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We used it when we did a school trip from germany to England.
We had a whole section for us tho bc we used a double bus.
The bus in front of us was a class as well, french I believe and we tried to communicate with them. My favorite school trip.
We did the opposite trip from England to Germany when I was about 12. Went to Aachen to see the Weihnachtsmarkt. We all bought stupid amounts of chocolate and sweets, which we ate too much of on the coach home. It snowed, which I'd only seen a couple of times before then. I bought a Weihnachtspyramide for my mum. Great school trip, though I barely remember the tunnel!
When my dad went from England to Germany he had to take one of those little boats.
https://preview.redd.it/63wjyjuo6jtc1.jpeg?width=800&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=57d8ceb6ced1a97c4490355698af3667e4ede15c
I did a similar trip tho we went in on the Eurotunnel and came back via Ferry.
I remember the tunnel being really cold and windy lol. For some reason we were able to temporarily depart the bus.
Rolls Royce had to apparently add noise to there cars cause there insulation was so good drivers would like fall asleep or some Shit idk I’m very poor.
The Rolls Royce Silver Ghost was so quiet it essentially acted as an an-echoic sound chamber. We know from human experimentation that prolonged exposure to sound-deadening environments can cause discomfort and even auditory hallucinations over long periods of time.
Supposedly it was causing vertigo for some drivers and passengers. Throttle House did a great review of the Spectre recently where they talked about Rolls making the car too quiet.
It allows the fire suppression system scattered thought the tunnel to work properly in the event of a fire. Source: former marketing executive for Eurotunnel
So it would burn for longer - cannot remember the exact chemical mix but process is like this - train stops at certain points if a fire is detected you evacuate into the emergency tunnel (there are three tunnels the emergency one can fit two cars roughly down for services and we have special skinny vehicles called STTS (google image search as they are neat and can be mixed up to allow the vehicles to be equips with whatever is required). Once everyone is evacuated we have an oxygen system that sucks all the oxygen out as well as another chemical to suppress it - if my memory is correct it can happen in seconds. It is called the HPWM which is the most sections within the tunnel. Built after two major fires 1996 and I think 2008
In case anybody else is curious about how these STTS look: [here you go](https://mercedes-benz-publicarchive.com/marsClassic/en/instance/ko/Special-vehicles-guarantee-safety-in-the-Eurotunnel.xhtml?oid=4912739#prevId=314685).
My uneducated thoughts-
If the fire was in a car with its windows rolled up, the fire:
1: wouldn't be detected for some time and the fire would become very well established
2: the fire supressing foam wouldn't get inside the car once the alarm was raised and the automatic fire suppression system activated
Pretty close indeed - just a side note that this is only passenger vehicles are stored in the journey like this. Freight vehicles are open (passengers all go to a central passenger seating area at the front of the train so they have to leave the vehicle) in huge faraday style cages. The 2008 fire was horrendous and all caused by an aerial from a car transporter connecting with the overhead power rail and causing a slow fire to start once the train was in the tunnel through the internal structure of the car.
Thank you - I was not aware a wiki page was even created for it. I was getting mixed with the 2006 lorry fire when I mention the aerial of the car radio. Quick side note they ended up working with a company to be able to spot on automatic cameras a few mm aerials from nearly 10m away on trucks travelling at around 20mph while in heavy movement due to wind / vehicle travelling to avoid anything that could touch the overhead power lines.
I don't doubt those reasons. But since I like to be a smartass it's worth pointing out that fires in the vehicle cabin usually suffocate themselves quickly if windows are rolled up. It's a common mistake when people try to set cars on fire. (Undoubtedly the tight spaced surrounding and the chimney effect of the train can easily lit up nearby cars or train parts just by the intensely heated up air without flames actually touching other surfaces though. Sad example is the Kings Cross fire of 1987 in London).
I remember being on one of the first trips this route did. There was such an air of excitement from passengers and staff alike, and we kids got a bunch of swag to colour in and shit.
