I have the same experience with Customs staff in Canada - despite being a Canadian. When I arrive in the UK or Europe they're friendly and welcoming. When I get home, they treat me like an axe-murderer.
It's been a while since I visited Canada, but my observation is that CBSA conducted a nationwide search for the least friendly people in Canada, then they made them border guards.
I think all customs are like that, I travel to Argentina as an Argentine, and border patrol looks at me like a criminal for going on vacation or work to another country. Come back to the US and not even a hello.
That is strange. In the late 1990s, I flew from Düsseldorf (Germany) via Newark (near New York City) to Toronto. German security was business-like and efficient, US Immigration was in a small cubicle and grumpy, whilst the Canadian immigration officer sat behind a large, open desk and was very friendly. Same story on the way back.
I have had similar experiences visiting Canada. The Canadian border people always seem friendly, but the U.S. people are always very rude and abrupt. It's the same whether going by car or by plane.
Channel Tunnel facts: One of the boring machines is buried under the sea. It was too big to back out, so it turned left and got concreted in! Eleven boring machines were used for the tunnel. In total they weighed 12,000 tonnes...even more than the weight of the Eiffel Tower! The earth that was dug out to create the tunnel could fill Wembley Stadium SEVEN times
Having said that, if you take an imaginary box in which the Eiffel Tower would fit, the air inside that box weighs almost as much as the tower itself (source: Wikipedia). The Eiffel Tower is remarkably lightweight for what it is, apart from a stunning piece of architecture and engineering.
13:59 the Channel Tunnel is actually currently the third longest railway tunnel in the world after the Gotthard Base Tunnel (57.104 km/35.5 miles) and Japan's Seikan Tunnel (53.85 km/33.5 miles). But once the Mont d'Ambin Base tunnel on the Turin-Lyon HSR is completed with a length of 57.5 km/35.7 miles, it will be dropped to fourth longest. You know the Eurotunnel shuttle is special when it has its own locomotives and unique coaches...what you get if a Superliner and a car had a baby! All jokes aside, the Channel Tunnel is truly a grand piece of engineering that made the UK even closer to mainland Europe.
Actually, if you consider the Brenner Base Tunnel (still in construction) and the Innsbruck bypass as an unique tunnel, it will be the longest railway tunnel in the world (64 km). Btw, the length of Brenner Base Tunnel (from Fortezza to Innsbruck) will be 55 km.
And now, my dear country has annexed itself from Europe, I agree with Simply Railways, that its a GIGANTIC underuse of the infrastructure, and the Eurotunnel looks to be a white elephant.
I have bounced accross The Channel - and under it - hundreds of times over the past 50 years, and have always found the Eurotunnel staff very friendly and helpful. Although we may all class ourselves as good drivers, watching a coach driver get his coach onto the train, or the HGV drivers, proves to me how good they are. Although in Europe you seem to class a bus and a coach as the same thing - not so in the UK. Generally a bus takes you where you have to go, and a coach where you want to go. Good as this is - I still miss the Hovercraft crossings!
French language also makes the distinction between bus (for city transportation only) and coach ("car" or "autocar", for both scheduled service outside of cities and travel). However now we have low-entry coaches that look like buses and are often used as buses, but can be legally considered as coaches with seatbelts and "theoretically" no standing people.
Great Video! I have been on the Eurotunnel many times. The reason for the prison look is security, many people tried to sneak in back of lorries or even walk through the tunnel. The Mario kart part is so they can fit more vehicles in a queue. Also the top speed of the Eurotunnel locomotives may be 160km/h but their operating speed is 140km/h. These trains go down and up a slop in the tunnel and weigh over 2000 tones. Price can depend on the time of the year and time of the day however its a faster and more reliable way to get to the UK rather than taking the Ferry.
