The Tunnel Under the Channel

Delays and cancellations are a common feature for rail travellers in Britain. But today’s delays are nothing compared with the delays in creating a railway under the Channel. By Robin Laurance.

The tunnel under the English Channel – the seaway the French call La Manche – was ready for its first trains when a Frenchman looked set to derail the whole enterprise. Florent Longuepee, a right-wing Paris city councillor, wrote to the British government requesting Waterloo station, the London terminus for the Eurostar service, be re-named. It would be upsetting, he said, for the French to arrive in England and be reminded of Napoleon’s final defeat.