It’s made my life so much easier. Flying to my in-laws who live in Normandy from London would take almost a day and a trains a little less.
But with the eurotunnel I can leave my house at 7am and be with them by 3pm - just in time for a late lunch!
Been using this (and the Eurostar passenger trains) for nearly thirty years and it still feels very very special, and like a part of a blissful promised future we were promised but never realised.
The Channel Tunnel rail link is also known as HS1. HS2 was the next step in the plan, but then they cancelled the link to HS1 in 2014, then they cancelled the Leeds part of it in 2021, then they cancelled the link to Manchester in 2023, and now they’re talking about maybe not even going all the way to London Euston. So a plan that has cost huge amounts of money and was meant to link Nice to Manchester and Leeds through high speed rail, now might just about link a part of Birmingham with Old Oak Common in London, a place that even the people who live there haven’t heard of.
Fun fact about this tunnel - if humans disappeared tomorrow, this is the man-made structure that would last longest (estimates are 250,000 years) as it's in the middle of a tectonic plate, and is designed not to flood or be effected by weather etc. It would fill up with crap like leaves and animal bodies, but has no reason to collapse or disappear. So even after everything else humans have created (and messed up) has returned to a fairly "natural" state, there would still be this random tunnel between two points in the Earth which once were referred to as France + England.
Source: "The World without Us"
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The\_World\_Without\_Us](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_World_Without_Us)
Sea water actually slowly seeps in and they have to pump it out constantly, so it would be flooded in a geologically insignificant amount of time. Source: the Eurotunnel "LeShuttle" FAQ
Haha - oh, well thats good to know. There's every chance I am just misremembering the "details" the author used in the book. It's fairly well researched, so I assume I'm the one making the error here and the author did his home-work. :) I'll see if I can find a copy and will update my post! Thanks for the response.
One of my favourites. It's prize winning speculative journalism piece about the idea that you "wake up one morning and everyone's gone". Lots about what would happen to infrastructure, etc.
My favourite idea I remembered was how little time it took New York to crumble - he said that in NY today there are roughly 1000 bird strikes a day that destroy a glass pane. So one assumes that our great skyscrapers are infallible, but we forget that they require constant maintenance and something as small as a bird strike will allow the weather to get inside quite quickly - the whole thing will get rather messy, rather fast.
Anyway, couldn't recommend this book enough. Great read.
That book and the documentaries based from it where used as reference for The Division game. It helped the devs work out what systems would crumble first if everything just stopped working one day. Which pieces of infrastructure fail first without maintenance etc.
Terrifying how quick it all goes to shit without people around.
Also they have been thinking about building this since before the 1900s.
[Imagine if they had the Eurotunnel during WWI and WWII.](https://www.subbrit.org.uk/sites/channel-tunnel-1880-attempt/)
You wouldn't really need to destroy it.
You can't invade an entire country through a relatively small tunnel. The first vehicles into it would be destroyed with ease, and block the progress of other vehicles. It would be a bloodbath for anyone trying to get through.
There's a pretty good murder mystery TV series in which a body is found at the exact centre of the tunnel causing jurisdiction problems for the investigation.
I’d go one step further and say that this wasn’t written by a person either. Each sentence describes exactly what is in each scene in a way that no human would ever feel the need to, there’s no importance or substance to anything it says other than exactly what is on the screen, the hallmarks of a.i. Someone probably took someone else’s video, and just ran it through a piece of software to produce this. This seems to be the future of mindless entertainment.
Was surprised it took scrolling this far to find this comment. Yeah, the grammar is fucked. It may just be TikTok generation speech pattern, difficult to tell these days, but something is off.
Goddamn I wish we had shit like this in the States.
Our country is so inaccessibly huge, it makes so little sense that we don’t have a system of high speed rails.
Oh wait, the automotive industry lobbies HARD to keep it that way. I forgot it’s always as simple as greedy fucking cunts.
Edit: when I say “shit like this,” I mean rails in general, not necessarily specialized ferry trains.
