Heads of State Queen Elizabeth II and President Francoise Mitterrand officially open the Channel Tunnel on 6 May 1994


On May 6, 1994, the UK and French Heads of State - Queen Elizabeth II and President Françoise Mitterrand - officially opened the Channel Tunnel to the public, only seven years after ratification of the Treaty of Canterbury. In that short time, the Channel Tunnel – the greatest construction project of the 20th century - was completed and ready for business. Work on the project had totalled more than 170 million man hours but, finally, all of the obstacles and difficulties that seemed to stand in the way of this immense and historic project were in the past. The Channel Tunnel is no ordinary project. The four types of cross-channel service that the Tunnel offers - conventional freight and passenger trains, plus two types of road vehicle shuttle have made it into the busiest railway in the world. The fast and efficient movement of road and rail traffic into, through and out of the Eurotunnel system is integral to that success. The Channel Tunnel is one of the wonders of the modern world. It is thirty-two miles long at an average depth of 45 metres below the sea-bed, the longest undersea tunnel and the second longest rail tunnel in the world (only the Seikan Tunnel in Japan is longer). It was built between 1987 and 1994 by Anglo-French consortium TransManche Link and is owned and operated by Anglo-French Eurotunnel plc. It opened for business in late 1994, offering services including a shuttle train for car, coach and freight vehicles, a Eurostar high-speed passenger service linking London with Paris and Brussels and a rail freight service. . The Channel Tunnel consists of three parallel tunnels. There are two rail tunnels carrying trains to and from the UK to France and a smaller access tunnel served by narrow rubber-tyred vehicles and connected by transverse passages to the main tunnels at regular intervals.


Size: 4693px × 3130px
Location: Eurotunnel French Terminal at Frethun.
Photo credit: © qaphotos.com / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

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