I wouldn't say the tunnel is under used, in fact I'd say that it is even a capacity on peak days! Yes, it isn't as heavily used public wise, but freight wise it's massive! There can be 6-7 trains an hour for the HGV trains, then add on top of that up to 4 public trains and at least 1 Eurostar, with all the safety measures in place, it's very busy! There are also a few cargo trains that use it (around 5 a day), which could be more if used overnight. And again a massive missed opportunity for night trains, or cheaper, non-high speed stopping services i can see there being a demand for! However the reason for the lack of the last 2 is politics, with brexit not helping the matter. Tuckers can queue for days on the UK side to get through customs and get a on a train. Also it's not unheard of large queues for hours during school holidays to get onto trains, you just got it on a very quiet day! Overall though another great video! Really enjoyed it!
I travelled on the Shuttle in 2015, arriving with a regular bus from Kraków to London. Actually, the French border guards were quite nice, saying bonjour to every passenger and scanning our luggage, while the UK guards were looking at and treating us like potential criminals with our IDs being checked under a magnifying glass. One of the passengers had to come up with a different document, because their ID had a little scratch on its photo :x
Very cool video. It's been some years since taking the Shuttle - like you say, too expensive! (Ferries are cool though!) But yes, definitely underused infrastructure (also looking at you LGV Barcelona - France!) What would also be good would be a cheaper local, stopping "Eurostar", or at least a passenger shuttle from Calais to Ashford..
I believe a stopping Eurostar was actually considered at one point, but rather like most other suggestions for Channel Tunnel services they never came to be. At least they didn't build the stock for it like Nightstar and Regional Eurostar.
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@@doomotron6160 they could maybe pull an ICE2 and convert the old E300 sets to two half sets with a control car.
@ Not going to happen. The ICE 2s are simply not allowed to go through the Channel Tunnel. They are not long enough, do not have the fire protection required, and are not designed for the hot and damp in the tunnel. Similarly, Class 373 half sets would not happen as it would foul the length regulations (trains must be at least 400 metres long so the train is always directly next to at least two exits from the rail tunnels) and would require rebuilding the sets, which will not happen to units so old.
For those like Thibault who are curious - the reason there aren't more services through the channel tunnel (night trains, long distance trains, etc) is due to politics. The UK won't allow passport checks on the train, and won't allow the checks to be done on the UK side of the border either, meaning all passengers have to be cleared before the train departs. The same policy applies to the ferries as well, and is the reason for the "prison" atmosphere at Coquelles. This means that you have to build and staff some very expensive border controls at every departure station (which will cost you more money than you make back on 1 night train, or anything less than a full day's worth of high speed passengers). There is an alternative, which is asking all passengers to get off the train with all their possessions and performing a full train load of passport control at Lille (when coming from Europe) or Ashford (if coming from not-London, currently closed). Combine expensive passport control arrangements with per-passenger fees that the channel tunnel owners are charging (€26 per person in 2019 I believe), and extremely demanding on-train safety requirements (Eurostar rolling stock is pretty bespoke), and it's a recipe for bad business, which means only state-owned operators are ever going to touch it. Here's some entirely theoretical services made up by me, you will of course think of your own: - Renfe Barcelona to London, one train per day, using the "Lille Shuffle" method - DB Köln to London, up to six trains per day, with border controls at Köln - SNCF Sleeper Edinburgh to Paris, one train per night, using the "Ashford shuffle" method in the early hours of the morning
Few issues: I like the idea of a London to Barcelona via Lille like how Eurostar does services to Lyon and Marseille. The problem is, as mentioned in past is the bad relations between SNCF and Renfe which is already fairly toxic and causing issues with the service between Paris to Barcelona. I am sure the idea of a flightless journey to the Catalan capital would be popular, but unlikely. The only snag with Köln one, is that Köln Hbf is at full capacity even though it one of the biggest station in Germany. I would suggest perhaps one of the nearby smaller one like Messe-Deutz which you could take a small journey to the main station. I like the Auld Alliance Sleeper service as a new service between Edinburgh and Paris, however there isn't a big enough advantage compared to just taking a Caledonian Sleeper and Eurostar combined. Nice thoughts and ideas.