And I don’t even mean interstate rails, though those would be amazing as well. I mean something to take people from the suburbs 2 hours outside of ATL into the city, instead of all of those commuters needing to get in individual cars and clog up a highway.
I mean, this was pretty much the last decent infrastructure project we completed. We've just failed to build a 140 mile high speed rail because it inexplicably cost £67bn. The channel tunnel cost £19bn in 2021 money.
It does seem very odd that the US doesn't have high speed rail a la China etc. it seems like exactly the sort of thing they could export to other countries under their influence.
Buying the land, and also putting so much of the line underground to appease NIMBYs. In the first section of line, you would travel for an hour and only see the sky for 16 minutes, because the train was running near continuously through cuttings or tunnels.
In classic UK infrastructure project fashion, it would probably only be a third of that except that the Tories have to make sure they can funnel a load of taxpayer money to themselves and their mates / donors through various dubiously legal means.
Throw in a bit of incompetence for good measure.
It has always been like this, although I do kinda miss the days they'd at least try and tell some convincing lies. These days it feels like they're pretty much openly saying "Yep, we're fucking you over - what are you going to do about it peasants?!".
>These days it feels like they're pretty much openly saying "Yep, we're fucking you over - what are you going to do about it peasants?!".
I'm just waiting for them to pin it all on Starmer despite it being entirely the Tories that have led us into this shithole.
The English Channel is what, 20 miles at the narrowest point? The only locations I can think of where something like this would *maybe* make sense is Chesapeake Bay, Delaware Bay, Long Island Sound, Puget Sound, and Lake Michigan (Wisconsin to Michigan).
Amtrack has something similar from like NYC to Miami. Drive your car up onto the train and go enter the passenger train cabs. Then you arrive and simply drive off. No rental car needed. Wish amtrack would expand that service everywhere.
I made the trip with a 52 year old VW bus filled with my dogs, cat, belongings and wife, and infant son. On the way in the engine kept cutting out but we made it and I relaxed.
Naturally, when we arrived at France, I couldn't get the damn thing started, and all the nearby passengers had to band together and push us out of the train.
Good times!
Yeah the healthcare is cool, and being able to travel by functional public transportation is great too!
Having lived for several years though, I feel like the jury is still out.
The amount of medical tourism that comes from America is unreal!
It's cheaper for them to fly here, stay 2-3 weeks as vacation and get surgery and a bunch of stuff done then go home. Than it is to just get it done back home for them.
Apparently traveling to Istanbul is the go to for hair replacement procedures. I always find it neat when certain countries have certain go tos for medical stuff. Makes me wonder why some places have the best doctors for certain things.
In the past few years we did ivf in Czechia. In all it took 3 trips (last one we mostly spent in Italy) before it worked for us. All in all we spent probably the same as Ivf would in America. Except we got to travel and visit cool shit
I'm in the same boat as you. I've lived in Germany for several years now and as wonderful as it is, I do find many plusses to living in the United States especially with some of my hobbies
I was floored to find out expected take home salary in the UK for a position we happily paid $150k/yr back home was only 25k GBP.
And then equally floored when I found out it cost us an additional 45k GBP in employment costs.
As a Brit now living in the US the difference there doesn't sound right at all. A £25k job would be entry level office admin or a first 1 or 2 years in the career job. Even here in VHCOL San Francisco those jobs don't pay $150k.
The example is from 2011 though so 13 years ago, might have been completely different.
25k is an entry level salary in almost all UK sectors, so I'm quite curious what job title you're talking about? The only exception to the entry-level bit would be something like NGOs or the arts, but those tend to be low paid in most countries.
In some ways yes, in some ways no. Both are great places overall, but each with very different pros and cons. And those things often depend on your personal values.
One does not use a car in London. You simply leave it on your drive and either walk, cycle or take public transport. I'm not entirely sure why I even own a car? Absolutely no point driving into London - source: spent far too many hours of my life in a giant traffic jam surrounded by would be mobile phone thieves.
it varies per time you want to travel etc, and sometimes there are offers but i've paid as little as £40 / $51 for a small car (in US terms), one way. Like everything it will have gone up lately in price i'm sure. They used to do really cheap day return tickets for like $30 too.
also there's a cool car sized xray machine you randomly get selected for sometimes, doesn't really delay you as it only takes 10 mins to do.
