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Channel Tunnel: Channel Tunnel Company
built 629 days ago
The Channel Tunnel Company expected the pilot tunnel to be completed by 1886. Sir Edward Watkin applied to the government for public funds to complete the 11 mile section to meet the French mid channel. These funds were not forthcoming so Sir Edward formed a new company, The Submarine Continental Railway Company that took over the shafts and headings from the South Eastern Railway in 1882. The company prepared a new Bill to put before Parliament but by now the government were getting worried about the military implications of a link to Europe and a new military commission heard evidence from Lieutenant General Sir Garnet Wolseley that the tunnel might be "calamitous for England", he added that "No matter what fortifications and defences were built, there would always be the peril of some continental army seizing the tunnel exit by surprise." Despite assurances from Sir Edward that the defence against invasion was adequate by flooding the tunnel, cutting of the ventilation and forcing smoke into the tunnel and cutting the cables on the lifts in the shaft thereby trapping any invader at the bottom, the commission was not convinced.
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The Channel Tunnel Company published a new report on the geology and propose that a pilot tunnel be driven. Under the supervision of P. C. Tempest a new experimental heading using a 12 foot diameter Whitaker tunnelling machine drove a 490 foot long trial heading in the Folkestone Warren.
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The French mining engineer Albert Mathieu-Favier is credited with first suggesting a tunnel under the Channel, in 1802. Numerous other schemes emerged over the years. In 1875 the Channel Tunnel Company set up by the British engineer John Hawkshaw was given authority to build a tunnel by the governments of both Britain and France. In 1881 a new Act gave powers to a rival scheme promoted by Hawkshaw's former colleague William Low.
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This aroused alarm amongst the British military, and in 1883, further building of the Tunnel was banned. The Tunnel company suggested (in vain) that, as a safeguard, they could instal an inlet to the sea half-way along the tunnel! A soldier would be permanently on guard, ready to pull the plug if the French should try a surprise invasion! They offered to build a fort guarding the tunnel entrance, and to wire it up with explosives ready to destroy the whole tunnel or flood it with seawater.....
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Deutsche Bahn recently acquired EWS, Britain’s biggest freight train company, which operates up to four services a day through the Channel Tunnel. The German operator is likely to face fierce opposition to its plan from Eurostar, which has capitalised on improvements in journey time and reliability in order to raise the average fare. Passengers who are unable to book several weeks in advance typically have to pay about £300 for an economy class return fare to Paris.
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The final cost of the tunnel was £12 billion, and left Eurotunnel plc, the Anglo-French company that built the tunnel, £9 billion in debt. In its first year, it made a loss of £925 million. Its first net profit was announced in March 1999.
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Channel Tunnel Company