20 years on, British fears over Channel Tunnel lost at sea
Print Edition
FEARING an invasion of rabid animals, terrorists, immigrants and the loss of their cherished island isolation, many Britons were highly suspicious of the Channel Tunnel.
But two decades after the sub-sea tunnel linked up Britain and France on May 6, 1994, the doubters on the northern side of “La Manche” have largely been silenced.
Opponents had warned of a host of dangers, including drug trafficking, potato blight in the ‘Garden of England’ county of Kent, as well as an influx of French spiders and the arrival of bee-killing moths.
Others feared a fatal competitor for car ferries operating the Dover-Calais route and the possible bankruptcy of tunnel operator Eurotunnel. The darkest nightmares were of tunnel walls collapsing due to flooding, earthquakes or bombs.
In February 1986, British transport secretary Nicholas Ridley sought to reassure concerned lawmakers, saying: “Will rabies come? Will the Russians invade along the tunnel? Should Britain remain an island?
“I sympathize with these emotional arguments but I do not believe that they are rational.”
Today, Eurotunnel supporters quote William Shakespeare to describe the scare-stories as “much ado about nothing.”
To be sure, it has not all been plain sailing. There was a fire on a freight service in November 1996, while hundreds of immigrants housed at the Sangatte centre in Calais tried to rush the tunnel over Christmas in 2001.
The service suffers occasional cancellations and frequent delays, but the overall picture is positive. There is an old joke that when fog descended over the Channel, the English declared the continent cut off, suggesting it was Europe that had been left all alone.
In October 2012, the year of the London Olympics, Eurotunnel celebrated its 300 millionth passenger.
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