Some Channel Tunnel Facts & Figures

• The French call the tunnel Le Tunnel sous la Manche.
• Ten workers were killed during the construction of the tunnel, most of them during the first few years of tunnelling.
• It is considered to be on of the seven wonders of the modern world.
• The Channel Tunnel is the longest undersea tunnel in the world, measuring in at 23.5 miles (Japan has longest overall tunnel).
• The overall length of the tunnel is 31.4 miles.
• The deepest point of the tunnel is 250 metres below the surface of the water.
• The tunnel itself now carries Eurostar trains, and Eurotunnel car and freight trains, which take cars from A to B.
• After all of the problems and hold ups, the project was 80% over budget.
• It is known colloquially as the ‘Chunnel’.
• It was thought that the tunnel would surpass the need for Ferry crossings, but the Dover to Calais Journey still remains popular.
• The Channel Tunnel cost enough money to make the Golden Gate Bridge in America 700 times over.
• On the English side, over 4 million cubic litres of chalk were exhumed.
• The machines used to bore through the chalk rock were discarded after completion of the project by turning away from the tunnel at a right angle and tunnelling away.