Historical Swords – Historical Sword – Historical Guns – Historical Gun

Historical Swords – Historical Sword – Historical Guns – Historical Gun

The weapons of the past, such as Historical Swords, http://www.replica-blankguns.com/historical-weapons/historical-swords, have always held a specific fascination for folks for the duration of modern instances. They played fundamental roles in some of the saint battles ever fought. They took down some of the most ferocious adversaries individuals have apiece and each encountered. They determined the course of future. Historical Guns, http://www.replica-blankguns.com/historical-weapons/historical-guns and other weapons of the past are beloved by historians and collectors for some extremely great causes.

Whether the passion a consumer feels is for the Historical Sword, http://www.replica-blankguns.com wielded by pirates on the high seas or samurai in feudal Japan, they can locate specifically what they want by browsing the choice right here at Replica Blank Guns. And, as the study suggests, the site is a great supply for the Historical Gun alternatives consumers want. They can locate it all right right here.

Picking a Historical Sword

For collectors, discovering specifically what they wanted is the final content experience. No 1 knows that much superior than Replica-Blank Guns that has devoted itself to creating clients pleased by giving them a big choice of weapons to browse by way of so they can virtually always discover what they have been looking for. Take Swords Historical that was once utilized by ninja. If a buyer would like to discover such a weapon, they only need to browse the web site to find a gorgeous katana that will be the saint addition to their collection. Other buyers favor the Historical Sword Fighting weapons widespread for the duration of the Middle Ages. Either way, the website delivers specifically what buyers want.

Historical Swords for Customers

The Historical Samurai Swords have been some of the most favourite all through background. These warriors and their swords were legendary even outdoors of Japan. Totally nothing can compare to the craftsmanship exhibited in these weapons and in the trusty reproductions of them offered on this site. Of course, equivalent Sword Historical Weapons, http://www.replica-blankguns.com/historical-weapons/were often utilized by the ninja. This notorious group of warriors became effectively-known for their swift movements that seemed to defy physics. 1 minute they have been hiding in the shadows. The next minute their victim was dead, and they had disappeared.

But the swords of Nihon are only a couple of of the items acquirable for buyers at this website. They can find swords from Europe and other components of the globe, too. In truth, they will have a tough time not locating what they want thanks to the massive choice acquirable here.

Top calibre and the Historic Sword

Whilst no one desires to obtain any collectible weapon that’s of poor high quality, collectors interested in Swords Historic want to pay closer interest to high calibre than other men and women do. They are hunting for really trusty reproductions given that they would nearly certainly favor to have the originals but understand, sadly, that such a chance is unlikely.

Most of the originals of these weapons have been lost to the ages or have ended up in museum displays or private collections. If one does turn up, the value is considerably high and concerns of its authenticity are inevitable. By acquiring a replica of the Sword Historical, none of those issues are going to apply any longer. That’s due to the fact the price will be fair and its position as a reproduction would be recognized upfront. Plus, they are going to be a lot simpler to uncover.

Historic Guns Choice

Consumers aren’t just interested in swords, nevertheless. Many of them want to possess part of firearm history. Some enjoy the thought of owning a reproduction of Gun Historical that originated in the Medieval period when gunpowder was still a new invention and the technology of these long term weapons was just beginning to develop.

Other shoppers really like the chance of owning Guns Historic that was utilised on the high seas in the course of pirate battles. Certain, pirates utilised swords, too. But the guns could play important roles in the success of their efforts to takeover other ships. They weren’t toys to be played with in the hands of the pirates. One specific shot was all some required to take care of an enemy since they rarely had the time to reload.

Comfort and the Historical Gun

The greatest news is that discovering Historic Guns nowadays is much less difficult than in the past. Back in the old days, clients would have had a a lot harder time simply because they only had access to offline vendors. Most nearby areas wouldn’t have even had one specific of these vendors so individuals who have been interested in reproductions of any sorts of weapons from the past would have had to move for flea markets or auctions in most cases. They could probably have traveled to larger cities where such vendors might have been discovered, too.

The great news is that thanks to the World wide web customers don’t have to go to that considerably trouble to discover the Gun Historic they actually wanted. As an alternative, they can location their order at www.replica-blankguns.com with no ever leaving their property. They do not even have to get out of their pajamas whether they do not want to. And they can order whenever the urge strikes them even at evening, on the weekends, or for the duration of holidays. Plus, online shops carry far larger selections than do their offline counterparts. That’s totally an additional plus.

Checking Out the Guns Historical Selection

Picking the perfect Historic Gun can be a massive challenge because so many options are accessible. Whether or not somebody is interested in the weapons of the medieval occasions or they want a piece of American history, possibly the exact same variety of pistol carried by the legendary lawmen of the Old West, they can find what they want proper right here at this web site.

The choice of Historic Old Guns at this world wide web site covers centuries of time and shows the establishing technologies of these firearms. In reality, the choice is so huge and simple to browse by way of, clients might possibly just finish up obtaining far more Historical Swords and weapons than what they thought they needed.

For these customers in the market place for Historical Swords or other weapons, they’ve just came to the right location.

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?how Do I Acquire a Fantastic Mailing List??

Fantastic Mailing Lists

1. Just before you go about finding that excellent mailing list for your advertising and marketing campaign, you need to define your audience. Precisely who is your market place? The far more precisely you can define your saint target audience, the much superior you’ll be ready to segment your mailing, and the superior your response will be.

2. It is an accepted acxiom in direct marketing and advertising that the closer to a consumers’ final obtain you can reach them, the much more apt they are to be responsive to your offer. As a result, attempt to uncover a list that is updated and cleaned on a standard basis. An old list is much more probably to have invalid records on it than a fresh a single.

three. Pick a reliable vendor to purchase (don’t forget that lists are “bought” for one-time use only, unless multi-use arrangements have been negotiated beforehand) your list from. The most crucial criteria is to make positive that they are a member in great standing with the DMA (Direct Marketing and advertising Association). If you do not see the DMA logo displayed on their world wide web site, don’t adopt it is fortified to use them. You can contact the DMA on the world wide web at: www.the-dma.org.

four. Decide on a list that most closely mirrors your target audience. For example, whether you are trying to sell fitness center memberships in your neighborhood location, make positive you target folks who have demonstrated an interest in physical fitness and start inside of any distinct age, gender or income parameters you might have. Really don’t expect to appeal to just everyone.

5. Obtain only what you can afford. It is crucial to check with direct mail. Your first try might well not function, do not place all of your eggs in a single basket.

6. Don’t be afraid to raise your hand. Contact the vendor and ask for their recommendations as to what you should test. They are the specialists and can most probably save you a lot of time and frustration. The largest determination you will have is whether or not to purchase a Compiled List or a Response List.

www.GreatMailingLists.com

FARHAT PARVEEN : FICTIONS OF HUMAN BONDAGE

Farhat Parveen is a Pakistani expatriate Urdu fiction writer in Saudi Arabia who has written lot of brief stories which has won appreciation from huge literary critics and modern writers of South Asian Countries. Three collections of her short stories “The Frozen” “From the window of Restaurant” and “The rocks of glass” has come grappling to grappling to the modern trends in modern fiction.

Her fictions are the item of a stunning, high and pathetic scenario of her creativity. Her creativity requires off with the aid of her inventive unrest, motivated by her aesthetic tastes and visions. Understanding life, retaining it is effects on her ownself, condensing the pain of the  mankind in her very own pathetic inventive canvas, asking for encouragement from life itself and criticizing the identical, are the indistinguishability of Farhat Parveen which is making a new era in the history of postmodern Urdu fiction in Middle East and South Asian region. Closeness to the life, understanding it via creativeness, the disorder of human and social values, the new functions of the society, human psychology, and the post modern scenario of societies are the axis of Farhat Parveen’s creativity. In her fictions, when she looks up on the social and human bondage, she brings apiece issue  in to our understanding which is useful in generating  a healthful society.

Farhat Parveen likes to measure the interests of human and social behaviors. Sometimes, she concentrates upon in the dynamics of behavior so exclusively that all human values look confined in the intuition of a single human being. Whilst learning society she goes deeper into her ‘characters’ and while learning her ‘characters’ she goes deeper into the dialectics of society. The subjects of her fiction appears as a new infra-structure of the new human and social values. Travelling from individual to person, individual to society and from society to people she emerges as a captain of social and human values. The major subject of her fiction is the HUMAN Getting. She has used her fictions as modern tools for psychotherapy. By way of supportive psychotherapy she creates aspirations, trust and establishment up on life.

Farhat Parveen is a writer of sadness. In her fiction, sadness, it’s diverse shades, unhappiness emerging from adore and unhappiness at the finish of pleasures has fogged up her fictions. The picture of this unhappiness is the only reference of her creative highness. When Farhat Parveen stares up on life she experiences tiny pleasure and larger unhappiness all by means of the life. Probably this is the real grappling of this life as some one specific has said : ‘The life is a lengthy sentence of pain punctuated with happiness’. This is the most right discovery of life. This pathetic code of life has emerged as a usual course in all of her fictions. Like Rajendra Sing Bedi [A stalwart from South Asian Fiction(Urdu)] tragedy is her specialty. The distinction in the fictions of Rajendara Singh Bedi is that it is buildup with sex with tragedies, but in the fiction of Farhat Parveen, demand of enjoy, poverty and its belongings, the anguish of human bondage have turn into her identity. ‘The frozen’ ‘Junk Yard’ ‘Performer’ ‘Free prisoner’ and ‘Tales’ are her master pieces. I regard these fictions meet the standard of planet literature.  

In the fiction ‘The frozen’ we sense a unhappiness which comes out from confession,  repeating itself as a lot of occasions as it can. We also sense a sort of ‘self evaluation’ and process of ‘returning towards ourselves’. From the starting to its finish the canvas of this story get deepen in the ocean of intuition and high morality.

‘Junk Yard’ and “Performer’ are the finest fictions of their type. These stories are important editions in the background of post-modern South Asian Literature. ‘Junk Yard’ is a tragedy of the materialistic western social orders as properly as a healthful criticism of the society. It is a heart beating story. ‘Performer’ is an remarkable story. In accordance with it’s topic and the highness of it is style this story can be put at the highest level of globe literature. In this story the happenings, situations and the characters came together with truth in their natural style. The story belongs to a poor Mohammedan who is suffering type strange troubles. Her troubles had been  successfully brought to discover by the story writer.

Apart from this her fiction ‘from the window of the restaurant’  is a living scenario of our life. ‘Amber’ turns out  as a sign of deep beloving. The ‘Free prisoner’ is a narrative-symbolic fiction which stands for the eternal human dissatisfaction of living-hood, supposed to be the fate of all human getting, specially to the girls. The fiction ‘Conflict’ talks about a prolonged disguised dissatisfaction of a woman, who was misunderstood by all, even by her siblings. Her mystery remains alive even after her death. ‘Curved brick’ refers to the freedom in choice of life partners. Farhat Parveen suggests the appropriate to pick a life partner by own selection. The fiction ‘Death of love’ tells us the truth that love some instances dies without having cause.

The creative highness of Farhat Parveen is new of it’ very own. She acts like a linking individual between the art and nature. She has attempted to link the tragedies of our life with nature. The fictions of Farhat Parveen give opportunity to its readers to rearrange themselves time to time. We can state them applied fictions, as each single character of her story draws readers towards their individualized sentiments. By way of this strategy the readers expertise some sorts of aesthetical energy, courage, guts, and contentment in their personal. With this aesthetical power the life becomes capable of defending itselves.

In Farhat Parveen’s fictions, mortals and immortal, unhappiness and joy, really like and hate all move adjoining eacher other. She brings some sort of truth from her experession which explores some new dimensions form the mystry of life. In her fiction, death is a common phenomena. When she tells about her character she contains death as an finish to all his aspirations. As a outcome , in all of her fictions, readers are always signal to listen the death news of some of her characters. The death news stands for all her fictions to be the actual pictures of life. With out death virtually nothing can be understood or be taken seriously as it is the destroyer of pleasures. The death is the other side of the life. So this strategy seems as a considerable calibre of Farhat Parveen’s fictions. The philosophy of death appears as a instructor of ethics in her operates. Death is the instructor which forces life to bow down before the unseen energy.