@@philipbranco9568 I wouldn't put any money on any of the crackpot ideas I listed ever happening. I think SNCF/Renfe relations can totally be repaired in the future, the political will is there - but the service I'm proposing would lose money like crazy. I don't know enough about the traffic around Köln to comment on that, but if it is as you say then that's a pretty huge problem - a smaller station won't support the border control staff. There are lots of reasons Eurostar go to Amsterdam and not Köln, and I guess that's one of them! Maybe the improvements to services heading east from Amsterdam will change the shape of travel from London to Germany.
@@s125ish As far as I know any plans are private sector plans (the former Midnight Rail I think?), and there's no way to make a sleeper between those cities profitable. For the time being, we shall have to wait for ticket integration between the future HS2 operator and Eurostar to provide a fast daytime service between Edinburgh and Paris.
Very interesting and informative video! That was the first time I've seen the overall check-in and boarding process. Also enjoyed the trip to Provence!
Rumors abound that HS2 was to eventually have trains from Scotland going into the Chunnel to various destinations in the Continent. Honestly having Eurostar monopolize the HS1 into the Chunnel (and charge a premium for it) is terrible. My colleague at work took her daughter to London for her university graduation trip, and they wanted to go to Paris for a day. It was cheaper to take a Black Cab to Gatwick, fly on a cheap airline, take another cab into the city, and then reverse all of that back to London in the evening than to get two tickets on the Eurostar in July!
@@grahamsmith9541 I think that was the carriages for the sleeper service (also cancelled), they actually designed some Class 373 Eurostar trains to go to Edinburgh in GNER livery, but this plan was cancelled. I also doubt Canada would have any use for 300 km/h trains!
As for the comment that Eurotunnel is expensive: For a car with only one passenger in it, it is certainly true. However, for the same rate you can take up to 9 people in it, so it makes more sense if you have a group of friends or a family who are traveling in a single car. If you're just by yourself in a car it is cheaper (and slower) to take one of the ferries.
Great job as always Thibaut. A few remarks though: - Before Covid you could actually use the Shuttle with your bike, there was a special service for this. It looks like it's running again now - Are you sure the tunnel is not fully used ? I thought it had already reached capacity. Maybe got my data wrong - There actually was a scheduled sleeper service that was meant to enter service in the 90s, but for some reason it never did. Rolling stock that was built for that is now instead used in Canada for ViaRail (Ocean service I think)
I'm not sure about the capacity thing, but as for Nightstar (and Regional Eurostar too) there was not enough opportunity to make money when taking into account the investment required to make it work. Border facilities would need to be introduced at loads of stations across the UK and Europe and loads of trains needed to be built for it, but even those weren't suitable.
Yeah, right about the night sleeper rolling stock. It now runs between Halifax and Montreal a couple of times a week. The accommodation is quite good with en suite bathrooms but it is showing it’s age a bit now. Lovely journey though, especially with the autumn colours.
This is impressive to watch as I never travelled to the UK by using the Eurotunnel shuttle yet! When I was a kid, I've crossed the channel with one of the last Hovercrafts from the Belgian coast (yes, Hoverspeed has been operating in Belgium as well, from Oostende, if I remember correctly) to Ramsgate, England in 1994. Once you arrived in Ramsgate, it took about two hours to cross the whole county of Kent and to get to London by a quite slow regional train back then. Last time I was in the UK as an adult, I went there by aircraft, it was just a short flight of about 90 minutes to get me from Germany to Birmingham. It was very simple to continue my journey to Aberystwyth on the Welsh West coast from Birmingham International Airport, there's a direct link by train which was operated by Arriva trains Wales about ten years ago, but I think the operator of this railway line all across the West Midlands, Shropshire and Wales has changed a few years ago. It's so annoying that you need this extra passport now, thanks to the B-word. I've not been to the UK yet since it's not part of the EU anymore. The tax you have to pay on imports is awful as well if you'd like to order something from the UK by mail, as if the trouble with Royal Mail wasn't enough. But I won't blame the British voters, the shadiness and ridiculous hypocrisy of persons such as Von der Leyen and the bureaucracy within the EU is definitely co-responsible for the result of 2016. Anyway, I don't think this will solve the problems within the UK, quite the contrary.
