Channel Tunnel
Undersea rail tunnel linking France to UK
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We include updates on Eurostar, High Speed 1, Getlink, British Rail Class 92, LeShuttle, GB Railfreight, Calais Jungle, Migrants around Calais, Regional Eurostar, Juxtaposed controls, Coquelles, Edward Watkin, Alastair Morton, Thomas Russell Crampton, TransManche Link, Albert de Lapparent ... and more.
| 2025 |
High Speed 1
Evolyn plans to order 12 trains from Alstom, contingent on securing project financing and regulatory approval.
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| April 2025 |
High Speed 1
Gemini Trains announced plans to operate trains across the Eurotunnel and applied for access to the Temple Mills Depot.
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| 2025 | GB Railfreight is set to receive a fleet of 30 new Class 99 electro-diesel locomotives for delivery. |
| 2025 |
High Speed 1
Evolyn initially planned to start non-stop services between London and Paris
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| February 2025 |
High Speed 1
HS1 Ltd. begins trading under the new name London St. Pancras Highspeed, aiming to take a more consumer-facing approach and explore options for expanding capacity at London St. Pancras International railway station.
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| February 9 2025 | Planned reopening of juxtaposed controls buildings at Amsterdam Centraal and Rotterdam Centraal stations. |
| 2024 | Continued decline in truck transportation to 1,198,052, with 1,233 freight trains. |
| 2024 | Transport reached 11,201,093 passengers, with 2,187,146 shuttle service passenger vehicles, approaching pre-pandemic levels. |
| November 2024 |
High Speed 1
Virgin Group and Evolyn highlight Eurostar's non-agreement for Temple Mills depot access during an industry event at the Houses of Parliament, subsequently appealing to the ORR to assess available capacity.
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| September 2024 | GB Railfreight opens a new maintenance facility for Class 66, Class 69, and Class 73 locomotives at its Tonbridge, Kent site. |
| September 2024 | Eurostar signed a memorandum of understanding to join SkyTeam as its first non-airline partner, establishing a significant air-rail alliance to enable integrated intermodal transport across the UK, France, and the Netherlands. |
| August 2024 | GB Railfreight announced the acquisition of four Clayton Equipment Class 18 Hybrid+ CBD90 shunt locomotives, leased from Beacon Rail. These diesel-electric + battery Bo-Bo shunters are equipped with EU Stage V emissions compliant diesel engines and will be based at Whitemoor, Eastleigh, and Bescot. |
| August 2024 | The two Class 50 locomotives (50 007 and 50 049) were returned to the Severn Valley Railway. |
| June 15 2024 | Juxtaposed controls buildings at Amsterdam Centraal and Rotterdam Centraal were closed due to major track works, impacting direct Eurostar services. |
| May 2024 | Eurostar announced plans to order up to 50 new trains, signaling a significant expansion and modernization of its fleet. |
| January 2024 |
High Speed 1
Deutsche Bahn reaffirmed its fundamental interest in transport between London and the mainland through the Eurotunnel, while noting that routes and trains were not yet equipped with end-to-end ETCS.
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| 2023 | Truck transportation decreased to 1,206,754, with 1,417 freight trains operating. |
| 2023 | Continued recovery with 10,716,419 passengers and 2,236,713 shuttle service passenger vehicles. |
| 2023 | Cycle booking service was critically described as 'farcical'. |
| 2023 | Mobico Group, owner of National Express, was reported to be considering cross-Channel services under the name 'Evolyn'. |
| December 2023 |
High Speed 1
Getlink announced plans to double the market for direct high-speed trains from the UK within 10 years, with potential services to Cologne, Frankfurt, Geneva, and Zurich. The company aims to reduce time to market from 10 to 5 years through market research, tunnel regulation standardization, and collaboration with network operators.
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| November 2023 |
High Speed 1
Dutch rail start-up Heuro, led by Maarten van den Biggelaar, announced plans to operate 16 daily services from Amsterdam to London and Paris, seeking €600 million in funding and planning to use Zefiro V300 trains.