Analyzing the fiction functions of Farhat Parveen I am of the openion that she is a accurate writer who has her very own method in fiction writing. She has started writing fiction soon after 90s and swiftly she has become a recognized figure in the history of South Asian fictions[urdu]. She has a post-modern approach in all her writings, she offers a real touch of truthfullness to her fictions. Her fictions are not meant to see the life on its surface but to plunge into its depth and draw some new dimensions in undrstanding the human universe.  Moreover, she has a all-natural aptitude of writing. She has utilized narratives style of telling stories and has drawn pictures form the environment which are hidden from our eyes. She has escaped from vagueness and ambiguity in her writings. Her fictions are as clear as the picture of life itself. By her continuing inventive efforts in writings fictions, she has turn into an established fiction writer of her age. We are anticipating some far more masterpieces from her which might well draw interest of the huge writers and critics in the world and can spot her at the larger rank in the background of South Asian literature[urdu].                                           ************       

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Associated Fictional Articles

Steven Foster, Co-Founder and CEO of Lucky Strike Lanes, one of the nation’s largest chains of upscale bowling alleys, takes an emotional trip inside his own company where he hits the streets on Sunday, Nov. 14 (9:00-10:00 PM, ET/PT) on CBS!

See the video of bowling party! Pretty laser lights and nice music =) Glowing in dark. Pretty cool! It was so much FUN!
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This is not a real advertisement for the Suffolk County Community College. it is a satire parody and should only be taken as a joke. nothing contained within this video is true and is only meant to be understood for its comedy value. Thankyou. If u attend Suffolk it is probably a fine university and i hope u dont take offense to this video and see it for what it is, a poor attemot at humor. Suffolk County Community College sccc tricked ya bro trickedyabro suffuck
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As the top participatory sport in America, there are roughly over seven thousand bowling centers in the United States.

AMF Bowling Centers, Inc. is USA and the world’s biggest bowling chain. It is joined by other bowling centers such as Brunswick Recreation Centers, The Active West, Inc., Bowl America, DON Carter All Star Lanes, Vantage, Seidel’s Bowling Center, Yerba Buena Ice and Bowling Center, Gold Coast Bowling Center, Coconut Bowl which are the 10 fave Bowling lanes in the US.

Here’s a list of ten fave bowling centers in the country.

AMF Bowling Centers, Inc.

It is the biggest chain of bowling centers not only in the Says but in the world. It has more than a hundred centers in America, with almost 30 branches in California alone. AMF’s recreational center in Franklin, New Jersey features a bowling facility, restaurant, cinema, and video arcade. Established in 1900, AMF bowling centers continue to take on urbane technology for lane bookings, scoring, as well as documentations. This expertise joined with very good customer service, makes for a great bowling come across apiece time.

Brunswick Recreation Centers

This company runs almost one hundred centers in the US. It bowling centers offer bistros and billiards, as well. In 1990, the company initiated Cosmic Bowling which multiplied profits in over 20 branches. After several years, Brunswick Corp. started to propose Cosmic Bowling to other recreational center owners. Brunswick manufactures bowling equipment and sporting equipment.

The Active West, Inc.

This bowling chain went ahead in promoting bowling as the sport suited for everyone. With several bowling centers in California, it has abundant lanes plus bumper bowling for children or adults who are just beginning to memorize the sport.

Midtown Bowling Center, one of the Active West’s centers in Los Angeles, is making bowling a part of the neighborhood by taking in more young students and providing bowling-related activities and scholarship grants. It also provides bowling lessons, parties, and special programs for seniors.

Bowl America

Bowl USA operates over twenty bowling complexes in the United States. Baltimore-Washington, D.C. region has got 15 centers, Florida has 4, and Richmond, Virginia has 3. Bowl America’s most meaningful center is in Gaithersburg, Maryland, that was inaugurated in 1994. Hailed as the most up to date bowling center in the US, the recreational complex has 48 computerized lanes. Bowl USA pulled off in drawing young players by way of integrating bowling with music and a laser presentation.

Don Carter All Star Lanes

Don Carter All Star Lanes has two bowling lanes in Texas and five in all in Florida, specifically Boca Raton, Hollywood, Lake Worth, Miami and Tamarac.

The Lake Worth bowl lanes is the main bowling center in West Palm Beach. Bowlers can enjoy its 64 lanes, as well as billiards, arcade, snack cafes. You can find the center on Military Trail, northern side of Hypoluxo Road.

Vantage

This firm carries five computerized branches found all over Tucson, Arizona. Lucky strike, Fiesta lane, Cactus bowl, Santa Cruz lanes, and Tucson Bowl are owned by Vantage. They incorporate Cyberbowl, a latest bowling art that includes pins with special lights, fog and lively music.

Seidel’s Bowling Center

It’s been in Baltimore for 75 years now. It features retro 70′s duck pin bowling with properly maintained, genuine wood lanes, traditional scoring systems, well-worn shoes, snack bars, and vinyl seats. Not to mention welcoming staff and local bands like Garage Sale providing live entertainment.

Yerba Buena Ice and Bowling Center

This bowling complex is at San Francisco’s 750 Folsom Street. The center is situated at the Yerba Buena Garden’s Rooftop. They host events for any occasion. Their celebration package consists of 45 minute-partying. Staff arranges and furnishes the place, and helps in the event.

Visit them late mornings from Mondays through Fridays and take advantage of two games, a beverage and a hot dog, for 12 dollars for grown ups, and 10 dollars for seniors and kids. Fridays and Saturdays from nine in the evening until midnight, Yerba Buena features cyberbowl.

Gold Coast Bowling Center

When in Las Vegas, visit Gold Coast Bowling Center in Flamingo Road. Providing 70 lanes, a favourite time for cosmic bowling is there each Friday and Saturday.

Coconut Bowl

Coconut Bowl in Sparks, Nevada is one of the nicest bowling centers in the west coast. It’s also an saint place for corporate gatherings and birthday parties. Kids can really enjoy playing in this center.

This episode features a birthday celebration for me at Lucky Strikes in Hollywood. Bowling, booze, loud music, sexy friends and enticing outfits…where’s my celebration people at? Filmed on location at Lucky Strikes in Hollywood on Jan 30 2010. Follow me on Twitter: www.twitter.com/hygienestudent.
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Glasses, contacts, or surgery. These are the usual choices offered to those of us with poor, naughty vision. Orlin Sorensen, though, needed an alternative. A commercial airline pilot who found himself in jeopardy of being downsized after the 9/11 tragedies, Sorensen decided to go for broke and oppose his lifelong dream of fitting a Navy fighter pilot. The only catch was that Navy fighter candidates were required to have near-perfect, uncorrected vision — no surgery allowed.

As for so many who seek different medical options, it was word of mouth that led Sorensen down a different path: a fellow pilot recommended eye exercises to naturally right vision. Turns out, the exercises weren’t so much the “road not taken” as the “road not taken in a while.” Sorensen’s research revealed that natural vision training, in fact, had been around for nearly a century.

Natural vision correction involves performing eye exercises and relaxation techniques regular to increase optical muscle strength and coordination. With a 30-minute regular routine, after just a month Sorensen improved his vision from 20/85 to 20/20; he went on to pass the Navy’s visual acuity test. In 2001, he founded a company, Rebuild Your Vision, to share his knowledge with the general public and to challenge the widespread belief that surgery is the only method of correcting vision. As more and more people turn to substitute medicine — one in three people in the U.S., according to the New England Journal of Medicine — Sorensen’s company has proven to be visionary in more ways than one.

A wholistic orientation to health

Watching TV, personal use, reliance on optical correction from glasses and contacts, as well as the normal aging process, all contribute to weak and distorted vision. Integral components of the eye are not stimulated but instead suffer from a narrow range of use, in the same way that repetitive mousing and typing tasks on the personal can lead to tendonitis in the arm and, eventually, carpal tunnel. Just as you exercise your body at the gym or practice yoga in order to improve muscle tone, agility, range of motion, and flexibility, so too do the eyes benefit from regular exercise. Designed to reverse the stresses put upon the optical system, the vision-rebuilding process fortifies your eyes in ways that would never be reached through normal regular activities.

Sorensen’s Rebuild Your Vision program provides multilevel goals and strengthening tools that challenge and stimulate different parts of the visual system. Customized training programs are acquirable for those suffering from nearsightedness, astigmatism, and aging vision (presbyopia). The program’s easy drills and exercises can be done at home, in the office, or on the road, thus enabling the practitioner to integrate them as part of an overall healthy lifestyle. It’s no happening that Sorensen is from Seattle, a city surrounded by natural beauty whose residents are perennially voted as some of America’s fittest.

An intent takes flight

Not only has Vision for Life become a success — according to surveys from customers worldwide, the program boasts over a 90% success rate in improving vision problems — but the medical establishment has also done research supporting the theories that the program is based upon, as in this excerpt from the Journal of the American Optometric Association describing the results of subjects who underwent natural vision training: “Subjects often said that they had experienced the capability to make eye contact (without correction) with people crossways a room or street; they could see buildings and windows clearly without glasses many miles crossways San Francisco Bay, or in the case of high-diopter myopes (> -4.0 diopters) they were healthy to read books easily at arm’s length.”

Unlike eye surgery, natural vision correction is noninvasive and risk-free. And unlike glasses or contacts, it an active process rather than a palliative measure. So it’s no wonder vision rebuilding seems to strike a chord with health-conscious people today, who are increasingly choosing biological foods over fast foods, meditation over confrontation, and lifestyle changes over potentially harmful swift fixes. Ironic, but sometimes we need to take the long view to really appreciate what we’re seeing.

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Anyone who has read any of my articles or anything I’ve written for the Gflcco on our website knows by now that I enjoy a good book or movie. A way to escape for a short period of time, absent from the worry of bills, money, cancer and the rest of the things in the world that demand so much of our attention. A very well written book or a well-produced and directed film can really do the trick. Something that challenges your thought process or even your beliefs, makes you ask yourself “what would I do in that circumstance,” would I make the right decision the right move what would I do different.

My case in point book is The Dead Zone by Stephen King. The Dead Zone was published in 1979 and prefabricated into a film in 1983 starring Christopher Walken in the lead role of Johnny and Martin Sheen as politician Greg Stillson. The film varies a tiny from the novel but holds the same tone. If you are not familiar with it, I’ll give you the readers digest version. Man has auto accident, ends up in a coma, comes out of coma, finds out he has developed a form of extrasensory insight called Psycometry which is the capability to read objects by coming into contact with them causing him to have visions of events related to the object. He saves some lives, solves some crimes all the while fitting a tiny weaker. While attending a political rally, he comes into contact with nut job Stillson. Johnny grasps his hand and has a vision of Stillson fitting President of the United Says and launching the world into a nuclear holocaust just because he can. He knows he must do something to modify Stillsons path and begins to formulate a plan.

Here comes the reason I’m telling you this story. The part that makes you think a little. In a very pivotal part of the book Johnny asks a World War One veteran who had lost his son during World War Two this question, “Knowing what you know nowadays whether you could go back in time to 1932, before the moment war, before the holocaust and kill Hitler, would you do it.”

What would you do?

Here’s a question that I have asked myself a few times, “Knowing what I know now, would I have ever started smoking”? Or even superior yet, whether someone would have come to me ten years ago and stated whether you stop smoking and modify a few things about the way you take care of yourself you could refrain lung cancer a decade from now?

WHAT IF I COULD OFFER THAT TO YOU?

What whether I told you that there is a test that has recently been developed and tested and that with a easy questioner, and a swab of the inside of your mouth,you will know your future as far as lung cancer is concerned. You could modify your own fate; spare your family and friends the discomfort that is a part of treatment that comes along with lung cancer.

The test is called Respiragene it was developed from the research conducted by a Brilliant scientist from New Sjaelland titled Dr. Robert P. Young.

Dr.Young has also supply us with extensive research regarding the use of statins and the positive effects shown as far as the anti-inflammatory effects in not only the arteries but also the lungs and therefore becomes a very viable treatment for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Another exciting benefit of statin treatments is a reduced risk of lung cancer.

Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease die primarily from complications of smoking, specifically coronary artery disease (CAD), COPD related complications (respiratory unfortunate with or without chest infection), lung cancer and stroke. Collectively these statement for over 80% of deaths in COPD. package is the most common cause followed by lung cancer and then other COPD related complications.