That's if the Brexiteers don't plug up the tunnel. The EU isn't perfect, but it's damn better than a fractured squabbling continent with limited co operation
It probably will be, we're talking about the idiot uk, remember people voted brexit on the premises of an advert on a bus, plus the railways here are fragmented and we have a government that hates the railway and the staff
With the different standards and gauges in the UK, the overly tight safety restrictions in the tunnel, and the passport control situation...very difficult. If Deutsche Bahn can't do it, ÖBB would struggle for sure.
Great trip, finally you try it. This trip remembered me when I playing Truck Simulation Game, I always use this facility for crossing between Mainland and UK or vice versa, more than taking a available Ferry route in same route. And yes, I'm taking the freight one, bit challenging for making perfect entry to the car. Something different is, in that game, there is no formalities when crossing between Mainland Europe and UK, no matter you taking Ferry or Le Shuttle service.
@@SimplyRailway Well, that's being generous. You literally just drive up to the terminal and press Enter and pay for the ride to be transported to the other side. There are however mods which let you drive the entire length of the tunnel in your truck.
That's pretty cool you can take your car with you to the UK or France! Couldn't really hear any noise until you went to the lower level. Nice! Interesting small bathroom.
There are some very special safety features for trains using the tunnel. First there must be a locomative at both ends in order to ensure escape in either direction. The on board manager is trained to drive the "spare" engine. None of the continental railways except Germany have trains that comply with the rules. DB has run a few test trains. The reason the UK Government did not give Covid help is that the Tunnell and Trains are owned by FRANCE, The "Eurostar" trains are 85% owned by SNCF. The gauge is basically the Basle standard that's how the Eurostar can travel all over Europe but European trains would only able to travel to St.Pancras as the UK gauge is smaller.
Thanks for the video. I had no idea that you needed to load your vehicle onto a train to cross the tunnel. FYI, trains in Canada are generally 4 km long. Now thats a looong train :)
There was an intention to run sleeper trains between the UK and various European destinations, progressing as far as some vehicles being built. Someone then decided that it wasn't commercially viable and was cancelled. The coaches were sold to sold to Via Rail in Canada who rebranded it as part of their Renaissance fleet.
Thank you for showing the process, it has reinforced my belief that not having a car is a much better option. All that messing about, lol. I wish people would stop insisting that they need to take their car with them on holiday. Just use local public transport or hire a bicycle while you're there. Much cheaper as well.
while i despise cars, using the eurotunnel to transport more than two is most always much cheaper to take the tunnel and park at your destination, then depend on transit upon arrival - as opposed to booking multiple separate eurostar tickets and luggage. €130 one way is incredibly expensive, and they clearly did not book in advance; we paid €90 for a 5day return just last week.
if you've got a family, lots of luggage or pets it's a good option. not everywhere has good public transport (especially rural areas of France and England)
The process is that complicated only because the UK has never been part of the Schengen area. That's probably also a reason why the Eurotunnel is so underused: in order for a passenger train to cross it, it would need to depart from a station with dedicated EU and UK passport control facilities, which are really expensive to build and operate. That's why only Eurostar is running passenger services departing from a handful of selected stations with dedicated platforms. From a passenger's perspective, travelling on Eurostar is as complicated as flying, except for the fact that flying is usually much cheaper, faster and you can start your trip to London wherever it's practical for you, not just Paris, Lille or Amsterdam.
