It runs for 23.5 miles under the sea and has trains designed to stop the drivers becoming HYPNOTISED by the journey: Inside the Channel Tunnel – the busiest railway system in the world
- A new documentary has been given unprecedented access to the Channel Tunnel to mark its 25th birthday
- It runs for 23.5 miles under the English Channel’s seabed and carries over 20million passengers every year
- There are two services through the tunnel – 87mph Le Shuttle services and high-speed Eurostar services
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The Channel Tunnel is something of a technological wonder of the world.
It runs for 23.5 miles under the English Channel’s seabed, carries over 20million passengers every year on around 400 trains a day and some of those – the Eurostars – hit speeds of 99mph.
Now, to mark its 25th anniversary, a new documentary series has been given unprecedented access to it – and the people who keep it running. And here we offer a sneak peek of what’s in store.
In The Channel Tunnel – Life On The Inside – we meet ‘Two Stop’ Tash (pictured), who often needs a couple of goes to get her train to stop in the right spot
The Channel Tunnel is something of a technological wonder of the world. Pictured are the Folkestone platforms
In the first episode of the BBC Two series – The Channel Tunnel Life On The Inside – we meet ‘Two Stop’ Tash, who drives Eurotunnel Shuttles and gets teased by her colleagues for struggling to stop her train at the right spot.
She often needs to nudge forward before coming to a halt for the final time.
We also learn about the dangers of ‘segment flicker’, when the ‘relentless waves of lines and lights’ experienced by drivers in tunnels can lead to them becoming hypnotised.
To prevent this, the cabs of the Shuttle trains, which travel at up to 87mph (140kph) in the tunnel, have windows designed with a restricted view.
Describing the first time she drove on her own in the tunnel, Tash says: ‘It was one of the scariest things I’ve ever done in my life. Every noise sounded like the train had broken – even a phone ringing.
The Channel Tunnel runs for 23.5 miles under the English Channel’s seabed, carries over 20million passengers every year on around 400 trains a day and some of those – the Eurostars – hit speeds of 99mph. Pictured is the English terminal
The first design for a cross-Channel Tunnel – to be lit by oil lamps for horse drawn carts – was created in 1802. Pictured is the French terminal
‘But the more time you spend down here, you get used to the noises and the movement of the train and start to recognise real faults!’
On the day the cameras joined her in the cab, back in March, she was hauling 32 trucks weighing 2,500 tonnes on a journey lasting about 35 minutes.
The trains take it all in their stride – but sometimes things don’t go according to plan.
Each shuttle is almost 800 metres (2,624ft) long, that’s the length of seven football pitches
On May 6, 1994, the Channel Tunnel was official opened by Queen Elizabeth II and French president Francois Mitterand. Pictured is the French portal
A member of the Eurotunnel team scans an incoming queue of traffic
We also witness the Eurotunnel team choreographing a ‘recirculation’ – taking all the trucks off a broken down train and directing them onto another working Shuttle.
In future episodes the series will reveal why the tunnel isn’t a straight line but bends and weaves like a river beneath the seabed – and how a team must battle to fix overhead cables crackling with 25,000 volts in the ‘wet area’, while keeping an eye out for a family of adders.
The BBC said: ‘With never-before-seen footage and spellbinding stories, The Channel Tunnel – Life On The Inside, reveals what it’s really like inside one of the world’s busiest transport systems.’
- The first episode will air on BBC Two on Wednesday, October 9, at 7.30pm.