Although smoking exposure has a central role in both COPD and Lung Cancer only approximately 10 to 15% of chronic smokers develop lung cancer while 20 to 30% develop COPD

Here’s the kicker kids, Epidemiological studies show that smokers with COPD are at a considerably higher risk of lung cancer than smokers with normal lung function.

So the common theory is one of the which comes first the chicken, represented by COPD or the egg, represented by lung cancer. There is growing evidence that they both result from common pathological responses to inflammatory process in the lung and that the individual smoker’s response to these processes are genetically determined.

Let me try and make this so easy even I can comprehend what I’m speaking about. If you are a past or present smoker you run the risk of developing a lung disease that can steer you right into lung cancer and we all know that lung cancer is the main killer among the cancer family.

We’ll come back to our conversation regarding statin therapy and COPD in another article because what we really need to speak about, what is truly important nowadays is your health.

In mid December I received e-mail from Tracy Sestili the CEO and Founder of the Beverly Fund a lung cancer organization doing great things from their base in California. I have a lot of respect for Tracy so when she was excited enough to get in touch with me immediately after hearing Dr.Young, I knew it had to be something special. I was right; it was my first introduction to the non-invasive primeval detection test called Respiragene.

Tracy then introduced me to Stephen Markscheid the CEO of Synergenz BioScience, Inc. the producers of the Respiragene test.

Stephen sent all the information including scientific background, studies anything I asked for in a very upfront, straightforward manner, which helped cement, the legitimacy of the product.

I met with Mr. Markscheid in Chicago in the primeval part of Jan and at the conclusion of that assembly had offered up my services to assist in spreading the word about this test. Keep in intellect the GFLCCO has not supported any pharmaceutical company or endorsed any other product. We do not take these things lightly and will not deliberately do anything that would alteration the reputation that we strive to uphold. That being said, I believe that this could supply some needed light at the end of the tunnel. Lung cancer will flat out kill the majority of people who contract it; there is no way around the facts of that matter. So whether you know that a straight up fight does not supply you with the ideal odds of winning, you begin looking for advantages. Well here it is, How do you defeat cancer, you refrain it. You step out of the path of the moving bus before it gets anywhere approach you. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention reports that smoking causes approximately 440,000 premature deaths in the U.S. annually, at the same time reports show that whether you quit smoking, in a ten-year time frame your lungs can be back to full health.

80% remember this number for me will you please, 80%; we’ll get back to that in a moment.

Once again I ask, whether you could modify your fate nowadays for the intoxicant of your family whether not yourself, would you do it? Would you step back out of the street and onto the curb to refrain the bus that you can see two blocks absent that is screaming out of control towards you, or will you stand in the street and die a needless and very preventable death.

Here is what is involved in a Respiragene test.

1)   DNA is obtained by a easy mouth swab

2)    You reply three questions in regards to non-genetic risk factors

3)   Your doctor receives your test results back about two weeks after your sample and questionnaire are received.

Your results will place you in a “moderate risk”: smokers and ex-smokers in this category are 20 to 30 times more likely to develop lung cancer then a non-smoker, “High” 4 times more likely then the average smoker to develop lung cancer or “Very high” Ten times more likely to develop lung cancer than the average smoker.

Respiragene is the only test of its type to help refer smokers and ex-smokers at greatest risk of lung cancer.

Ok, so you take the test and get the results now what?

Let me tell you. Options, you have now given yourself options, your future has been told and now you must decide whether you’re a very high risk what are you willing to do right then and there to change your fate. If your moderate risk you are still at a 20 to 30 times greater risk of lung cancer ending your life.

Talk to your doctor about the test, contact your health insurance bourgeois and ask about coverage for the Respiragene test. Speak to your employer about making certain that this test is acquirable as a preventative procedure or covered as a part of a smoking Cessation program.

Read and do some research. Be proactive when it comes to your health and your life.

There are so many programs to help you quit even whether you have tried and unsuccessful before, treatments that can help you heal your lungs over time. All you need to do is take the first step, look for the light at the end of the tunnel it’s there and it’s called Respiragene.

One final thing, what was that number I asked you to remember? Oh yeah, 80%

80% of those diagnosed with lung cancer are dead within two years. I was diagnosed in the spring of 2007; whatever time I have remaining is committed to fighting and beating lung cancer.

I believe that this product will give you an edge in doing that. Want to memorize more about Respiragene testing go to www.respiragene.com or call 859-757-0158. Or visit the Gflcco where all this and more will be posted.

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Background

The train that caught fire was a HGV shuttle number 7539. It was prefabricated up of two locomotives (one at the front and one at the rear of the train, with the driver in the front one), an amenity coach carrying the truck drivers through the tunnel, and two rakes of HGV carrier wagons (a rake is a collection of unpowered rail cars of similar type and function, such as passenger coaches). The rakes contained a number of HGV carrier wagons (fourteen in the front rake, fifteen in the rear rake) plus flatbed wagons at apiece end of apiece rake to aid loading and unloading of the HGVs.

In total the train was approximately 800 metres long, with the driver in the front locomotive and all other persons (two crew and 31 passengers) inside the front coach. Twenty nine HGVs were being transported, one per wagon, behind the front flatbed wagon.

One HGV in the consist was placarded as carrying hazardous goods (polystyrene beads, UN 2211). It was located nearly precisely half-way along the train. The other 28 trucks carried a variety of loads, some combustible, some inert. They included cornflakes, washing machines, glucose, titanium scrap, pineapples, paper and frozen fat.

Other trains were in the tunnel at the time of the incident. There were three trains ahead of train 7539, all of which drove out of the English portal as normal. Two trains entered the tunnel behind the incident train: a lone locomotive directly behind train 7539 (from which the driver evacuated to the service tunnel) and a Eurostar passenger train behind that (which reversed out through the French portal).

There were three trains in the opposite running tunnel, travelling from Britain to France, all of which were affected by the fire. Two of the trains were slightly affected by smoke as they passed through on their way to France, and one was instructed to stop in the tunnel approach to the site of the fire in order to act as a rescue train. It stayed there for slightly less than one hour before those evacuated from the HGV shuttle were loaded onto it.

Safety features at the time of the fire

The Channel Tunnel and the trains that run through it are equipped with a series of country features.

The three tubes are linked together and apiece link has some form of isolation. The escape cross-passages link all three tubes together but are fitted with fire doors that are generally closed. The two crossovers are equipped with sliding doors that can be opened to grant trains to pass from one tunnel to the other or shut to separate the two tracks. The doors are generally closed, even though on the night of the fire the doors at both crossovers were open.

The two running tunnels are linked by pressure relief ducts. These are generally open, and are equipped with motorized butterfly valves that can be shut remotely.

The service tunnel is ventilated to keep it at a higher air pressure than the two running tunnels. This normal ventilation system (NVS) runs continuously and means that whenever a cross-passage door is opened, air will flow from the service tunnel into the running tunnel.

The running tunnels are generally ventilated by piston action of trains, but there is also a supplementary ventilation system (SVS), consisting of variable-pitch fans at Shakespeare Cliff and at Sangatte. These can be set to supply or extract, and together can move air in either direction along either or both running tunnels. The supplementary ventilation system does not generally run, but a controller can switch the fans on, then change the angle of the fan blades to have them extract or supply air.

The traction system is divided into sections of 1,500 metres in length, which can be remotely switched to isolate unsuccessful sections.

The tunnel has a network of firemains, one in apiece of the three tunnels, which are linked together at the cross-passages. There are hydrants at apiece cross-passage and at intervals of 125 metres in the running tunnels. The firemain is divided into sections by valves so that leaking sections can be loney for repair.

Control of the tunnel is split into two types of control centre. The main Rail Control Centre (RCC) directs the rail traffic and operates the signalling, traction, pumping, lighting and ventilation. There are RCCs in both countries, even though only one is in charge at any one time.

Each country has a Fire Equipment Management Centre (FEMC) which looks after all fire hazards and fire alarms in the terminal and in the tunnels. Each FEMC controls equipment in its adjacent terminal and a portion of the tunnel, and is domestic to a small works fire brigade committed to the tunnel. Main firefighting effort is whether by the fire brigades of Kent and Pas-de-Calais.

Fire detectors are located at intervals of 1.7 kilometres along the length of the tunnel. These consist of a series of different types of detector: optical, ionic and carbon monoxide. The system is set such that whether any two go off together, it raises a confirmed alarm in the FEMC and RCC. If only one of the three goes off, it raises an unconfirmed alarm in the FEMC.

The locomotives are all equipped with halon gas fire suppression systems, as are the automobile transporters wagons. The HGV wagons are different: they are open to the tunnel. The amenity coach (where the truck drivers sit out the journey) has the same half-hour fire endorsement as the Eurostar carriages.

The tunnel is not equipped with an emergency station with water fire suppression (unlike the Seikan Tunnel, the Ltschberg Base Tunnel and the unfinished Gotthard Base Tunnel).

The tunnels are mostly lined with segments of extremely high strength concrete but are not fortified against spalling, which occurred here and reduced the concrete to a thickness of 50 millimetres. Common countermeasures against fire-caused alteration to tunnel linings are described under fireproofing and fire-resistance rating.

Timeline

Train 7539 left the French terminal at 21:42 CET. It stopped for a short time at a red sign before entering the tunnel at 21:48.

At 21:47, four French security guards (one pair in a building, two others on patrol) noticed a fire in the tractor unit of an HGV approximately three-quarters of the way down the train. They estimated the flames to be about 2 metres high.

As the train passed through the first few kilometres of tunnel, unconfirmed fire alarms were triggered apiece time it passed a fire detector.

At 21:51, the Rail Control Centre called the driver of train 7539 to inform him that there was a opportunity that his train had a fire on board. He was told to continue through the tunnel, and that his train would be diverted to the emergency siding when he emerged into the open air at the UK side, at which point Kent fire brigade could attend to it.

At 21:52, a moment train (consisting of a single locomotive) entered the tunnel behind train 7539. A few kilometres in, the driver came crossways smoke thick enough to make him slow down. At the same time, one of the fixed smoke detector units in the tunnel triggered a confirmed alarm, indicating to the Rail Control Centre that there was definitely smoke in the tunnel.

In response to the confirmed alarm, the Rail Control Centre began to prepare for a fire in the tunnel, in case train 7539 did not make it to the other end. To that end, the control centre:

Ordered all trains to slow to 100 kilometres per hour;

Closed all of the butterfly valves in the pressure relief ducts (PRDs);

Ordered the sliding doors at the UK crossover and French crossover to close;

Switched on the lighting in the service tunnel and in the UK-bound running tunnel;

Mobilised the works fire brigade at the French and British sides, who both set off for the midpoint of the service tunnel.

The RCC’s actions were intended to isolate the two running tunnels from one another but were not totally successful. One PRD remained open, and the French crossover door did not shut completely.

Shortly after train 7539 passed the French crossover, a country system on the train issued a ‘Stop’ message to the driver. An alarm indicated that one of the propping loops on a auto had failed, allowing a diddley to drop out of its stowed position. The toy are lowered to stabilize the train during loading and unloading but are raised when the train is moving, to reduce the risk of derailment whether there is debris next to the track.

The driver followed Eurotunnel’s standard procedure for the unfortunate of a propping loop: he brought the train to a controlled halt, stopping it with the amenity coach next to one of the escape cross-passages. The train came to rest in the tunnel at 21:58.

The driver intended to uncouple the front locomotive and the amenity coach, then drive out of the tunnel leaving the fire and the HGV wagons behind. However, a few seconds after stopping, the traction power supply tripped out, stranding the train. The unfortunate was later attributed to heating of a soldered connection in the traction power system.

When it stopped, the train was in French territory, approximately 19 km from the French portal, 32 km from the UK portal and 2 km west of the French crossover. The train spanned three cross-passages: the west cross-passage (CP4131) was next to the amenity coach; middle cross-passage (CP 4163) was next to the HGV carrying polystyrene; and the easterly cross-passage (CP4201) was next to the rearmost HGV.

The fire was on an HGV in the rear rake, shut to CP 4201, either in the seventh HGV (carrying corn flakes) or the tenth HGV (carrying reels of paper). The fire was approximately 600 metres from the front of the train, but the forward flow of air over the stopped train carried the smoke to the front and filled the tunnel ahead of the train.

As the air in the tunnel around the locomotive was filled with smoke from the fire, the driver could not see the number of the cross-passage he had stopped at. The Rail Control Centre was aware that he had stopped with the amenity coach next to one of two cross-passages (CP4101 or CP4131) but did not know which.