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| October 2023 | Multiple new companies expressed interest in running services through the Channel Tunnel: Evolyn (a Spanish start-up planning London-Paris services), Virgin Group exploring international service options, and Heuro (a Dutch start-up planning Amsterdam to Paris and London routes). |
| October 2023 | Eurostar brand officially replaced Thalys, operating as one unified network with combined ticket sales system. |
| June 2023 | GB Railfreight purchased 4 Class 57 locomotives from Direct Rail Services. |
| June 2023 | GBRf began leases on locomotives 57303, 57305, 57306, and 57310, used for Multiple Unit transfers and passenger charter trains. |
| 2022 | Further reduction in freight volume to 864,058 tonnes, with a slight increase to 1,446,765 trucks and 1,488 freight trains. |
| 2022 | Passenger transport began recovering, with 8,295,005 passengers and 2,109,920 shuttle service passenger vehicles. |
| 2022 | Two ex-Colas Rail Class 67 locomotives joined the fleet. GBRf ordered 30 new Class 99 bi-mode locomotives for delivery in 2025 to replace the Class 66 fleet. |
| 2022 | Trials of new Class 18 diesel-electric battery shunter locomotives were conducted at Whitemoor marshalling yard. |
| 2022 | GB Railfreight transferred 1 Class 67 locomotive from Colas Rail. |
| 2022 | Eurostar discontinued services to Ashford International, Ebbsfleet International, Calais Frethun stations, and withdrew its Disneyland Paris and Avignon routes to focus on more profitable connections. |
| 2022 | Getlink, the Channel Tunnel owner, considered purchasing trains to lease to rival operations. |
| 2022 | Eurostar accumulated debts of €964 million following French bailouts and commercial loans. Passenger numbers recovered to 8 million, though still 3 million below 2019 levels. |
| December 2022 |
British Rail Class 92
First examples of Accurascale's OO gauge BR Class 92 model became available.
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| November 2022 |
Nightstar
Generator van 96371 was transported to Inverness to be used as a carriage heater for Caledonian Sleeper.
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| 2021 | Continued decline in freight volume to 1,041,140 tonnes, with 1,361,529 trucks transported and 1,654 freight trains. |
| 2021 | Renfe, Spain's national rail operator, proposed competing London to Paris rail services. |
| December 2021 |
Nightstar
Eastern Rail Services purchased the three remaining Generator Vans from Motorail, with 96372 moving to Great Yarmouth.
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| October 2021 | Renfe, the Spanish state railway company, expressed interest in operating a cross-Channel route between Paris and London. |
| October 2021 |
High Speed 1
Renfe officially announced its intention to operate high-speed trains between Paris and London using the Channel Tunnel and High Speed 1, with the company believing such routes would be viable and profitable.
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| October 2021 | Announcement made that after merger completion, the Thalys brand would be discontinued, with all services to be operated under the Eurostar name but maintaining individual service liveries. |
| October 11 2021 |
Calais Jungle
A Jesuit priest and two activists began a hunger strike to protest mistreatment of migrants.
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| August 31 2021 | The ElecLink interconnector, a 51 km-long 320 kV DC power cable running through the Channel Tunnel, was switched into service during the night, enabling power transfer between British and French electricity networks. |
| April 9 2021 | GB Railfreight opens a new office in Peterborough, housing Operations departments, a 24-hour control centre, and training facilities with onsite simulators, with ambitions to become a major training provider for train drivers and managers. |
| January 2021 | Eurostar ridership dropped to less than 1% of pre-pandemic levels, prompting the company to seek governmental financial assistance from Britain's Treasury and Department for Transport. |
| 2020 |
Nightstar
Generator van 96371 moved to Polmadie TRSMD to be used as a carriage heater with the Caledonian Sleeper.
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| 2020 | Freight transportation declined to 1,138,213 tonnes, possibly due to global pandemic, with 1,451,556 trucks and 1,736 freight trains. |
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This contents of the box above is based on material from the Wikipedia articles Channel Tunnel, Eurostar, GB Railfreight, British Rail Class 92, Nightstar (train), High Speed 1 & Calais Jungle, which are released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.