The Channel Tunnel consists of. The Road to Paradise: How the Channel Tunnel Became a Hostage of a Migration Disaster in Europe

What 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 (Sungar) Strait, since 1998 it has been connecting the islands of Honshu and

Tunnel (Der Tunnel) Novel (1913) Rich people of New York, Chicago, Philadelphia and other cities gather for an unprecedented number of world-famous celebrities participating in it in honor of the opening of the newly built

The Channel Tunnel, one of the marvels of modern engineering, I first learned about it from the magazine "Technique of Youth", in the year 1988, or a little later. The tunnel was just being built then, and I, a Soviet "October" from the Urals, did not even imagine that I would once ride through this very English Channel. In fairness, it must be said that the tunnel linking Britain and France is not the longest underwater tunnel in the world, it has outdone the Seikan in Japan, leading to the island of Hokkaido. The European tunnel is 50 kilometers long, and I am Japanese - 55. It's just that the European tunnel, for obvious reasons, is more "hyped". Contrary to the popular notion that both the highway and the railway pass through the tunnel, in fact there are only rails, 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. There will also be buses and heavy trucks.

Traveling by train from London to Brussels and Paris starts from the Pancras station, the ticket can be bought from the machine right on the spot, or you can buy it in advance on the Eurostar website. It is better to buy in advance, it will be much cheaper, sometimes up to 50-60 euros. The vast majority of people arrive at the station 30-40 minutes before the train departure and they have printouts in their hands electronic ticket. You apply this ticket to the reader and go to the control zone -

Yes, you guessed it, French (Schengen) passport control is carried out right at London Station. The logic is simple: if you do not have a Schengen visa, then it is easier to "wrap" right here, rather than taking it to France, and then thinking about how to send it back. Exactly the same system on the French side, where when the train leaves Paris/Brussels for the UK, the British check your passports at Brussels and Paris train stations -

Then follow the signs to the desired platform, in principle everything is clear -

Two trains leave with a difference of 3 minutes, 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 are not and cannot be. Do you know what the tunnel crossing looks like? At first, barely starting from London, the train picks up tremendous speed (up to 330 km / h) and in half an hour "flies" to the coast, where it goes into a tunnel and in pitch darkness rushes under the bottom of the strait for another fifteen minutes. And then it flies out 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: first, of course, the safety of the tunnel itself (imagine a kind of option from "9/11" under the English Channel, this is the plot for a Hollywood disaster blogbuster, how the tunnel takes off into the air and the deep sea absorbs 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 the UK at any cost. Often, illegal immigrants who crawled through the fence and ran into the tunnel are hit by trains.

Train station in the French city of Calais

You do not think that the train travels empty, nothing like that. It's just that I photographed him 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 -

In recent months, this object has again appeared in the news reports of news agencies. For thousands of refugees who left their historical homeland in search of a new happiness, it has become an obligatory part of the largely insurmountable road to the promised land. In 1994, the tunnel under the English Channel was solemnly opened, connecting Great Britain with continental Europe. The long-awaited superproject, which began to be talked about back in the 19th century, has finally come true. Why now, 21 years later, is everyone talking about him with more disappointment? Onliner.by tells how, after decades of overcoming mutual distrust, the main infrastructure project of the 1980s turned into a source of headache for European powers.

In 1802, mining engineer Albert Mathieu-Favier sent a letter to the First Consul of the French Republic, Napoleon Bonaparte. In the document, the inventor proposed to the future emperor a project that would surely take his breath away: to connect France and Great Britain with a tunnel. For an era when courtly monarchs in wigs were shocked by the revolutionary revelry of the blood-drunk crowd, this was really something amazing, although now the project of Mathieu-Favier looks naive. The engineer proposed to dig a tunnel under the English Channel, through which horse-drawn carriages could cross the strait in the future. At the same time, ventilation was carried out through pipes brought to the surface of the water, and the object was to be illuminated by oil lamps.

Of course, nothing came of it then. Relations between France and Great Britain during this period could hardly be called friendly, and in May 1803 another war broke out between the countries.