At 22:02, the Channel Tunnel’s French works fire brigade entered the service tunnel with seven firefighters. The Rail Control Centre acted on the belief that the front of the train was next to cross-passage 4101, and directed the French firefighters to that cross-passage. At 22:03, the British works brigade entered the service tunnel as well.

At 22:05, the emergency services of Pas de Calais were alerted and instructed to attend an incident in the tunnel and take command of the event. One of the French commander’s first acts was to ask that the tunnel’s supplementary ventilation system (SVS) be operated. At 22:12, the Rail Control Centre started both SVS fans but the fan blades were left at zero pitch angle and had no effect on the direction of airflow in the tunnel. Air continued to flow forwards over the train, bringing smoke from the fire towards the amenity coach. Fortunately, the fire was sufficiently far back (600 m) that there was no meaningful heat coming forward.

While the French works brigade were on their way to cross-passage 4101, the air calibre on the train deteriorated and those aboard became increasingly concerned about their safety. The driver was unable to leave the locomotive, even with his emergency breathing apparatus on: the train crew inside the amenity coach were unable to contact the driver due to a unfortunate of the broadcasting system. No one inside the amenity coach could see the adjacent cross-passage due to the smoke in the tunnel, and smoke was slowly coming into the amenity coach through small openings in the bodywork.

At approximately 22:05, the Chef de Train in the amenity coach opened one of the train doors to check whether he could see the adjacent cross-passage. He could not, despite it being directly opposite the door, and even though the door was open only for a short time, it granted a massive amount of smoke to get into the amenity coach. Passengers and crew began to breathe through cloths and to take air from floor level, beneath the layer of smoke in the carriage.

While inactivity for the French works fire brigade to reach the scene, the Rail Control Centre spent some time arranging evacuation of the driver of the locomotive behind train 7539. The Centre also reconfigured the traction supply to grant the train behind the locomotive to reverse out. In addition, one of the Eurostar trains bound for France was brought to rest in the north running tunnel shut to the site of train 7539, so that it could act as a rescue train whether it was required.

At 22:21, the Rail Control Centre remotely opened the cross-passage doors at 4101 (where the amenity coach was believed to be) and at cross-passage 4131 (where it actually was). Clean air from the service tunnel began to flow into the running tunnel through both cross-passages.

When the French firefighters arrived at cross-passage 4101, they found an open cross-passage but no train. The sub-officer famous that the supplementary ventilation system appeared to be doing nothing, and requested a check on whether it was operating correctly. The Control Centre subsequently realized that the SVS fans were spinning but that the fan blades had been left at zero pitch. The SVS was configured correctly at 22:22 and finally created an air current that moved smoke from the fire absent from the people on board train 7539.

When the Rail Control Centre opened the door in cross-passage 4131, clean air from the service tunnel blew out onto the side of the amenity coach. This cleared smoke locally and granted the occupants of the amenity coach to see that they were right next to an open cross-passage. The staff in the amenity coach subsequently evacuated all the passengers into the service tunnel, where they spent the next few minutes coughing up the soot they had inhaled.

As the French works brigade prefabricated their way easterly along the service tunnel, they came crossways the evacuees approach CP4131. They checked that the amenity coach was empty, and escorted the driver to safety. At 22:35, they shut the fire door in cross-passage 4131 and concentrated on assisting the worst-affected of the evacuees with oxygen. They were assisted by the works fire brigade from the British side, who arrived on the scene at 22:30.

Between 22:42 and 22:52, 27 travel wounded were loaded onto the rescue train inactivity in the north running tunnel. The train set off towards France at 23:08 and despite passing through a cloud of smoke in the vicinity of the French crossover, left the tunnel without incident.

The other seven evacuees, who were more seriously affected, remained in the service tunnel and were taken to France in service tunnel cars equipped as ambulances.

Response

Firefighting

Having assured themselves that all aboard the train were now safe, the French and British works fire brigades began to investigate the fire. A crew of firefighters entered the tunnel approach to the front of the train and began travel towards the French portal. They came shut to the fire after travel approximately 500 metres, then turned back and reported that the seat of the fire was between the next two cross-passages (CP4163 and CP4201). Cross-passage 4131 was shut and all firefighting operations were moved easterly to the two cross-passages closest to the fire. Subsequently, Kent fire brigade began firefighting operations at cross-passage 4201 (downstream of the fire), and Pas-de-Calais fire brigade began firefighting operations at cross-passage 4163 (upstream of it). Overall control of the firefighting operation rested with Pas-de-Calais fire brigade.

For the next five hours, teams of firefighters from both countries attacked the fire from the two cross-passages. They worked in breathing apparatus, hampered by fallen cables, flapping rags of glass fibre from the tunnel telegram tray and spalled concrete. Each shift of firefighters could work in the tunnel only for short periods of time before returning to the service tunnel.

The presence of hundreds of firefighters spread along half a kilometre of service tunnel caused massive logistical problems with supplies of BA sets, water and sanitation from both ends of the tunnel.

The water supply at the two cross-passages became significantly poorer when firefighting operations began, mostly due to leaking pipework in the south running tunnel. The number of jets was reduced to two until a Eurotunnel engineer reconfigured the valves to isolate the pipework between the two cross-passages. Once the section of pipe was isolated, water delivery improved substantially.

At 05:00 on 19 November 1996, the fire was declared extinguished. Most firefighters left the scene at 14:50 that day, even though the debris continued to cool for another day or so.

Casualties and damage

No one was killed during the incident, and only minor injuries were sustained, all consisting of smoke inhalation by those people on the train. The oxygen therapy whether by the French works fire brigade at the scene evidenced an invaluable benefit: after attending in various hospitals, the final (and most seriously-affected) mortal was discharged the following night (19 November). The light casualties are attributed to the presence of the pressurized service tunnel and the oxygen whether at the scene.

Despite working in excessively hot and wet conditions, with spalling concrete falling from above, no firefighter suffered serious injury during the operation to extinguish the fire.

Along a 50-metre length of tunnel, the generally 0.4-metre thick tunnel lining was reduced to a mean depth of 0.17 metres, with the thinnest area being 0.02 metres. The chalk marl showed no signs of imperfectness or collapsing, but colliery arches were subsequently installed to support the ground as a precaution.

Over a further 240-metre long section (70 metres towards Britain, 170 metres towards France), alteration to the concrete extended as far back as the first set of reinforcement bars, reducing the linings to a depth of 0.20.35 metres. These segments were repaired in situ without additional ground support.

Superficial alteration to the surface of the concrete segments was evident along a further 190 metres of tunnel length.

In the vicinity of the fire, all services were destroyed. This included high-voltage cables, low-voltages cables, communications, lighting systems, traction and junction boxes over a length of 800 metres.

Five hundred metres of track had to be replaced, as did 800 metres of catenary, 800 metres of refrigeration pipe, and signalling equipment over a length of 1500 metres. In all, four escape cross-passages and five pressure relief ducts had to be refitted with new doors and dampers.

The alteration to the train was concentrated in the rear half. The front locomotive, amenity coach and front rake (including the truck carrying hazardous goods) suffered minor alteration from heat and smoke: all were re-usable after thorough cleaning and minor repairs. The rear rake suffered major thermal damage: eleven wagons and the rear locomotive were scrapped, as were most of the HGVs being carried.

Consequences

Three separate investigations were conducted. The first was a French judicial inquiry into the cause of the fire, the moment was an internal inquiry by Eurotunnel and the third was an inquiry by the Channel Tunnel Safety Authority (CTSA), a bi-national body formed of organisation from British and French railway country bodies, fire brigades and government departments.

In the instant aftermath of the fire, all train services were stopped. Three of the four types of train service were resumed in stages over the following two months. Refurbishment work in the tunnel at the site of the fire meant that when train services restarted, single-line working of the north tube was used between the two crossovers. The refurbishment was finished in Might 1997, after which the HGV shuttle service was granted to restart.

The fire showed meaningful weaknesses in Eurotunnel’s control procedures. The massive number of duties carried out by the Rail Control Centre during the incident meant that some were not finished when they should have been. The CTSA’s criticisms were all the more pointed because this aspect had been famous during an internal Eurotunnel assessment of the Control Centre early in the year. Additional staff, one of whom is committed to managing fire alarms, are now permanently on duty. The procedures for operating the ventilation system have been simplified.

Eurotunnel’s policy of attempting to drive trains through the tunnel in the event of an on-board fire has been abandoned, as was the back-up policy of uncoupling the locomotive and amenity coach. In the future, trains will immediately be brought to a controlled stop and the occupants evacuated into the service tunnel under the direction of the Chef de Train.[citation needed] In addition, all HGV wagons have been fitted with water fog fire suppression systems, and the trains lengthened to supply more space between the first HGV and the amenity coach.

Liaison between Eurotunnel and emergency services has been entirely revamped. In addition, joint exercises and exchanges of organisation between the British and French fire brigades have been instituted, so that apiece has experience of the other’s operational procedures.

Various other minor changes have been prefabricated which will have a meaningful affect on the progress of events in a similar situation. The illumination of the cross-passage markers has been improved and staff on board the trains whether with powerful torches. Responsibility for evacuating the train has shifted from the driver to the Chef de Train, and more train staff are now required to have first aid training.

Sources

Allison, Roderick; Ryder, Edward; Caldwell, Sandra; Beech, Jeremy; Moss, Peter; Coleman, Victor; Lejuez, Roger; Barthelemy, Franois et al. (May 1997) (Report and recommendations), Inquiry into the fire on Heavy Goods Car Shuttle 7539 on 18 November 1996, Channel Tunnel Safety Authority, ISBN 0115519319, http://www.railwaysarchive.co.uk/documents/CTSA_ChanTun1996.pdf

First Sight: How innocuous is the tunnel?. BBC Television. Jan 1997.

Welsh, W. (2001). “Channel Tunnel Fire (UK)” (contribution from Kent Fire Brigade to NEDIES project). Lessons Learnt from Tunnel Accidents. http://nedies.jrc.it/doc/tunnel Accidents_Final.pdf.

Fudger, G. (March 1998). “Implications for Procedures in all Road and Rail Tunnels”. Seminar on Consequences of the Channel Tunnel Fire for all Road and Rail Tunnels.

Bradbury, W. M. S. (March 1998). “The Channel Tunnel Fire: Design Implications for Other Tunnel Systems”. Seminar on Consequences of the Channel Tunnel Fire for all Road and Rail Tunnels.

Kirkland, C. (2002). “The fire in the Channel Tunnel”. Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology vol. 17: pp.129-132. http://www.ita-aites.org/cms/fileadmin/filemounts/ovion/doc/safety/sydney/OS12.PDF.

Liew, S. K.; Deaves, D.M,; Blyth, A.G. (1998). “Eurotunnel HGV fire on 18 November 1996 – Fire Development and Effects”. Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Safety in Road and Rail Tunnels. ITC.

Comeau, E. (March/April 2002). “Chunnel Vision”. NFPA Journal.

Comeau, E.; Wolf, A. (March/April 1997). “Fire in the Chunnel”. NFPA Journal. http://www.nfpa.org/assets/files/PDF/JournalChunnel.pdf?src=nfpa.

French, S. C. (October 1994). “Fire Safety in the Channel Tunnel – An Overview”. Proceedings of the International Conference on Fires in Tunnels. Bors, Sweden. ISBN 91-7848-513-4.

French, S. C. (October 1994). “Heavy Goods Car Test for the Eurotunnel Project”. Proceedings of the International Conference on Fires in Tunnels. Bors, Sweden. ISBN 91-7848-513-4.

Beech, J. (1990), Lecture to the Institution of Mechanical Engineers

Kirkland, ed (1995). Engineering the Channel Tunnel. Chapman & Hall. ISBN 0-419-17920-8.

v  d  e

Channel Tunnel

Construction

TransManche Link  LGV Nord  High Speed 1

Corporate

Eurotunnel Group  Eurostar (U.K.) Ltd.  SNCF  NMBS/SNCB

Passenger Services

Eurostar

Freight Services

Eurotunnel Shuttle  Europorte Channel

Other

Rail transport in France  Rail transport in the United Kingdom  1996 fire  2008 fire  2009 snow

fire portal

Coordinates: 5100 130 / 51N 1.5E / 51; 1.5

Categories: 1996 in France | 1996 in the United Kingdom | Channel Tunnel | Fires in England | Fires in France | Railway accidents in 1996 | Train and subway fires | 1996 firesHidden categories: Articles missing in-text citations from September 2008 | All articles missing in-text citations | All articles with unsourced statements | Articles with unsourced statements from March 2009

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Origins

Proposals and attempts

Key dates

1802

Albert Mathieu place forward a cross-Channel tunnel proposal.

