a fire in a building located next to the entrance to the tunnel on the British side. Four Eurostar trains were returned to their departure points in London, Paris and Brussels. The cause of the incident was a lightning strike. There were no casualties.
January 17, 2015
Train traffic was stopped due to a truck that caught fire in a tunnel near the entrance to it from France. All trains that entered the line were returned to the stations due to smoke. There were no casualties.
This was the fourth time since the start of operation of the Eurotunnel that it was closed due to trucks catching fire on the train platform.
Illegal immigrants
The tunnel has become a relatively easy way for illegal immigrants to enter the UK, where social policy is favorable to visiting foreigners.
On the night of 28–29 July 2015, approximately two thousand immigrants attempted to enter the UK illegally from France through the tunnel. This incident was the largest attempt by illegal migrants to cross the English Channel to enter the UK illegally. According to TASS [ ], in the vicinity of Calais, about 10 thousand immigrants were camped, hoping to illegally cross into the UK.
Financial performance indicators
The contribution of private funding to such a complex project was impressive. £45 million was raised through CTG/F-M, £770 million through a public offering, £206 million from private institutional investors and a syndicated bank loan of up to £5 billion. The estimated cost of the project in 1985 was £2.6 billion. By the end of construction, actual costs amounted to £4.65 billion due to increased safety and environmental requirements for the tunnel [ ] . According to other estimates, a total of about £10 billion was spent on the Eurotunnel (adjusted for inflation).
The Eurotunnel is a grandiose project of the 20th century, which has not yet paid off financially.
On 8 April 2008, Eurotunnel announced an annual profit for the first time in its existence (since 1986), made possible by a large-scale debt restructuring program. The company reported a net profit of one million euros ($1.6 million) for 2007.
In 2008, Eurotunnel operator Eurostar managed to make a profit of 40 million euros.
In 2009, the company paid dividends for the first time since its founding.
In 2010, Eurostar's loss amounted to 58 million euros, which was caused, among other things, by the consequences of the global economic crisis.
In 2011, the company, according to BBC News, made a profit of 11 million euros, passenger traffic reached a record 19 million people, on the stock market a Eurostar share cost 6.53 euros, and dividends amounted to 0.08 euros per share.
On the night of December 2-3, 1994, a group of professional and semi-professional cyclists led by Henri Sannier rode through the tunnel. This was the first official passage of cyclists through the entire tunnel.
I would like to immediately apologize for the quality of the photos. Most of the photos were taken from a tinted bus window. Believe me, it is very difficult to achieve good quality and natural color rendition in such conditions.
An excellent telegram channel from the trip sponsor with a selection of cheap tickets - Hot flights
1 TO bus station You need to come 30 minutes before the bus departure to check your documents, tickets, and visas. This is all done when boarding the bus:
2. Departure for London at 11.00. The photo shows two MegaBus buses. Which neighbor leaves 30 minutes earlier to Amsterdam:
3. While there is time, I walked 200 meters from the station to rent a high-rise Hyatt hotel:
4. Let's take a look at our route. Google says 5 hours. Well, yes, plus we also have a tunnel and stops:
5. Let's go. Sena River:
6. We leave Paris. Many people don’t know that Auchan is a French chain:
7. My GoPro will record the entire journey. At the end of this post you will see a video:
8. Fields. It's already spring in France:
9. Small villages and fields again:
10. There are a lot of wind turbines. In general, this is very developed in Europe. The wind rose allows you to:
11. Look how well-groomed everything is:
12. Beauty:
13. Some houses resemble castles:
15. Views from the bridge:
17. Here is the bridge itself:
18. We approach the town of Boulogne-sur-Mer:
21. A lighthouse on the English Channel is already visible on the horizon:
22. We entered the city. Houses:
23. To us on A16 (Calais):
24. But first we have a short stop:
25. The driver changes here. I suspect this has something to do with driving on the left in England:
26. And we had a little time to take a few shots in the area:
27. We stood right where the buses are loaded onto the ferries. Here is the overpass:
If I had traveled by night bus, this is where our bus would be loaded onto the cross-Channel ferry. The daytime bus goes through the Eurotunnel.
29. I don’t know what kind of building this is. Reminded me of a military pillbox:
30. We entered Calais. We approach the French border:
31. On the left side of the board you can see the departure time for the Eurotunnel (more on that later):
32. We get on the bus and drive literally 500 meters. UK Border Post:
Everything is more serious here. The procedure is no different from entry control at any English airport. You need to fill out a migration card, answer the questions How are mr. Putin? related to the purpose of the visit and timing in the UK. After this, an entry stamp is placed.
Now the Eurotunnel. It is interesting to read its history and structure on Wikipedia. Personally, I had no idea that the Channel Tunnel was built only for trains. It turns out that if you are driving a car or bus through a tunnel, then the transport is loaded onto special closed railway platforms and you move on them in the tunnel.
33. Here is a satellite image of the railway junction in Calais (France). On the English side of the English Channel there is a similar knot:
34. Descent to the platform and railway platform on the left:
35. A bus with tourists enters the platform:
36. And in such a cozy atmosphere we move along the bottom of the English Channel for 39 km (25 minutes):
It's amazing that there is cell service. I immediately start posting photos on