19:01 I remember EuroStar ticket prices depend a lot on how far in advance you by them; my classmate paid over £200 for tickets bought 2 days in advance while I paid ~£50 for those bought over a month in advance
CHANNEL TUNNEL IS WELL USED ! Trains from "All over Europe" are NOT allowed to use the tunnel for a hundred technical reasons. The first being that ONLY electric trains can pass through the tunnel. (Diesel trains would poison the atmosphere & kill everyone, which is another reason they could NOT build a car tunnel. No ventilation being possible, or everyone would drown !) Next an Electric train would have to be suitable to run on the 25,000v 50Hz overhead system, with the correct type of pantograph (electrical overhead power collector). Which is the system fitted through the tunnel, & onwards to Paris. Most critical is the signalling, which is very different from normal railways. Instead of lineside signals displaying pretty colours every mile or so. The Channel tunnel signalling (TVM460), is a computerised "in cab" signalling. So the driver has a constant indication of maximum speed, as well as information as to the state of the line ahead, constantly displayed on his cab desk. This is also the type of signalling used by Super High Speed trains, as classic track side signals are not allowed over 140mph. Over this speed, the train is travelling too fast for a driver to be reliably expected to safely see and read a trackside signal. So normal trains from anywhere in Europe do not have this expensive high tech onboard signalling system, and therefore can't use the Channel tunnel. Having said that the tunnel is well used. In addition to the Eurotunnel freight & car shuttles, there are the "Eurostar" services, and also a lot of International freight, especially at night. Freight trains have to use special engines through the tunnel, which have the special computerised onboard signalling equipment. The tunnel was at about 77% capacity before Brexit. Now I think it has dropped to around 65%. Summer is always busier than winter, due to tourist traffic. Incidentally all "Dangerous Goods" (including Coal) is barred from using the Channel Tunnel for obvious safety reasons. Note: Due to the general 100mph speed limit through the tunnel, this requires gaps of at least 3-4 minutes minimum between trains. Which effectively means maximum capacity is around 15-16 trains each way per hour.
There is a similar underwater tunnel in Japan that connects the two islands in Japan, burt is unfortunately only experienced with the Shinkansen (Japanese bullet train)
Fabulous video once again and congratulations on reaching 20,000 subscribers. I have been on the Eurotunnel when I was young and me and my parents took me to Disneyland Paris.😊
The best video ever, I been trying to find a clear explanatory video and this is the right one. I have solved so many doubts I was having. Thank you 💕✨👏
The reason the terminal looks like a prison is to discourage stowaways in freight vehicles, Calais Port is the same but now the preferred method for people to cross illegally is by dingy due to security at the terminal and port.
The problem is the customs checks, as you need to make a lot of space for waiting areas for passengers, as well as reserve a platform, just for a few trains per day to the UK. Combined with that, most European stations are already operating near max capacity, and are located inside city centers, where the ground is expensive. And you soon have costs rising up into the hundreds of millions. (amount the Dutch spend on a new terminal in Amsterdam to allow Eurostar to board 600 passengers per train from Amsterdam.) And these huge costs make adding extra stops for the Eurostar not worthwhile. The real crime is that you cannot buy through tickets. Meaning that the channel tunnel really only connects Europe to London, as you either need VERY lax layovers in London or you risk having to buy a new ticket at a premium on the day of travel. Similarly, the fact that there is 1 terminal for the Eurostar in the UK, compared to 5 on the other side of the Channel Tunnel (Amsterdam (under construction until February 2025 to double capacity), Rotterdam, Brussels, Lille, and Paris), is very telling.
great video as always. it's indeed a unique way of travel and also looks hassle-free. I can understand your frustration about how under-used these type of infrastructure.