1875

The Channel Tunnel Company Ltd began preliminary trials

1882

The Abbot’s Cliff heading had reached 897 yards (820 m) and that at Shakespeare Cliff was 2,040 yards (1,870 m) in length

January 1975

A UKrance government backed scheme that started in 1974 was cancelled

February 1986

The Treaty of Canterbury was signed allowing the project to proceed

June 1988

First tunnelling commenced in France

December 1988

UK TBM commenced operation

December 1990

The service tunnel broke through under the Channel

May 1994

The tunnel was formally opened by HM The Queen and President Mitterrand

Mid 1994

Freight and passenger trains commenced operation

November 1996

A fire in a lorry shuttle severely dilapidated the tunnel

November 2007

High Speed 1, linking London to the tunnel, opened

September 2008

Another fire in a lorry shuttle severely dilapidated the tunnel

December 2009

Eurostar trains stranded in the tunnel due to condensation affecting the trains’ electrical hardware

In 1802, French mining engineer Albert Mathieu place forward a proposal to tunnel under the English Channel, with illumination from oil lamps, horse-drawn coaches, and an artificial island mid-Channel for changing horses.

In the 1830s, Frenchman Aim Thom de Gamond performed the first geological and hydrographical surveys on the Channel, between Calais and Dover. Thom de Gamond explored several schemes and, in 1856, he presented a proposal to general III for a mined railway tunnel from Cap Gris-Nez to Eastwater Point with a port/airshaft on the Varne sandbank at a cost of 170 million francs, or less than GB7 million.

Thom de Gamond’s 1856 plan for a cross-Channel link, with a port/airshaft on the Varne sandbank mid-Channel

In 1865, a deputation led by George Ward Hunt proposed the intent of a tunnel to the Chancellor of the Exchequer of the day, William Ewart Gladstone.

After 1867, William Low and Sir John Clarke Hawkshaw promoted ideas, but none were implemented. An official Anglo-French prescript was established in 1876 for a cross-Channel railway tunnel. In 1881, British railway entrepreneur Sir William Watkin and French Suez Canal contractor Alexandre Lavalley were in the Anglo-French Submarine Railway Company that conducted exploratory work on both sides of the Channel. On the English side a 2.13-metre (7 ft) diameter Beumont-English boring organisation dug a 1,893-metre (6,211 ft) pilot tunnel from Shakespeare Cliff. On the French side, a similar organisation dug 1,669 metres (5,476 ft) from Sangatte. The project was forsaken in Might 1882, owing to British political and press campaigns advocating that a tunnel would compromise Britain’s national defences. These primeval works were came across more than a century later during the TML project.

In 1955, defence arguments were accepted to be irrelevant because of the dominance of air power; thus, both the British and French governments supported technical and geological surveys. Construction work commenced on both sides of the Channel in 1974, a government-funded project using twin tunnels on either side of a service tunnel, with ability for automobile shuttle wagons. In Jan 1975, to the dismay of the French partners, the British government cancelled the project. The government had changed to the Labour Celebration and there was uncertainty about EC membership, cost estimates had ballooned to 200% and the national economy was troubled. By this time the British Priestly TBM was ready and the Ministry of Transport was healthy to do a 300 m experimental drive. This short tunnel would however be reused as the starting and access point for tunnelling operations from the British side.

In 1979, the “Mouse-hole Project” was recommended when the Conservatives came to power in Britain. The concept was a single-track rail tunnel with a service tunnel, but without shuttle terminals. The British government took no interest in funding the project, but Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher stated she had no resistance to a privately funded project. In 1981 British and French leaders Margaret Thatcher and Franois Mitterrand concurred to set up a working group to look into a privately funded project, and in April 1985 promoters were formally invited to submit scheme proposals. Four submissions were shortlisted:

a rail proposal based on the 1975 scheme presented by Channel Tunnel Group/Franceanche (CTG/F),

Eurobridge: a 4.5 km span suspension bridge with a roadway in an enclosed tube

Euroroute: a 21 km tunnel between artificial islands approached by bridges, and

Channel Expressway: massive diameter road tunnels with mid-channel ventilation towers.

The cross-Channel ferry industry protested under the study “Flexilink”. In 1975 there was no campaign complaintive a fixed link, with one of the largest ferry operators (Sealink) being state-owned. Flexilink continued rousing opposition throughout 1986 and 1987. Public view strongly favoured a drive-through tunnel, but ventilation issues, concerns about happening management, and fear of driver mesmerisation led to the only shortlisted rail submission, CTG/F-M, being awarded the project.

Arrangement

A block diagram describing the organisation structure used on the project. Eurotunnel is the central organisation for interpretation and operation (via a concession) of the tunnel

The British Channel Tunnel Group consisted of two banks and five interpretation companies, while their French counterparts, Franceanche, consisted of three banks and five interpretation companies. The role of the banks was to advise on financing and secure loan commitments. On 2 July 1985, the groups formed Channel Tunnel Group/Franceanche (CTG/F). Their submission to the British and French governments was drawn from the 1975 project, including 11 volumes and a substantial environmental affect statement.

The design and interpretation was done by the ten interpretation companies in the CTG/F-M group. The French terminal and boring from Sangatte was undertaken by the five French interpretation companies in the joint venture group GIE Transmanche Construction. The English Terminal and boring from Shakespeare Cliff was undertaken by the five British interpretation companies in the Trankslink Joint Venture. The two partnerships were linked by TransManche Link (TML), a bi- national project organisation. The Matre d’Oeuvre was a supervisory engineering body employed by Eurotunnel under the terms of the concession that monitored project activity and reported back to the governments and banks.

In France, with its long tradition of infrastructure investment, the project garnered widespread approval and in April 1987 the French National Assembly gave unanimous support and, in June 1987, after a public inquiry, the Senate gave unanimous support. In Britain, choose committees analyzed the proposal, making history by holding hearings external of Westminster, in Kent. In February 1987, the third reading of the Channel Tunnel Bill took place in the Home of Commons, and was carried by 94 votes to 22. The Channel Tunnel Act gained Royal assent and passed into English law in July of that year.

The Channel Tunnel is a build-own-operate-transfer (BOOT) project with a concession. TML would design and build the tunnel, but financing was through a separate legal entity: Eurotunnel. Eurotunnel absorbed CTG/F-M and signed a interpretation contract with TML; however, the British and French governments controlled final engineering and country decisions. The British and French governments gave Eurotunnel a 55- (later 65-) year operating concession to repay loans and pay dividends. A Railway Usage Agreement was signed between Eurotunnel, British Rail and the Socit Nationale des Chemins de fer Franais guaranteeing future revenue in exchange for the railways obtaining half of the tunnel’s capacity.

Private funding for such a complex infrastructure project was of unprecedented scale. An initial fairness of 45 million was raised by CTG/F-M, increased by 206 million private institutional placement, 770 million was raised in a public share offer that included press and TV advertisements, a syndicated bank loan and letter of credit arranged 5 billion. Privately financed, the total investment costs at 1985 prices were 2600 million. At the 1994 completion actual costs were, in 1985 prices, 4650 million: an 80% cost overrun. The cost overrun was partly due to enhanced safety, security, and environmental demands. Financing costs were 140% higher than forecast.

Construction

Eleven tunnel boring machines, working from both sides of the Channel, cut through chalk marl to construct two rail tunnels and a service tunnel. The automobile shuttle terminals are at Cheriton (part of Folkestone) and Coquelles, and are connected to the British and French motorways (M20 and A16 respectively).

Tunnelling commenced in 1988, and the tunnel began operating in 1994. In 1985 prices, the total interpretation cost was 4650 million (equivalent to 10152 million today), an 80% cost overrun. At the peak of interpretation 15,000 people were employed with regular expenditure over 3 million. Ten workers, eight of them British, were killed during interpretation between 1987 and 1993, most in the first few months of boring.

Completion

The Channel Tunnel was opened in Calais on 6 Might 1994 by British Queen Elizabeth II and French President Franois Mitterrand

A small, two-inch (50-mm) diameter pilot gap granted the service tunnel to break through without ceremony on 30 October 1990. On 1 December 1990, Englishman Graham Fagg and Frenchman Phillippe Cozette broke through the service tunnel with the media watching. Eurotunnel finished the tunnel on time, and the tunnel was officially opened by British Queen Elizabeth II and French President Franois Mitterrand in a ceremony held in Calais on 6 Might 1994. The Queen travelled through the tunnel to Calais on a Eurostar train, which stopped nose to nose with the train that carried President Mitterrand from Paris. Following the ceremony President Mitterrand and the Queen travelled on Le Shuttle to a similar ceremony in Folkestone.

The Channel Tunnel Rail Link (CTRL), now called High Speed 1, runs 69 miles (111 km) from St Pancras railway station in London to the Channel Tunnel portal at Folkestone in Kent. It cost 5.8 billion. On 16 September 2003 UK Prime Minister Tony Blair opened the first section of High Speed 1, from Folkestone to north Kent. On 6 November 2007 the Queen officially opened High Speed 1 and St Pancras International station, replacing the original slower link to Waterloo International railway station. On High Speed 1 trains travelling at speeds up to 300 km/h (186 mph), the journey from London to Paris takes 2 hours 15 minutes and London to Brussels takes 1 hour 51 minutes.

In 1996, the American Society of Civil Engineers, with Popular Mechanics, selected the tunnel as one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World.

Engineering

The Channel Tunnel exhibit at the National Railway Museum in York, England, showing the circular cross section of the tunnel with the overhead line powering a Eurostar train. Also visible is the segmented tunnel lining

Surveying undertaken in the twenty years before tunnel interpretation confirmed primeval speculations that a tunnel route could be bored through a chalk marl stratum. The chalk marl was conducive to tunnelling, with impermeability, assist of excavation and strength. While on the English side the chalk marl ran along the entire length of the tunnel, on the French side a length of 5 kilometres (3 mi) had variable and difficult geology. The Channel Tunnel consists of three bores: two 7.6-metre (25 ft) diameter rail tunnels, 30 metres (98 ft) apart, 50 kilometres (31 mi) in length with a 4.8-metre (16 ft) diameter service tunnel in between. There are also cross-passages and piston relief ducts. The service tunnel was used as a pilot tunnel, boring ahead of the main tunnels to determine the conditions. English access was whether at Shakespeare Cliff, while French access came from a shaft at Sangatte. The French side used five tunnel boring machines (TBMs), the English side used six. The service tunnel uses Service Tunnel Transport System (STTS) and Light Service Tunnel Cars (LADOGS). Fire country was a critical design issue.

Between the portals at Beussingue and Castle Hill the tunnel is 50.5 kilometres (31 mi) long, with 3.3 kilometres (2 mi) under land on the French side, 9.3 kilometres (6 mi) under land on the UK side and 37.9 kilometres (24 mi) under sea. This makes the Channel Tunnel the moment longest rail tunnel in the world, behind the Seikan Tunnel in Japan, but with the longest under-sea section. The average depth is 45 metres (148 ft) below the seabed. On the UK side, of the expected 5 million cubic metres (6.510^6 cu yd) of spoil approximately 1 million cubic metres (1.310^6 cu yd) was used for fill at the terminal site, and the the rest was deposited at Lower Shakespeare Cliff behind a seawall, reclaiming 74 acres (30 ha) of land. This land was then prefabricated into the Samphire Hoe Country Park. Environmental affect assessment did not refer any major risks for the project, and further studies into safety, noise, and air pollution were overall positive. However, environmental objections were raised over a high-speed link to London.