The next attempt was made half a century later. In 1857, another Frenchman, Thomas de Gamond, presented his project for a tunnel across the strait. His scheme was fundamentally different from the proposal of the beginning of the century. By this time, steam locomotives were already plowing the expanses of Europe with might and main, and the Gamond tunnel was originally designed for railway traffic: the era of horse-drawn carriages was fading into history.

At the same time, the double-track structure was illuminated with gas lamps, and the ventilation problem, which is especially relevant when using steam locomotives, was solved with the help of an artificial island created approximately in the middle of the track. An international port was also organized here.

British Prime Minister Viscount Palmerston was outraged by the French proposal. "What? Do you still dare to ask for money for a cause whose purpose is to shorten the distance, which we believe is already too short?- said the lord, thus indicating the main problem facing the project. The question was not at all in technological problems (mankind has already learned how to build tunnels, although not so long) and not even in financing. British politicians still viewed the kingdom's geographical isolation as its most important strategic advantage over its neighbors, and the possible Channel Tunnel as a direct and clear threat to this.

And yet, after another decade or so, the first practical steps towards the construction of an object that did not give engineers rest were nevertheless taken. The impetus for this was a potential common enemy that emerged from Britain and France. Germany finally united into a single state and quickly became a powerful player in pan-European politics. In the early 1870s, France lost the war to France and was interested in a serious ally, for which the United Kingdom became a natural candidate.

In 1880, specialists began the construction of test tunnels on both sides of the strait, and the first steam-powered drilling machines, the forerunners of modern tunneling shields, were already used for this. For three years it was possible to dig almost four kilometers, and although the matter did not reach the actual underwater part, this experience confirmed the fundamental possibility of building such an object.

Geopolitics again prevented the continuation of work. By 1883, France again clashed with Britain in the African colonies. New concerns have emerged in British society about the use of the tunnel under construction in a prospective conflict with the continent. The engineers immediately proposed to provide for a special mechanism for flooding the object in its design, but the politicians were inexorable: the construction was again frozen, this time for almost a century.

Due to the too turbulent events of the first half of the 20th century, another return to the old topic took place in the mid-1970s, but the economic crisis that covered Europe postponed practical implementation until 1987. During this time, statesmen and engineering and technical workers finally agreed on two fundamental things: firstly, 185 years after the idea appeared, they said a resolute “yes” to it, and secondly, they decided on the final scheme of the object.

Four options were seriously considered, each of which was supposed to perform the same function - to unite the island and the continent with convenient transport links. The first (and most expensive) project was the Eurobridge, an amazing structure that was, in fact, a multi-level automobile overpass enclosed in a pipe, suspended on cables at a height of 70 meters above the English Channel. The estimated cost of the construction was £5.9 billion.

The second option was the so-called Euroroute ("Euroway" or "Euroroute"), a set of several bridges and tunnels connecting artificial islands. In addition to the high budget (£5 billion), such a scheme created big problems for shipping.

The third proposal - called Channel Expressway ("Freeway through the channel") - provided for the construction of one large tunnel for the alternating movement of cars and trains. It was much cheaper (“only” £2 billion), but would certainly have caused serious logistical problems associated with the separation of rail and road flows.

Finally, the fourth project turned out to be the very option that combined the relative simplicity of implementation with an acceptable budget for the interested states. According to the concept, called the "Eurotunnel", it was supposed to lay three separate tunnels across the English Channel. Two main ones (7.6 meters in diameter) were designed for railway traffic. Between them is the so-called "communication tunnel" with a diameter of 4.8 meters and designed for maintenance of the entire facility and the evacuation of passengers in case of emergency.

Every 375 meters, the main tunnels were connected to service special passages, and air ducts were laid over the entire system, reducing pressure during the passage high-speed trains and eliminated the "piston effect" that arose in this case.

The length of the structure at the same time amounted to 51 kilometers, 39 of them were in the underwater part under the English Channel. Under the ground, a couple of sidings were also arranged, allowing the trains to change the direction of movement if necessary.