I never thought it was a double decker train, I thought they had their own coaches to carry buses (my car was on the top deck near the front of the train)
Excellent video as always. We were on Eurostar two days ago and whilst I understand your point about cost, the technology is fantastic even when the price feels high. Unfortunately, political will across boundaries is always difficult. Much as I would love to see trains from Scotland, Wales and across England to Paris, Brussels, Berlin, Rome, Madrid and elsewhere, this will take time at best. Still, with frequent direct trains running again between London and Amsterdam, maybe the forthcoming Thalys and Eurostar merger might bring some of these prospects a little closer....
19:52 the main reason why there are so little trains through the tunnel is because of the ridiculous amount of safety and boarding regulations, thus the investments that would have to be made are just much to big to build an extensive network.
I'm 70 years of age and had many an experience with French border control units in times past. They are such a dour lot, devoid of any kind of charisma - is it a French thing? #gallicshrug
I've already said a couple of times that a high speed train could do Milan to London in 12 hours. That seem a lot for a day train but it's perfectly acceptable for a night train. I'm surprised nobody ever attempted a high speed night train (if i remember well italy has a couple of high speed trains running at night but they're regular trains with seats).
there is in fact a way to travel by bike using the Shuttle- and it's only £35 each way. But only once a day, and you get picked up by a vehicle in Folkestone/Coquelles
With the booths at passport control and when you first entered, they were on the drivers (left) side of the car. Do they also have them on the right side for British cars?
@@s125ish That's your opinion. When I used the service five years ago, everything went smoothly, without any delays, incidents or disruption of services.
when you was looking out the windows did you see any fish swimming by lol you want to try the trucking side to koad and then wait outside the wagon for the free bus to the rubbish coach at the front
Hey Thibauit I think you got it wrong at 13:56. The second-longest railway tunnel is Seikan tunnel in Japan (between Honshu and Hokkaido). And then Eurotunnel is the third-longest!
You are right but the Channel Tunnel has the longest undersea section ("only" 23.3 km of Seikan Tunnel in under the seabed vs 37.9 km of the Channel Tunnel). In any case, both will soon slip 2 places down on that list.
Great addition!👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼 I have already watched many videos about the Passenger service but this is the first one of Le shuttle. Question: the price paid is per vehicle regardless of the number of passengers on board? If so, then it's a cheaper alternative than buying individual tickets on the Eurostar service. Merci!
It looks like it's per vehicle only from the first few steps of booking - going by car does seem pretty competitive (including fuel costs alongside the Chunnel fare) if you have e.g. a family/group with you...
Seeing that you compared the shuttle trains to Amtrak Superliners I'm guessing they're slightly larger both in height and width. I also assume these cars were assembled at the Channel Tunnel end points as they look to "out of gauge" for both the SNCF and Network Rail.
8:34 That's "insanely long" by European standards, on the "short side" by American standards (as someone who sees freight trains in excess of 10,000 feet long on a regular basis).
The big difference is speed. In the UK and Europe the freight trains are travelling up to 75 MPH. Also length is restricted to the length of passenger trains. Because the signalling systems, are designed to allow a high frequency passenger service on most lines. With the local passenger trains in the UK running with line speeds up to 125 MPH. With the ones that share the HS1 channel tunnel link between the Kent coast and London up to 140MPH. The freight trains that use the tunnel and HS1 travel to and from places as far away as Southern China.
There's only a limited amount you can report on Le Shuttle, as seat comfort, legroom etc would be the seat comfort of your own car. At least they do provide a lavatory, even if it does seem to be a walk of about half a mile to find it
Nice video. So much potential in the tunnel. I've always felt the potential for a more local service through the tunnel for passengers has been missed. Why can't we do Ashford to Arras, Ramsgate to Le Touquet or Deal to Boulogne? So much potential.
I don't know if it's still the case but when I lived in Folkestone 16 years ago there was apparently a fair bit of commuter traffic between Ashford and Paris. A lot of French people moved to the area but commuted - this was when French taxes got silly. I also knew a lawyer who lived in Holland but commuted every week to London and rented a little flat there during the week.