Geology

Geological profile along the tunnel as constructed. For the majority of its length the tunnel bores through a chalk marl stratum (layer)

Successful tunnelling under the channel required a sound understanding of the topography and geology and the choice of the ideal rock strata through which to tunnel. The geology generally consists of northeasterly dipping Cretaceous strata, part of the northern limb of the Wealden-Boulonnais dome. Characteristics include:

Continuous chalk on the cliffs on either side of the Channel containing no major faulting, as observed by Verstegan in 1698

Four geological strata, marine sediments ordered down 90100 million years ago; pervious upper and middle chalk above slightly pervious lower chalk and finally impermeable Gault Clay. A sandy stratum, glauconitic marl (tortia), is in between the chalk marl and gault clay

A 2530-metre (8298 ft) layer of chalk marl (French: craie bleue) in the lower third of the lower chalk appeared to present the ideal tunnelling medium. The chalk has a clay content of 3040% providing impermeability to groundwater yet relatively simple excavation with strength allowing minimal support. Ideally the tunnel would be bored in the bottom 15 metres (49 ft) of the chalk marl, allowing water influx from fractures and joints to be minimised, but above the gault clay that would increase stress on the tunnel lining and swell and soften when wet.

On the English side of the channel, the strata dip less than 5, however, on the French side, this increases to 20. Jointing and faulting is present on both the English and French sides. On the English side, only minor faults of displacement less than 2 metres (7 ft) exist. On the French side, displacements of up to 15 metres (49 ft) are present owing to the Quenocs anticlinal fold. The faults are of limited width, filled with calcite, pyrite and remoulded clay. The increased dip and faulting restricted the choice of route on the French side. To refrain confusion microfossil assemblages were used to classify the chalk marl. On the French side, particularly approach the coast, the chalk was harder, more brittle, and more fractured than on the English side. This led to the adoption of different tunnelling techniques on the French and English sides.

No major geological hazards were identified; however, the Quaternary undersea valley Fosse Dangaered, and Castle Hill landslip located at the English portal, caused concerns. Identified by the 196465 geophysical survey, the Fosse Dangaered is an infilled valley system extending 80 metres (262 ft) below the seabed, 500 metres (1,640 ft) south of the tunnel route, located mid-channel. A 1986 survey showed that a tributary crossed the path of the tunnel, and so the tunnel route was prefabricated as far north and deep as possible. The English terminal had to be located in the Castle Hill landslip, which consists of displaced and tipping blocks of lower chalk, glauconitic marl and gault debris. Thus the area was stabilised by buttressing and inserting drainage adits. The service tunnels were pilot tunnels preceding the main tunnels, so that the geology, areas of crushed rock, and zones of high water influx could be predicted. Exploratory probing took place in the service tunnels, in the form of extensive forward probing, vertical downward probes and sideways probing.

Surveying

Marine soundings and samplings by Thom de Gamond were carried out during 183367, establishing the seabed depth at a maximum of 55 metres (180 ft) and the continuity of geological strata (layers). Surveying continued over many years, with 166 marine and 70 land-deep boreholes being drilled and over 4000 line kilometres of marine geophysical survey completed. Surveys were undertaken in 195859, 196465, 197274 and 198688.

The surveying in 195859 catered for immersed tube and bridge designs as well as a bored tunnel, and thus a wide area was investigated. At this time marine geophysics surveying for engineering projects was in its infancy, with poor positioning and resolution from seismic profiling. The 1964-65 surveys concentrated on a northerly route that left the English coast at Dover harbour; using 70 boreholes, an area of deeply weathered rock with high permeability was located just south of Dover harbour.

Given the preceding survey results and access constraints, a more southerly route was investigated in the 197273 survey and the route was confirmed to be feasible. Information for the tunnelling project also came from work before the 1975 cancellation. On the French side at Sangatte a deep shaft with adits was made. On the English side at Shakespeare Cliff, the government granted 250 metres (820 ft) of 4.5 metres (15 ft) diameter tunnel to be driven. The actual tunnel alignment, method of excavation and support were essentially the same as the 1975 attempt. In the 198697 survey, preceding findings were reinforced and the nature of the gault clay and tunnelling medium, chalk marl that prefabricated up 85% of the route, were investigated. Geophysical techniques from the oil industry were employed.

Tunnelling

Typical tunnel cross section, with a service tunnel between twin rail tunnels. Shown linking the rail tunnels is a piston relief duct, essential to manage pressure changes due to the movement of trains

Tunnelling between England and France was a major engineering challenge, with the only precedent being the undersea Seikan Tunnel in Japan. A serious risk with underwater tunnels is major water influx due to the water pressure from the sea above under weak ground conditions. The Channel Tunnel also had the challenge of timeeing privately funded, primeval financial return was paramount.

The neutral was to construct: two 7.6-metre (25 ft) diameter rail tunnels, 30 metres (98 ft) apart, 50 kilometres (31 mi) in length; a 4.8-metre (16 ft) diameter service tunnel between the two main tunnels; pairs of 3.3-metre (11 ft) diameter cross-passages linking the rail tunnels to the service tunnel at 375-metre (1,230 ft) spacing; piston relief ducts 2-metre (7 ft) diameter connecting the rail tunnels at 250-metre (820 ft) spacing; two undersea crossover caverns to associate the rail tunnels. The service tunnel always preceded the main tunnels by at least 1 kilometre (0.6 mi) to ascertain the ground conditions. There was plenty of experience with tunnelling through chalk in the mining industry. The undersea crossover caverns were a complex engineering problem. The French cavern was based on the Mount Baker Ridge freeway tunnel in the USA. The UK cavern was dug from the service tunnel ahead of the main tunnels to refrain delay.

Precast segmental linings in the main TBM drives were used, but different solutions were used on the English and French sides. On the French side, neoprene and grout sealed bolted linings prefabricated of cast iron or high-strength reinforced concrete were used. On the English side, the main stipulation was for speed and bolting of cast-iron lining segments was only carried out in areas of poor geology. In the UK rail tunnels, eight lining segments plus a key segment were used; on the French side, five segments plus a key segment. On the French side, a 55-metre (180 ft) diameter 75-metre (246 ft) deep grout-curtained shaft at Sangatte was used for access. On the English side, a marshalling area was 140 metres (459 ft) below the top of Shakespeare Cliff, and the New Austrian Tunnelling method (NATM) was first applied in the chalk marl here. On the English side, the land tunnels were driven from Shakespeare Cliff, the same place as the marine tunnels, not from Folkestone. The platform at the base of the cliff was not massive enough for all of the drives and, despite environmental objections, tunnel spoil was put behind a reinforced concrete seawall, on condition of placing the chalk in an enclosed lagune to refrain wide dispersal of chalk fines. Owing to limited space, the precast lining works was on the Isle of Grain in the Thames estuary.

On the French side, owing to the greater permeability to water, soil pressure equilibrise TBMs with open and shut modes were used. The TBMs were of a shut nature during the initial 5 kilometres (3 mi), but then operated as open, boring through the chalk marl stratum. This minimised the affect to the ground and granted high water pressures to be withstood, and it also alleviated the need to grout ahead of the tunnel. The French effort required five TBMs: two main marine machines, one main land organisation (the short land drives of 3 km granted one TBM to total the first drive then reverse direction and total the other), and two service tunnel machines. On the English side, the simpler geology granted faster open-faced TBMs. Six machines were used, all commenced digging from Shakespeare Cliff, three marine-bound and three for the land tunnels. Towards the completion of the undersea drives, the UK TBMs were driven steeply downwards and buried clear of the tunnel. The French TBMs then finished the tunnel and were dismantled. A 900 mm gauge railway was used on the English side during construction.

In contrast to the English machines, which were simply given alphanumeric names, the French tunnelling machines were all titled after women: Brigitte, Europa, Catherine, Virginie, Pascaline, Sverine.

Railway design

Interior of Eurotunnel Shuttle, a automobile shuttle train. The largest railway wagons in the world, the shuttle trains transport automobiles between terminals on either side of the tunnel

Communications

There are three communication systems in the tunnel: concession broadcasting (CR) for mobile automobiles and organisation within Eurotunnel’s Concession (terminals, tunnels, coastal shafts); track-to-train broadcasting (TTR) for secure speech and data between trains and the railway control centre; Shuttle internal broadcasting (SIR) for communication between shuttle crew and to passengers over automobile radios.

Power supply

All tunnel services run on electricity, shared equally from English and French sources. Power is delivered to the locomotives via an overhead line (catenary) at 25 kV 50 Hz.

A massive proportion of the railway south of London uses a 750 V DC third rail to deliver electrical power; however since the opening of High Speed 1 there is no need to use the third rail system for any part of the Eurostar journey. High Speed 1, the tunnel itself and the route to Paris has power whether via overhead catenary at 25 kV 50 Hz. The railways in Brussels are also electrified by overhead catenaries, but at 3000 V DC.

Signalling

A equipage signalling system is used that gives information directly to train drivers on a display. There is Automatic Train Protection (ATP) that stops the train whether the speed differs from that indicated on the in-cab display. TVM430, as used on LGV Nord, is used in the tunnel. The maximum granted speed is 160 km/h.

Track system

The American Sonneville International Corporation track system consisting of UIC60 rails on 900A grade relaxing on microcellular EVA pads, bolted into concrete was chosen. The larger European GB+ loading gauge was used rather that one of the smaller UK alternatives; this gauge is maintained on High Speed 1 as far as Barking in easterly London. ballasted track was ruled out owing to maintenance constraints and a need for geometric stability.

Rolling stock

Eurotunnel Shuttle

Main articles: Eurotunnel Shuttle and Eurotunnel Class 9

Initially 38 Le Shuttle locomotives were commissioned, working in pairs with one at apiece end of a shuttle train. The shuttles have two separate halves: single and double deck. Each half has two loading/unloading wagons and twelve carrier wagons. Eurotunnel’s original order was for nine tourist shuttles.

HGV shuttles also have two halves, with apiece half containing one loading wagon, one unloading auto and 14 carrier wagons. There is a club automobile behind the main locomotive. Eurotunnel originally ordered six HGV shuttles rakes.

Freight locomotives

See also: British Rail Class 92

Forty-six Class 92 locomotives for hauling freight trains and overnight passenger trains (the Nightstar project, which was abandoned) were commissioned, which can run on both overhead AC and third-rail DC power.

International passenger

Main article: British Rail Class 373

Thirty-one Eurostar trainsased on the French TGVuilt to UK loading gauge, and with many modifications for country within the tunnel, were commissioned, with split ownership between British Rail, French National Railway Company and National Railway Company of Belgium. British Rail ordered seven more for services north of London.

At the end of 2009, extensive fire-proofing stipulations were dropped and Deutsche Bahn received permission to run German Intercity-Express (ICE) trains through the Channel Tunnel in the future.

Service locomotives

Diesel locomotives for rescue and shunting work are Eurotunnel Class 0001 and Eurotunnel Class 0031.

Operation

Usage and services

A Channel Tunnel traffic graph showing the number of passengers and tonnes of freight. Freight automobile shuttle numbers dropped in 1996/7 owing to closure of the service after the November 1996 fire

The British terminal at Cheriton in west Folkestone. The terminal services shuttle trains that carry vehicles, and is linked to the M20 motorway

The Folkestone White Horse is the final view of England for most passengers embarking at the Cheriton terminal

Services offered by the tunnel are:

Eurotunnel Shuttle (formerly Le Shuttle) roll-on roll-off shuttle service for road vehicles,

Eurostar passenger trains,

through freight trains.

Both the freight and passenger traffic forecasts that led to the interpretation of the tunnel were largely and universally overestimated. Particularly, Eurotunnel’s commissioned forecasts were over-predictions. Even though the captured share of Channel crossings (competing with air and sea) was forecast correctly, high competition and reduced tariffs has led to low revenue. Overall cross-Channel traffic was overestimated.

Passenger traffic volumes

Total cross-tunnel passenger traffic volumes peaked at 18.4 million in 1998, then dropped to 14.9 million in 2003, from then rising again to 16.1 million in 2008.

At the time of deciding to build the tunnel, 15.9 million passengers were predicted for Eurostar trains in the opening year. In 1995, the first full year, actual numbers were a tiny over 2.9 million, growing to 7.1 million in 2000, then dropping again to 6.3 million in 2003. However, Eurostar was also limited by the demand of a high-speed connection on the British side. After the completion of High Speed 1 (formerly CTRL) to London in two stages in 2003 and 2007, traffic increased. In 2008, Eurostar carried 9,113,371 passengers in cross-Channel-Tunnel traffic, a 10% increase over the preceding year, despite traffic limitations due to the 2008 Channel Tunnel fire.