Construction work was significantly facilitated and made cheaper by the relatively favorable geological conditions in which the tunneling was carried out. Almost throughout its entire length, the Eurotunnel is located in a chalk layer, which, on the one hand, was relatively soft, on the other, stable, and on the third, provided good waterproofing by itself. At the same time, as many as 11 tunneling shields were working at the construction complex, which made it possible to complete drilling work quite quickly. The sinking began in December 1987, and exactly three years later, on December 1, 1990, the British were able to shake hands with the French at a depth of 40 meters from the bottom of the English Channel.

During this period, the builders had 8 million cubic meters of rock at their disposal. The French preferred to mix their half with water and pour the resulting pulp back into the strait, while the British disposed of the soil a little more economically. Off their coast, they poured an artificial cape, on which they formed the Samphire Hoe park. Now more than 100 thousand people come to see the flora and fauna of the "traditional chalk meadow" every year.

Of course, the actual tunneling was only part of a large-scale work. At both exits from the facility - English and French - large cargo-passenger station complexes were erected. The creation of them and various engineering networks dragged on for another three and a half years. The grand opening of the "Eurotunnel" took place only in May 1994, two years later than planned. 13,000 miners, engineers and other specialists coped with the task that once struck even Napoleon I in seven years.

What someone dreamed about and what someone was afraid of happened. Passenger trains began to run between London on the one hand and Paris and Brussels on the other. It became possible to get from the British capital to the French one in just 2 hours and 15 minutes. It was no longer necessary to make transfers to the ferry and fight seasickness, although surprisingly the ferry industry did not die with the launch of the Eurotunnel: the traffic, passenger and cargo, turned out to be too large, and the throughput of the tunnel was not unlimited.

Eurotunnel is used by four types of trains. First of all, these are high-speed passenger TGV Eurostars, plying between London St. Pancras station, Paris Nord Station and Midi / Zuid station in Brussels with several intermediate stops. In the tunnel, such a train travels at a speed of 160 km / h, overcoming it in 20 minutes, and on the surface, thanks to modern infrastructure, its speed reaches 300 km / h.

In addition to the TGV Eurostar and conventional freight trains, passenger and freight Eurotunnel Shuttle operate on the Eurotunnel line. The former are intended for the transportation of cars, vans and buses in closed wagons between station terminals at the exits, the latter for trucks in open wagons. At the same time, in passenger "shuttles" people do not get out of their cars.

The celebration of the long-awaited project delivery quickly ended. Began boring and in many ways disappointing weekdays of its operation. In the first year, the shareholders and management of Groupe Eurotunnel expected to carry about 16 million passengers. The reality turned out to be much more prosaic: only 3 million people used the company's services. Since then, this figure has gradually increased, but last year the Eurostar and Eurotunnel Shuttle trains carried only 10.4 million passengers.

At the same time, the object cost £4.65 billion, an amount that turned out to be 80% higher than the calculated one. Eurotunnel was able to report its first annual profit only 14 years after the start of its work: in 2008, the joint-stock company announced a net profit of $1.6 million, and that was due to the restructuring of its debts. In the future, profitable years continued to alternate with unprofitable ones, but in any case, there is no talk of a payback for the construction in the foreseeable future. In fact, in terms of financial performance, Eurotunnel has become. However, the strategic importance of the object is difficult to overestimate.

1. The length of the tunnel under the English Channel is 51 km, of which 39 pass directly under the strait. Trains from London to Paris and back are in the tunnel from 20 to 35 minutes.

2. Thanks to the Eurotunnel, you can get from Paris to London by train in just 2 hours and 15 minutes.

3. Contrary to the misconception, the Channel Tunnel is not the longest railway tunnel in the world, but only ranks third. The second place is at the Japanese Seikan Tunnel, which connects the islands of Honshu and Hokkaido, the length of which is 53.85 km. And the longest in the world is the Gotthard railway tunnel in the Swiss Alps, the official opening of which is scheduled for 2017. Its length is 57 km.

