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How the Channel Tunnel changed Europe forever

(CNN) — Pulling out from beneath St Pancras's magnificent wrought iron roof, the Eurostar slipping through tunnels towards the
Kent countryside, it's easy to feel blasé about taking a train from London to mainland Europe. From the ease of checking in at the
UK's finest rail station just 30 minutes before departure to arriving in the heart of Paris, Brussels or Amsterdam without having to
deal with baggage reclaim, traveling by rail to northern Europe feels both seamless and everyday.Likewise, driving onto a
dedicated train Eurotunnel Le Shuttle service near Folkestone for a 35-minute ride to Calais, far quicker than using a ferry across
the English Channel, is now seen as completely normal.

The same can be said for freight train drivers readying themselves for an epic 18 day, 7,500-mile trip from Barking in East London
all the way to China.The feat of engineering that has made this all possible, the Channel Tunnel, opened 25 years ago. Queen
Elizabeth II and then French President Francois Mitterand officially cut the ribbon at special services in Folkestone and Calais on 6
May 1994, with Eurostar services running to Paris from London from November 1994. In the quarter century since, it's become not
only a vital physical link between the UK and mainland Europe, but a highly symbolic one, particularly in an era of Brexit. "It put
international rail travel back in the game," says Mark Smith, founder of rail travel website The Man in Seat 61. "It changed the
perception of Brussels and Paris from being destinations you needed to go to via an airport, such as Vietnam and Australia, into
places that are just down the road, like Manchester or Leeds."

Some 4.5 million UK tourists use the Channel Tunnel every year, with 1.6 million trucks transporting goods between the UK and
the continent, making it worth around €140 billion per year to the UK and European economies, according to EY's Economic
Footprint of the Channel Tunnel in the UK report from 2018. The tunnel itself had mooted for over 180 years before British and
French workers broke ground and began digging towards each other in 1988. French engineer Albert Mathieu-Flavier first proposed
a subterranean link between Britain and France in 1802, suggesting the creation of an artificial island in the English Channel for
trains to change the horses that would be required to pull the carriages.The concept continued to rear its head throughout the 19th
century, with engineers even digging tunnels into the bedrock before plans were abandoned in 1882, with British politicians fearing
that the tunnel would compromise the country's defenses.

It wasn't until 1987, after numerous false starts following World War II, that the British and French parliaments agreed to the
project, with two rail tunnels and a third service tunnel preferred to plans for road tunnels and a suspension bridge.It took six years
for 13,000 workers to build the 31.4 mile tunnel, 23.5 miles of which run undersea, making it the longest of its kind in the world.
Inevitably, that kind of engineering and manpower did not come cheap, with costs in 1994 estimated at £4.65 billion (about $7.2
billion), a massive 80% more than originally planned. There was so much spoil left over from the tunnel that an entire nature
reserve, Samphire Hoe, was created on the UK side. Consisting of 4.9 million cubic meters of chalk, it overlooks Dover's famous
White Cliffs.

On opening, the Channel Tunnel was dubbed one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World by the American Society of Civil
Engineers, alongside the Empire State Building and Toronto's CN Tower.Despite the eye-watering cost, the tunnel became an
immediate hit with travelers. "It played its part in changing public attitudes towards railways, which for many years had been
declining in importance, and helped spark a railway renaissance across the UK," says Ed Bartholomew, lead curator at the UK's
National Railway Museum in York.

Mark Smith agrees, saying the ongoing popularity of taking the train from the UK to Europe speaks to a wider grassroots distaste
with flying."Mainstream travelers now come to my site," he says. "When they tell me why they're going by rail rather than air,
they say two things in the same breath: They're fed up to the back teeth of the airline experience and they want to cut their
carbon footprint. It's like those two are flip sides of the same coin." A journey from London to Paris emits 90% less greenhouse gas
emissions than the equivalent short--haul flight, according to Eurostar."From the early days of operation, Eurostar has championed
the environmental benefits of high-speed rail and encouraged the switch to sustainable modes of transport for short-haul
international travel," a Eurostar spokesperson told CNN.

While initial Eurostar services ran through the Channel Tunnel to Paris and Brussels, newer destinations have been added in recent
years. Seasonal routes take in the south of France in the summer and the French Alps in winter have become hugely popular, as has
the ability to book through to over 100 destinations in Europe and the UK, meaning it's possible to use the Channel Tunnel to plug
into the wider rail network.

In April 2018, Eurostar opened a new direct route to Amsterdam, with a journey time of three hours and 55 minutes. However,
passengers coming back need to take a train to Brussels to connect to a Eurostar service back to London. Despite that kink, over
250,000 people have used the service in the past year, with demand seeing a third daily train added. Pleasingly, the indirect return
trip also looks set to be a thing of the past very soon."The governments have committed to finalizing an agreement to allow us to
run a direct return journey by the end of the year," said Eurostar. "When we have this we're sure that it will feed the growing
appetite among customers for high-speed, sustainable rail travel." That said, plans for services to Frankfurt via Cologne, run by the
German national rail operator Deutsche Bahn (DB), were shelved in June 2018 citing changes in the "economic environment,"
suggesting any newer routes are unlikely in the foreseeable future. Brexit, with its new deadline of October 31, may also have had
a part to play in DB's decision. Eurostar told CNN it planned to maintain its existing services even in the event of no deal being
agreed between the UK and EU.

A success story? From a travelers' perspective, it's hard to resist the allure and romance of the Channel Tunnel, an engineering
project dreamed up over 200 years ago and now the most pleasant way to travel between the UK and Europe."The Channel Tunnel
is a political, diplomatic, financial and technical success," says Ed Bartholomew. "It's now firmly embedded in the economies of
Britain, Ireland and continental Europe." Mark Smith agrees. "It certainly fulfilled the promise for London to Paris and Brussels.
It's now normal to go there by train and odd if you go there by plane. But there's lots of capacity left: The freight hasn't fulfilled its
potential and there's still capacity for passenger trains."There have been a string of events that have seen the Channel Tunnel in the
headlines for the wrong reasons since its opening, from 1,000 passengers being trapped underground overnight on Eurostar trains in
February 1996 due to electronic failures to fires and union action bringing services to a halt. Throughout its life, the tunnel has
proved irresistible to migrants from Africa, the Middle East and beyond who have tried to use it as a way to across the Channel
illegally into the UK. Eurotunnel claimed more than 20,000 security breaches involving migrants in 2016.Such incidents have left
enthusiasm for the tunnel undimmed.

In an age when concerns about the environmental cost of air travel are growing, the Channel Tunnel, for all its teething problems,
has become a beacon for what is possible when infrastructure projects are given the go ahead. And while its green credentials will
ensure it remains every bit as popular for the next 25 years, it's also impossible to deny the pleasures of sipping on a glass of
Burgundy as the Eurostar zooms out into the French countryside and on towards some of the world's most beguiling cities.