Year

Passengers transported…

by Eurostar[A]

(actual ticket sales)

by Eurotunnel Passenger Shuttles

(estimated, millions)

Total

(estimated, millions)

1994

~100,000

0.2

0.3

1995

2,920,309

4.4

7.3

1996

4,995,010

7.9

12.9

1997

6,004,268

8.6

14.6

1998

6,307,849

12.1

18.4

1999

6,593,247

11.0

17.6

2000

7,130,417

9.9

17.0

2001

6,947,135

9.4

16.3

2002

6,602,817

8.6

15.2

2003

6,314,795

8.6

14.9

2004

7,276,675

7.8

15.1

2005

7,454,497

8.2

15.7

2006

7,858,337

7.8

15.7

2007

8,260,980

7.9

16.2

2008

9,113,371

7.0

16.1

A only passengers taking Eurostar to cross the Channel

Freight traffic volumes

Cross-tunnel freight traffic volumes have been erratic, with a decrease during 1997 due to a closure caused by a fire in a freight shuttle. The total freight crossings increased over the period, indicating the substitutability of the tunnel by sea crossings. The tunnel has reached a cross-Channel freight traffic market share shut to or above Eurotunnel’s 1980s predictions but Eurotunnel’s 1990 and 1994 predictions were overestimates.

For freight transported on through freight trains, the first year freight prediction was 7.2 million gross tonnes, however, the 1995 figure was 1.3 million gross tonnes. Through freight volumes peaked in 1998 at 3.1 million tonnes. However, with continuing problems, this figure fell back to 1.21 million tonnes in 2007, increasing again slightly to 1.24 million tonnes in 2008.

However, together with that carried on freight shuttles, freight traffic growth has occurred since opening, with 6.4 million tonnes carried in 1995, 18.4 million tonnes recorded in 2003 and 19.6 million tonnes in 2007.

Year

Freight transported…

by through freight trains

(actual tonnes)

by Eurotunnel Truck Shuttles

(estimated, million tonnes)

Total

(estimated, million tonnes)

1994

0

0.8

0.8

1995

1,349,802

5.1

6.4

1996

2,783,774

6.7

9.5

1997

2,925,171

3.3

6.2

1998

3,141,438

9.2

12.3

1999

2,865,251

10.9

13.8

2000

2,947,385

14.7

17.6

2001

2,447,432

15.6

18.0

2002

1,463,580

15.6

17.1

2003

1,743,686

16.7

18.4

2004

1,889,175

16.6

18.5

2005

1,587,790

17.0

18.6

2006

1,569,429

16.9

18.5

2007

1,213,647

18.4

19.6

2008

~1,240,000[B]

14.2

15.4

B From October 2007, Eurotunnel invoices through railfreight by trains rather than tonne.

Eurotunnel’s freight subsidiary is Europorte 2. In September 2006 EWS, the UK’s largest rail freight operator, announced that owing to cessation of UK-French government subsidies of 52 million per annum to cover the Channel Tunnel “Minimum User Charge” (a subsidy of around 13,000 per train, at a traffic level of 4,000 trains per annum), freight trains would stop running after 30 November.

Economic performance

Shares in Eurotunnel were issued at 3.50 per share on 9 December 1987. By mid-1989 the price had risen to 11.00. Delays and cost overruns led to the share price dropping; during demonstration runs in October 1994 the share price reached an all-time low value. Eurotunnel suspended payment on its debt in September 1995 to refrain bankruptcy. In December 1997 the British and French governments extended Eurotunnel’s operating concession by 34 years to 2086. Financial restructuring of Eurotunnel occurred in mid-1998, reducing debt and financial charges. Despite the restructuring The Economist reported in 1998 that to break even Eurotunnel would have to increase fares, traffic and market share for sustainability. A cost benefit analysis of the Channel Tunnel indicated that there were few impacts on the wider economy and few developments associated with the project, and that the British economy would have been superior off whether the tunnel had not been constructed.

Under the terms of the Concession, Eurotunnel was obligated to investigate a cross-Channel road tunnel. In December 1999 road and rail tunnel proposals were presented to the British and French governments, but it was stressed that there was not enough demand for a moment tunnel. A three-way treaty between the United Kingdom, France and Belgium governs border controls, with the establishment of control zones wherein the officers of the other nation might exercise limited customs and law enforcement powers. For most purposes these are at either end of the tunnel, with the French border controls on the UK side of the tunnel and vice versa. For certain city-to-city trains, the train itself represents a control zone. A binational emergency plan coordinates UK and French emergency activities.

In 1999 Eurostar posted its first ever net profits, having previously prefabricated a loss of 925m in 1995.

Terminals

A Peugeot 807 entering a shuttle auto at the French terminal at Coquelles approach Calais in northern France

The terminals sites are at Cheriton (Folkestone in the United Kingdom) and Coquelles (Calais in France). The terminals are one-of-a-kind facilities designed to transfer automobiles from the motorway onto trains at a rate of 700 cars and 113 heavy automobiles per hour. The UK site uses the M20 motorway. The terminals are organised with the frontier controls juxtaposed with the entry to the system to grant travellers to go onto the motorway at the destination country immediately after leaving the shuttle. The area of the UK site was severely constrained and the design was challenging. The French layout was reached more easily. To achieve design output, the shuttles accept automobiles on double-decks; for flexibility, ramps were put inside the shuttles to supply access to the top decks. At Folkestone there is 20 kilometres (12 mi) of mainline track and 45 turnouts with eight platforms. At Calais there is 30 kilometres (19 mi) of track with 44 turnouts. At the terminals the shuttle trains traverse a figure eight to reduce uneven wear on the wheels.

Regional impact

A 1996 report from the European Commission predicted that Kent and Nord-Pas de Calais had to grappling increased traffic volumes due to general growth of cross-Channel traffic and traffic attracted by the tunnel. In Kent, a high-speed rail line to London would transfer traffic from road to rail. Kent’s regional development would benefit from the tunnel, but being so shut to London restricts the benefits. Gains are in the traditional industries and are largely dependent on the development of Ashford International passenger station, without which Kent would be completely dependent on London’s expansion. Nord-Pas-de-Calais enjoys a strong internal symbolic effect of the Tunnel which results in meaningful gains in manufacturing.

The removal of a bottleneck by means like the Channel Tunnel does not necessarily induce economic gains in all adjacent regions, the image of a region being connected to the European high-speed transport and active political response are more important for regional economic development. Tunnel-induced regional development is small compared to general economic growth. The South East of England is likely to benefit developmentally and socially from faster and cheaper transport to continental Europe, but the benefits are unlikely to be equally distributed throughout the region. The overall environmental affect is nearly certainly negative.

Five years after the opening of the tunnel, there were few and small impacts on the wider economy, and it was difficult to refer major developments associated with the tunnel. It has been postulated that the British economy would have actually been superior off without the costs from the interpretation project, both Eurotunnel and Eurostar, companies heavily involved in the Channel Tunnel’s interpretation and operation, have had to resort to massive amounts of government aid to deal with debts amounted. Eurotunnel has been described as being in a serious situation.

Incidents

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Fires

Main articles: 1996 Channel Tunnel fire and 2008 Channel Tunnel fire

There have been three fires in the Channel Tunnel that were meaningful enough to shut the tunnelll on the heavy goods automobile (HGV) shuttlesnd other more minor incidents.

During an “invitation only” testing phase on 9 December 1994 a fire broke out in a Ford Escort automobile whilst its owner had been loading it on to the upper deck of a tourist shuttle. The fire started at approximately 10:00 with the shuttle train stationary in the Folkestone terminal and was extinguished around 40 minutes later with no passenger injuries.

On 18 November 1996 a fire broke out on a heavy goods automobile shuttle auto in the tunnel but nobody was seriously hurt. The exact cause is unknown, even though it was not a Eurotunnel equipment or rolling stock problem; it might have been due to arson of a heavy goods vehicle. It is estimated that the heart of the fire reached 1,000 C (1,800 F), with the tunnel severely dilapidated over 46 metres (151 ft), with some 500 metres (1,640 ft) affected to some extent. Full operation recommenced six months after the fire.

The tunnel was shut for several hours on 21 August 2006, when a truck on an HGV shuttle train caught fire. On 11 September 2008 a fire occurred in the Channel Tunnel at 13:57 GMT. The incident started on a freight-carrying automobile train travelling towards France. The event occurred 11 kilometres (6.8 mi) from the French entrance to the tunnel. No one was killed but several people were taken to hospitals suffering from smoke inhalation, and minor cuts and bruises. The tunnel was shut to all traffic, with the undamaged South Tunnel reopening for limited services two days later. Full service resumed on 9 February 2009 after fixes costing 60 million.

Train failures

On the night of 19/20 February 1996, approximately 1,000 passengers became trapped in the Channel Tunnel when two British Rail Class 373 trains on continent-bound Eurostar service broke down owing to electronic failures caused by snow and ice.

On 3 August 2007 an electrical unfortunate lasting six hours caused passengers to be trapped in the tunnel on a Eurotunnelshuttle crossing.

On the evening of 18 December 2009, during the December 2009 European snowfall, five London-bound trains operating Eurostar services unsuccessful inside the tunnel, trapping 2,000 passengers in the tunnel overnight. The massive number of unsuccessful trains meant that both running tunnels were blocked. Five Class 373 trains had departed from Brussels and Paris and came across cold temperatures in Northern France, the coldest for eight years. A Eurotunnel spokesperson explained that the problem had arisen because of ‘fluffy snow’ in France, which had evaded the ‘winterisation’ shields designed to stop snow getting into the electrics. Electrical unfortunate was then caused by the transition from the cold air in France to the warm region inside the tunnel. Four of the unsuccessful trains had been carrying passengers, with the fifth being empty; one train from Brussels had been turned back to Brussels before reaching the tunnel. Two trains were hauled out of the tunnel using diesel-powered Eurotunnel Class 0001. The blocking of the Channel Tunnel led to the implementation of Operation Stack, the transformation of the M20 motorway into a linear automobile park.

Problems started at around 21:00, with Kent fire brigade being alerted at 21:46. The journeys of those involved took between eleven and sixteen hours. Snow that had built up on the trains then melted in the heat of the tunnel, the water causing electrical faults. Of the five Class 373 trains and two turned back:

18:59 Brusselsondon (9157); towed to London St Pancras by a Eurotunnel diesel locomotive. Delay of 3 hours 49 minutes.

18:43 Parisondon (9053); 700 passengers evacuated via service tunnel to an empty Eurotunnel shuttle train in opposite running tunnel. Passengers taken to Ashford International railway station, for conventional trains to London. Late into London by 12 hours, arriving at 08:00 the next morning.

19:13 Parisondon (9055); Coupled to adjacent 20:13 Eurostar train behind and dragged out by diesel locomotive, then continued to London. Hauled to Folkestone and picked up passengers from 20:13 Paris service behind it.

19:37 Disneylandondon (9057); 664 passengers evacuated via service tunnel to an empty Eurotunnel shuttle train in opposite running tunnel and taken via France.

20:13 Parisondon (9059); Coupled to adjacent 19:13 Eurostar train in front, passengers transferred to the primeval 19:13 train for journey to London or taken via Folkestone and transported in five coaches by road to London.

20:29 Brusselsondon (9163), held at Calais then turned back to Brussels before reaching the Channel Tunnel.

21:13 Parisondon (9063), held at Calais then turned back to Paris before reaching the Channel Tunnel.

The occasion was the first time during the fifteen years that a Eurostar train had to be evacuated inside the tunnel itself; the imperfectness of four at once being described as “unprecedented”. The Channel Tunnel reopened at 05:40 CET the following morning.

The following evening, on 19 December 2009, an additional Eurostar service from Paris broke down. The train successfully negotiated the Channel Tunnel itself, then broke down outside. A moment train was sent to tow the first to London, but unsuccessful at 18:25 while trying to haul it up a steep incline crossing Thurrock Viaduct on the outskirts of London. Eurostar passenger services restarted on 22 December 2009.

Nirj Deva, Member of the European Parliament for South East England, has called on Eurostar chief executive Richard Brown to resign over the incidents.

A further Class 373 unit on Brusselsondon service broke down in the tunnel on 7 Jan 2010. The train had 236 passengers on board and was towed to Ashford; other trains that had not yet reached the tunnel were turned back.