Strait of the English Channel. Satellite image. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

4. For the first time, the idea of ​​building a tunnel connecting England and continental Europe was voiced as early as the beginning of the 19th century, but for a long time it was rejected due to British fears that the structure could be used for a military invasion of the island.

5. The construction of the tunnel began in 1881 and in 1922. For the first time, the builders managed to walk 2026 meters from the English side and 1829 meters from the French side. In the second tunnel drilling stopped at only 128 meters. Both times construction was interrupted for political reasons.

6. In the post-war period, the Channel Tunnel project progressed extremely slowly. The research team began working in 1957, the project was approved in 1973, after which it was frozen again, and the real construction of the tunnel began only on December 15, 1987.

Project for the Channel Tunnel, ca. 1960. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

7. The Eurotunnel technically consists of three tunnels - two main ones with rail tracks for trains traveling north and south, and one small service tunnel. The service tunnel every 375 meters has passages connecting it with the main ones. It is designed for access to the main tunnels for service personnel and emergency evacuation of people in case of danger.

8. Road transport overcomes the tunnel under the English Channel in the carriages of special trains. At the same time, drivers and passengers of cars transported by Eurotunnel Shuttle trains do not leave their vehicles. The procedure for loading a car into a wagon takes no more than eight minutes.

Construction of the Channel Tunnel, 1993. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

9. Over the twenty years of operation of the Eurotunnel, seven major incidents have occurred in it, due to which the normal operation of the tunnel was disrupted for a period of several hours to several months. Most of the incidents were related to fires, however, thanks to the professional actions of rescuers, victims were avoided.

10. The Eurotunnel cost a total of around £10bn and was overpriced by 80 per cent. According to experts, the payback period of the project may exceed 1000 years.

1. The length of the tunnel under the English Channel is 51 km, of which 39 pass directly under the strait. Trains from London to Paris and back are in the tunnel from 20 to 35 minutes.

2. Thanks to the Eurotunnel, you can get from Paris to London by train in just 2 hours and 15 minutes.

3. Contrary to the misconception, the Channel Tunnel is not the longest railway tunnel in the world, but only ranks third.

The second place is at the Japanese Seikan Tunnel connecting the islands of Honshu and Hokkaido, the length of which is 53.85 km.

And the longest in the world is the Gotthard railway tunnel in the Swiss Alps, the official opening of which is scheduled for 2017. Its length is 57 km.

4. For the first time, the idea of ​​building a tunnel connecting England and continental Europe was voiced as early as the beginning of the 19th century, but for a long time it was rejected due to British fears that the structure could be used for a military invasion of the island.

5. The construction of the tunnel began in 1881 and in 1922. For the first time, the builders managed to walk 2026 meters from the English side and 1829 meters from the French side. In the second tunnel drilling stopped at only 128 meters. Both times construction was interrupted for political reasons.

6. In the post-war period, the Channel Tunnel project progressed extremely slowly.

The research team began working in 1957, the project was approved in 1973, after which it was frozen again, and the real construction of the tunnel began only on December 15, 1987.

7. The Eurotunnel technically consists of three tunnels - two main tunnels with tracks for trains traveling north and south, and one small service tunnel.

The service tunnel every 375 meters has passages connecting it with the main ones. It is designed for access to the main tunnels for service personnel and emergency evacuation of people in case of danger.

8. Road transport overcomes the tunnel under the English Channel in the carriages of special trains.

At the same time, drivers and passengers of cars transported by Eurotunnel Shuttle trains do not leave their vehicles. The procedure for loading a car into a wagon takes no more than eight minutes.

9. Over the twenty years of operation of the Eurotunnel, seven major incidents have occurred in it, due to which the normal operation of the tunnel was disrupted for a period of several hours to several months.

Most of the incidents were related to fires, however, thanks to the professional actions of rescuers, victims were avoided.

10. The Eurotunnel cost a total of around £10bn and was overpriced by 80 per cent.

According to experts, the payback period of the project may exceed 1000 years.