In 1999, two internationally renowned groups of civil engineering experts, one in the USA, the other in Europe, named the Channel Tunnel “the greatest infrastructure success of the 20th century”. The European jury placed the San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge in second place, the US Interstate Highway system in third, and then the Empire State Building, the Hoover dam on the Colorado River and the Panama Canal.
The Channel Tunnel is 50km long, of which 37.8 km are dug under the seabed, between the Sangatte and Shakespeare Cliff shafts, which makes it the longest underwater tunnel in service in the world. Another railroad tunnel, the Seikan in Japan, is longer (53.8km), but the section underwater connecting the islands of Honshu and Hokkaido is shorter (23.3km).
Since its opening in May 1994, more than 212 million people have travelled through the Channel Tunnel, or between three and four times the total population of the two countries which it connects, France and the UK. This calculation of usage includes passengers travelling in Eurotunnel Shuttles, whether in a private vehicle (car, camper-van, motorbike, etc.), coach or truck, as well as passengers on Eurostar trains. Eurotunnel Shuttles have carried nearly 128 million people; Eurostar nearly 85 million. In addition to these passengers, nearly 196 million tonnes of goods have also been transported, with around 86% carried on trucks loaded onto Eurotunnel Shuttles and 14% on SNCF and EWS trains.
Eurotunnel has carried nearly 13 million trucks and 168 million tonnes of goods on its Shuttles since the service started, making it a world leader in piggyback transport, a modern and clean form of transport, the transport of the future. The record for the number of trucks transported in 24 hours was established on 10 March 2005 with 6,506 vehicles.
9.5 million people travelled on Eurotunnel Shuttles in 2007, which means an average of more than 26,000 customers each day. In addition to these thousands of passengers, more than 50,000 tonnes of goods were also transported daily by trucks on the Shuttles.
More than 300 trains (Passenger Shuttles, Truck Shuttles, goods trains or Eurostars) go through the Channel Tunnel every day. The record stands at 453 trains in 24 hours. At peak times, such intense use means one train every 3 minutes. By comparison, the Paris RER system can run 1 train every 2 minutes, but they are just 225m long and weigh only 200 tonnes and travel at a maximum speed of just 100km/h. Eurotunnel Shuttles are 800m long and travel at 140km/h. The tracks in the Channel Tunnel are estimated to carry a load of 110 to 120 million tonnes per year of operation.
The Eurotunnel fleet has 58 locomotives: 19 of which already are powered by 7MW engines; an additional 8 will be upgraded from 5.6 to 7MW by March 2007. Given that each Shuttle is driven by two locomotives, Eurotunnel Shuttles have a potential traction power of 14MW, unequaled in the European rail industry. This is due to the exceptional nature of Eurotunnel convoys (800m long, loads up to 2,500 tonnes) but also because of the network’s profile (16km of continuous slope at 11% on the English side) and the traffic density in the Tunnel which multiplies aerodynamic drag by 3. By comparison, the traction power of the TGV sud-est is 6.5MW, Eurostar 12.2MW and Thalys 8.8MW.
The punctuality rate of Eurotunnel Shuttles has become a milestone in the transport industry. Times are assessed according to particularly demanding criteria: a train is considered to be on time if it leaves the platform less than 3 minutes after the scheduled departure time. For Truck Shuttles in 2007, this amounted to 89% of departures.
The International Railway Organisation, the UIC, which represents railway operators in 22 countries, has just published a report showing that the only one of its members not to have had a major accident during the last five years is Eurotunnel. At the same time, the occurrence of lost time accidents at Eurotunnel continues to be significantly below the average for the rail industry as a whole. Eurotunnel considers that there is still room for improvement in this field.
In June 1998, Eurotunnel opened a maintenance building 838m long on the Coquelles terminal. No other maintenance building in the railway world is of similar scale. It allows technicians to work on a complete Shuttle, without having to disconnect and reform each section, a long, dangerous and costly task.
[pdf] Eurotunnel's 2007 awards