An independent report on the 18/19 December 2009 incidents was issued on 12 February 2010. The report was compiled by Christopher Garnett (former CEO of Great North Eastern Railway) and Claude Gressier (a French transport expert) and prefabricated 21 recommendations.
Asylum and immigration

Immigrants and would-be asylum seekers have been known to use the tunnel to attempt to enter Britain. By 1997, the problem had already attracted international press attention, and the French Red Cross opened a refugee centre at Sangatte in 1999, using a warehouse once used for tunnel construction; by 2002 it housed up to 1500 persons at a time, most of them trying to get to the UK. At one point, massive numbers came from Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran, but African and Eastern European countries are also represented.

Most migrants who got into Britain found some way to ride a freight train, but others used Eurostar. Though the facilities were fenced, airtight security was deemed impossible; refugees would even jump from bridges onto moving trains. In several incidents people were hurt during the crossing; others tampered with railway equipment, causing delays and requiring repairs. Eurotunnel stated it was losing 5m per month because of the problem. A dozen refugees have died in crossing attempts.

In 2001 and 2002, several riots broke out at Sangatte and groups of refugees (up to 550 in a December 2001 incident) stormed the fences and attempted to enter en masse. Immigrants have also arrived as valid, lega Eurostar passengers without proper entry papers.

Local authorities in both France and the UK called for the closure of Sangatte, and Eurotunnel twice sought an injunction against the centre. The United Kingdom blamed France for allowing Sangatte to open, and France blamed the UK for its lax asylum rules and the EU for not having a uniform immigration policy. The cause clbre nature of the problem even included journalists detained as they followed refugees onto railway property.

In 2002, after the European Commission told France that it was in breach of European Union rules on the free transfer of goods, because of the delays and closures as a result of its poor security, a double fence was built at a cost of 5 million, reducing the numbers of refugees detected apiece week reaching Britain on goods trains from 250 to nearly none. Other measures included CCTV cameras and increased police patrols. At the end of 2002, the Sangatte centre was shut after the UK concurred to take some of its refugees.

See also: asylum shopping

Safety

The service tunnel is used for access to technical equipment in cross-passages and equipment rooms, to supply fresh-air ventilation, and for emergency evacuation. The Service Tunnel Transport System (STTS) grants fast access to all areas of the tunnel. The service automobiles are rubber-tyred with a buried guidance wire system. Twenty-four STTS automobiles were made, and are used mainly for maintenance but also for firefighting and in emergencies. “Pods” with different purposes, up to a payload of 2.55 t (2.85.5 tons), are inserted into the side of the vehicles. The STTS automobiles can't turn around within the tunnel, and are driven from either end. The maximum speed is 80 km/h (50 mph) when the steering is locked. A smaller fleet of fifteen Light Service Tunnel Cars (LADOGS) were introduced to supplement the STTSs. The LADOGS have a short wheelbase with a 3.4 m (11 ft) turning circle allowing two-point turns within the service tunnel. Steering can't be locked like the STTS vehicles, and maximum speed is 50 km/h (31 mph). Pods up to 1 tonne can be loaded onto the rear of the vehicles. Drivers in the tunnel sit on the right, and the automobiles drive on the left. Owing to the risk of French organisation driving on their native right side of the road, sensors in the road automobiles signal the driver whether the automobile strays to the right side of the tunnel.

The three tunnels contain 6,000 tonnes (6,600 tons) of air that needs to be conditioned for consolation and safety. Air is supplied from ventilation buildings at Shakespeare Cliff and Sangatte, with apiece building capable of full duty providing 100% standby capacity. Supplementary ventilation also exists on either side of the tunnel. In the event of a fire, ventilation is used to keep smoke out of the service tunnel and move smoke in one direction in the main tunnel to give passengers clean air. The Channel Tunnel was the first mainline railway tunnel to have special cooling equipment. Heat is generated from traction equipment and drag. The design limit was set at 30 C (86 F), using a mechanical cooling system with refrigeration plants on both the English and French sides that run chilled water circulating in pipes within the tunnel.

Trains travelling at high speed create piston-effect pressure changes that can affect passenger comfort, ventilation systems, tunnel doors, fans and the structure of the trains, and drag on the trains. Piston relief ducts of 2-metre (7 ft) diameter were chosen to solve the problem, with 4 ducts per kilometre to give shut to optimum results. Unfortunately this design led to objectionable lateral forces on the trains so a reduction in train speed was required and restrictors were installed in the ducts.

The country issue of a fire on a passenger-vehicle shuttle garnered much attention, with Eurotunnel itself noting that fire was the risk gathering the most attention in a 1994 Safety Case for three reasons: ferry companies opposed to passengers being granted to remain with their cars; Home Office statistics indicating that automobile fires had doubled in ten years; and the long length of the tunnel. Eurotunnel commissioned the UK Fire Research Station to give reports of automobile fires, as well as liaising with Kent Fire Brigade to gather automobile fire statistics over one year. Fire tests took place at the French Mines Research Establishment with a mock auto used to investigate how automobiles burned. The auto door systems are designed to resist fire inside the auto for 30 minutes, longer than the transit time of 27 minutes. Wagon air conditioning units help to purge perilous fumes from inside the auto before travel. Each auto has a fire detection and extinguishing system, with sensing of ions or ultraviolet radiation, smoke and gases that can trigger halon gas to quench a fire. Since the Heavy Goods Car (HGV) wagons are not covered, fire sensors are located on the loading auto and in the tunnel itself. A 10-inch (250 mm) water main in the service tunnel provides water to the main tunnels at 125-metre (410 ft) intervals. The ventilation system can control smoke movement. Special arrival sidings exist to accept a train that is on fire, as the train is not granted to stop whilst on fire in the tunnel. Eurotunnel has illegal a wide range of perilous goods from travelling in the tunnel. Two STTS automobiles with firefighting pods are on duty at all times, with a maximum delay of 10 minutes before they reach a burning train.

See also

British Rail Class 373

Irish Sea tunnel

Japan-Korea Undersea Tunnel

List of Rail megaprojects

Samphire Hoe

Notes

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^ a b Institute of Civil Engineers p. 95

^ “Turkey Building the World’s Deepest Immersed Tube Tunnel”. Popular Mechanics. http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/extreme_machines/4217338.html?series=23. Retrieved 19 July 2009.

^ a b Chisholm, Michael (1995). Britain on the edge of Europe. London: Routledge. p. 151. ISBN 0415119219.

^ a b Reynolds, Christopher (19 Might 1996). “Seven Wonders of the World: The Modern List”. The Plain Dealer.

^ a b Whiteside p. 17

^ “The Channel Tunnel”. library.thinkquest.org. http://library.thinkquest.org/5983/pages/chunnel.htm. Retrieved 19 July 2009.

^ a b c d e f g h i j Wilson pp. 1421

^ a b Flyvbjerg et al. p. 12

^ “Four men caught in Channel Tunnel”. BBC News. 4 Jan 2008. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/kent/7171985.stm. Retrieved 19 July 2009.

^ “Sangatte refugee camp”. The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2002/may/23/immigration.immigrationandpublicservices1. Retrieved 19 July 2009}.

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^ Whiteside pp. 1823

^ “The Proposed Tunnel Between England and France”. The New York Times. 7 August 1866. http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9A00EFD9133DE53BBC4F53DFBE66838D679FDE. Retrieved 3 Jan 2008.

^ Gladstone, William (1902). A. W. Hutton & H.J. Cohen. ed. The Speeches Of The Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone On Home Rule, Criminal Law, Welsh And Irish Nationality, National Debt And The Queen’s Reign. The Speeches And Public Addresses Of The Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone, M.P.. X. London: Methuen And Company.

^ Kirkland pp. 1011

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^ Flyvbjerg et al. p. 3

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^ “Thirteen workers die as country standards are ignored in race to build Olympic sites”. The Independent. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/thirteen-workers-die-as-safety-standards-are-ignored-in-race-to-build-olympic-sites-558698.html. Retrieved 26 September 2008.

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^ a b c Kirkland pp. 2150

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^ a b c d Kirkland pp. 63128

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^ “Eurotunnel unveils plans for moment link”. Birmingham Post. 6 Jan 2000.

^ “The CPS: Channel Tunnel”. Crown Prosecution Service. http://www.cps.gov.uk/legal/section2/chapter_f.html#_Toc44570638. Retrieved 11 March 2008.

^ Kirkland p. 331

^ Kirkland pp. 255270

^ European Commission pp. 220222

^ European Commission pp. 248252

^ Fayman, Sonia; Metge, Pierre (September 1995). “The regional affect of the Channel Tunnel: Qualitative and decimal analysis”. European Planning Studies 3 (3): 333.

^ Button, Kenneth (July 1990). “The Channel Tunnel: The Economic Implications for the South East of England”. The Geographical Journal 156 (2): 187199. doi:10.2307/635327.

^ Flyvbjerg et al. p. 6869

^ “Coming soon: the Dome on wheels”. New Statesman. http://www.newstatesman.com/200104020018. Retrieved 28 April 2009.

^ Harrison, Michael (10 February 2004). “Eurotunnel calls for government support after record 1.3bn loss”. The Independent. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/eurotunnel-calls-for-government-support-after-record-acircpound13bn-loss-569459.html. Retrieved 21 July 2009.

^ “Eurotunnel has 4bn too much debt”. The Telegraph. 12 Jan 2005. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/2917255/Eurotunnel-has-4bn-too-much-debt.html. Retrieved 21 July 2009.

^ “Debt-laden Channel tunnel rail link is ‘nationalised’”. The Guardian. 21 February 2006. http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2006/feb/21/transportintheuk.politics. Retrieved 21 July 2009.

^ “Facts and figures Eurotunnel 2000-2004/Forecast 2005: Commentry and a suggestion”. Adacte.com. June 2005. http://www.adacte.com/economiepolitique/hollandais17062005.doc. Retrieved 21 July 2009.

^ Wolmar, Christian (10 December 1994). “Fire raises Channel Tunnel fears”. The Independent. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/fire-raises-channel-tunnel-fears-1389084.html. Retrieved 25 December 2009.

^ “Inquiry into the fire on Heavy Goods Car Shuttle 7539 on 18 November 1996″. Channel Tunnel Safety Authority. Might 1997. ISBN 0115519319. http://www.railwaysarchive.co.uk/documents/CTSA_ChanTun1996.pdf. Retrieved 21 July 2009.

^ a b C. J. Kirkland (2002). “The fire in the Channel Tunnel” (PDF). Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology 17: 129132. doi:10.1016/S0886-7798(02)00014-7. http://www.ita-aites.org/cms/fileadmin/filemounts/ovion/doc/safety/sydney/OS12.PDF.

^ “Lorry fire closes Channel Tunnel”. BBC News. 21 August 2006. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/5271784.stm. Retrieved 21 August 2006.

^ Rail Accident Investigation Branch (October 2007) Fire on HGV shuttle in the Channel Tunnel 21 August 2006 . Department for Transport. (Report).

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^ “Eurotunnel fully open to traffic”. Eurotunnel.com. http://www.eurotunnel.com/ukcP3Main/ukcCorporate/ukcMediaCentre/ukcNewsReleases/ukcNews2009/ukcFebruary2009/ukpPr0902Eurotunnel-back-to-full-capacity.htm. Retrieved 14 Jan 2010.

^ Wolmar, Christian (22 February 1996). “Wrong kind of snow in tunnel…”. The Independent. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/wrong-kind-of-snow-in-tunnel-1320248.html. Retrieved 21 December 2009.

^ “Delays after Channel Tunnel fault”. BBC News. 3 August 2007. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/kent/6929713.stm. Retrieved 14 Jan 2010.

^ a b c “Severe Weather Brings Eurostar To A Halt”. Sky News. 19 December 2009. http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/UK-News/Eurostar-Says-All-Scheduled-Services-Tomorrow-Have-Been-Cancelled/Article/200912315504284. Retrieved 19 December 2009.

^ Eurostar blames ‘fluffy’ snow for weekend chaos The Times 21 December 09

^ Eurostar cancels trains over snow – Press Association (21 December 09)

^ Cole, Rob (18 December 2009). “‘Nightmare’ Over For Stranded Passengers”. Sky News. http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/UK-News/Eurostar-Trains-Trapped-In-Channel-Tunnel-As-Snow-And-Ice-Brings-Services-To-A-Halt/Article/20091…