[LuganoPirate]

Good point David. I’ve used the alpine train tunnels, the Simplon, Lotschberg and (most often) the Furka. Drive on to open carriages, sit in your car and of you go in darkness through the tunnel.

I’ve never known one to be closed!

[DavidGordon10]

There are incidents that we can remember – like the Mont Blanc tunnel disaster of 1999 and the Sierre tunnel coach crash of 2012 – but the interesting question is whether the Channel Tunnel has more or fewer of such incidents, whether minor or serious. It just feels to be more, but someone must have the hard data.

Interestingly, fire is often the problem, and goods vehicles often carry highly flammable cargoes. In contrast, when I took my car on the old Harwich – Esbjerg ferry, the main question I was asked at Harwich was about the flammability of the contents of the car boot. One bottle of olive oil is hardly at the scale of a truck laden with margarine.

[MartynSinclair]

You have also to look at the passenger usage of these tunnels (passes). I would imagine that the Channel Tunnel has the largest number of passenger flow.

I did wonder though, why the tunnel did open up earlier for cars and cargo and why its the passenger side of things that is the last to restart.

[BigDog.]

I agree David, am always perplexed when taking my motorcycle abroad via the Chunnel, I am specifically asked if I have an LPG tank? Given an LPG tank is rather bulky wouldn’t it be obvious?
Likewise, am I carrying flammable materials! Crazy waste of time which they should be spending looking at HGVs a tad closer.

[TimFitzgeraldTC]

Hi Martyn

My guess is part of the answer to your question is that lorries blocking the M20 causes serious traffic problems and 1 lorry takes much more space than 1 human being. Also passengers services don’t go through the night whereas lorry drivers can work around the clock depending on shift time. But not too many passengers will want to be on a train at say 03:00. So a police perspective may be that getting services running for lorries is first priority – followed by passengers service & car shuttles (not sure which would be higher priority)?

With regards to David’s question – the other question should also be how often do the ferry services get disrupted in relation to the Tunnel – how many “Lost” days have we had since Tunnel opened – and also number of incidents?

[AMcWhirter]

Eurostar services are being delayed again today.

More power supply problems in the Tunnel today plus there is still only one Tunnel bore in operation means that Eurostar is cancelling a few trains.

Those services which are running are being delayed by over one hour.

http://www.eurostar.com/uk-en/travel-information/service-information/eurostar-service-update

[LuganoPirate]

I put this on the other thread as well.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-2918637/Ferry-companies-welcome-extra-MILLION-holidaymakers-board-just-one-year-families-ditch-paying-baggage-airlines.html

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