Part 23, The Channel Tunnel; Arriving in London

Date: 5/7/2017.  Drizzle in Paris, partly cloudy in London.   50F/65F

The process of leaving France to go to the UK kind of blindsided us. Despite the Brexit vote, both France and the UK were still both members of the EU so there should have been minimal formalities for this border crossing, right? Wrong. After being subjected to a disorganized TSA-type security check at the Paris Gare du Nord, our train was cancelled for unexplained technical reasons, and we were left wondering if we would make it to London at all that day. We listened to rumors being passed between the travelers in the waiting crowd, and finally found a way to get seats on a later train, although without a window! Never mind that … we had seats so at least we would make it to London on the day we planned!

Once the train was out of Paris, it sped up to “bullet train” speed, and we flew through the French countryside. It was the same as most of the previous bullet trains on our trip: much of the landscape was hidden behind berms, walls and cuts, and occasionally we could catch an open view (i.e. “open” through the thin slice of the next row’s window we could peek through) of the countryside: fields and occasional villages. The portion of the trip in France was longer than I expected … almost an hour and a half at 160+ mph.

Photo 6190.  Passing by a French village from the EuroStar train

I’m not sure exactly what I was expecting to see at the entrance to the Channel Tunnel … some kind of monumental portal, perhaps slowing down so we could properly appreciate the fact of passing into one of the greatest public works projects of the world.

Forget that – there was no fanfare whatever. The only clue that we were headed into the tunnel was that the train dipped down into a deep cut then the scenery suddenly went black. That was it! There was nothing to see but an occasional dim light flashing by as we sped through. The tunnel is long … about 31 miles, and it took about 19 minutes by my watch to transit through the tunnel, which computes to an average of 98 mph while in the tunnel.

Photo 6203.  Dropping into the Channel Tunnel, a.k.a. the “Chunnel”

A few “Chunnel” details for the technophiles:

• Construction: 1987-1993.
• Length: 31 miles total, 23.5 miles of which is under water – making it the longest undersea tunnel in the world.
• Project Cost: 4.65 billion in 1985 GBP, which equates to about $13.8 billion in 2017 U.S. dollars, or $0.45 billion per mile. Tunnel projects are notorious for cost overruns, and there was an 80% overrun on this project attributed mainly to added environmental, security, and safety costs. At the peak of construction, 15,000 people were employed on the project. For a contemporary comparison, the 2.0 mile Alaskan Way “Bertha” tunnel under the Seattle waterfront, now under construction is projected to cost $3.2 billion, or $1.6 billion per mile.
• Cross section: the Channel Tunnel consists of 3 separate tunnels: 2 main 25-foot tunnels 98 feet center-to-center, with a 16-foot service tunnel between the two main tunnels. There are cross-passage tunnels connecting the two main tunnels every 1,230 feet (375 m) and cross-tunnel ducts every 820 feet (250m) to equalize the air pressure built up ahead of the high-speed trains.

Photo 23-3, Chunnel Cross-Section
(Source: http://4rail.taragany.fi/fra/fra_et_channeltunneldiagram_L.jpg)

• Geology: most of the way the Channel Tunnel is bored through a 82′-98′ thick layer of chalk marl (think: White Cliffs of Dover), which is a type of limestone with 30%-40% clay content which limits water permeability and makes for relatively easy excavation while providing enough soil strength so that little structural support is required.

And back up into daylight in England! There was one stop at Ebbsfleet Station about 20 miles east of London, after which we continued on to London’s St. Pancras Station about 20 minutes later. St. Pancras has a great arched glass roof that makes it look like it came right out of Victorian times, which it did – it was built in 1868.

Photo 6214.  Eurostar trains arriving at St. Pancras Station, London

After the difficult start to the train trip in Paris, things looked up considerably once we arrived in London. For one thing, it was nice sunny day after leaving a dreary drizzly day in Paris. Our hotel turned out to be in a fabulous location close to the heart of London, about 2 blocks from the Westminster Bridge on the Thames. And although it was not an expensive hotel it turned out that our room had a great view of the London Eye over some rooftops … and with the top of Big Ben and the tower of the Parliament building visible off to the left.  An excellent value!

Photo 23-5, Img_2861, the London Eye over rooftops from our room

So we sat down and figured out a game plan for our 5 full remaining days in London: to see places we had not seen before consistent with our objective of seeing engineering, architectural, or cultural icons. What we came up with: Tuesday and Wednesday (good weather days) to Hampton Court and Windsor Castle, then on days predicted to be rainy: Thursday and Friday to the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey, Saint Paul’s Cathedral and the Europe’s tallest building: the Shard.

I’ve always had a feeling of being deeply grounded coming to Britain – like we’re coming home to “Mother England” (setting aside certain difficult periods of English-Scottish history). We can read and speak the language without difficulty, the British are very friendly, and no matter where you turn there is fabulous history to immerse yourself in, from William the Conqueror to Henry VIII to Churchill.   That “coming home” feeling was even more pronounced on this trip having just come from such exotic and unfamiliar lands that we had visited earlier in the trip.