Laurent Bodin
The Channel Tunnel, just over 50 km long, is a marvel which, thirty years ago, aroused the admiration of the whole world and the hope of a stronger link between France, and more generally Europe on one side, the United Kingdom on the other. England discovered a border with the European Union. Pas-de-Calais was to be the link.
Three decades later, The Channel Tunnel gives all Eurostar passengers en route to London or Paris the feeling of participating in a moment of history when the day fades behind the windows of the TGV for a few minutes’ crossing under the Channel. For the rest, this tunnel is partially a fiasco. He is far from having kept all his promises.
Financially, the adventure was a disaster. The initial construction cost was estimated at 27.3 billion francs (4.1 billion euros). The final bill was 87.9 billion francs (13.4 billion euros). This budgetary rout had the consequence of weighing down the finances of the operator, Eurotunnel, and its shareholders, both institutional and private, who saw the value of the shares plummet as the operator’s setbacks.
More serious is the fact that at a time of necessary environmental transition, the Channel Tunnel is at a scandalous level of under-exploitation. It is unable to be competitive, in terms of prices, compared to its competitors which are air transport and ferries. It is an ecological aberration but a financial reality.
Technically, the wonder has not aged. The tunnel, however, appears to be a big mess. It reflects the relations between Europeans and the British who have chosen a Brexit which also costs them very dearly, financially and politically, but which will not be possible to return for decades. Concerning the Channel Tunnel, it is up to the governments, in Paris and London, to promote the conditions for the take-off hoped for thirty years ago. Are they capable of it?
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