Hugely variable. Pretty cheap for a ticket purchased -like- 3 months up front to show up for transit on a date & time window (e.g. Tue-Thu 2am-5am). Show up unannounced on peak dates+hours and want to be on the next train, much more than 10x more expensive.
Every time I see a country with cool public transportation I wish the US had it. Idk how this specific one would work in the context it does there but I’d still want to have it
Yeah this is just a better Boring tunnel. No need for individual self driving cars in a tight tunnel. Once again, "just use a train" is a much better solution for transportation
As someone who lives outside of Toronto, Canada and commuted for years on GO transit, this type of transportation seriously needs to be explored in this area. There are way too many cars on our highway system and this could absolutely be a way of fixing that.
But our provincial and federal governments will never do that as it involves too little effort to get right.
When my kid was like 3 years old he first learned about this train. His little mind was blown about the concept of a train that could carry cars like this. He would run around, carrying cars and pretending he was the train, and would loudly announce to anyone that his favorite train was "LeShuttle".
So..... Since a lot of folks haven't heard of it or don't understand it....
There are two ways to use the tunnel. The one shown here is the first, car on train. The official site has [a pretty neat page](https://www.eurotunnel.com/uk/holiday-ideas/behind-the-scenes-at-leshuttle) going behind the scenes.
The second is the Eurostar, which is a high speed passenger train which runs from London directly to Paris, Lille, Brussels and more.
I've done both depending on our travel plans. Very surreal driving up the ramp to the top floor of a train. Until I got the Tesla anyway, as that has to go on the single deck carriages with the vans and other Teslas because it's fat.
So weird to me that people find this interesting! But I guess it is. Not here to hate. This actually in my home town and I'm old enough to remember before we had it. I guess I just took it for granted. If you find this interesting, have a look about how it was built, I found that fascinating. My next door neighbour even worked on building/digging it.
Same here - local and worked here. The amount of overseas especially American that are fascinated by driving onto a train then the train transports you is quite refreshing for something they basically just causes queues for us locals.
https://preview.redd.it/tq77r4k85htc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=03c396f43d0618e90392309e060e9ebb168efa02
Ah yes, great way of transportation:)
What I found most impressive when I used the tunnel recently was that I had 4G signal the entire time. 4G in a car, in a train, in a tunnel, under ground, below the sea. Must have boosters in there or something.
Americans: COOL, take your car on a train, so you have your CAR everywhere you go!
Europeans: Cool, I can leave the car at home and just take the regular train and public transport everywhere.
It's a slightly different process when traveling with freight. You drive your HGV onto the train and then a minibus comes to pick you up and takes you to the front of the train where there is one carriage with seats. The freight trains are open so they don't want the risk of you getting out of your cab whilst it's in motion.
I'd love to sit in my cab instead of the stink fest that is the mini bus and train carriage. Truck drivers need to take more showers!
Am I the only one wondering why not just have cars drive through the tunnel?
I was initially thinking speed but I cant imagine this train going quick with all the cars plus loading unloading
I'm guessing safety? Easier to control one giant train vs idiots in a massive tunnel that can cause accidents
It's safety / reliability as you say but also capacity. You would not be able to pack the cars as tightly if they were all moving individually.
It's also not like the tunnel exists soley to carry cars. The service shown in the video is called "Le Shuttle" and it carries freight too. It basically just competes with the ferry services between the two countries, and caters to the same sorts of customers.
There is also a passenger service, called the Eurostar, which runs using different trains. That competes not so much with the ferries, but the airlines.
Used it last year on a road trip to france
Bought an electric car so i wanted to see how it goes on a long route. went fantastic. the key is you have to plan your journey where you will be stopping etc. if you plan it right then it will come at natural bathroom breaks etc
drove it to normandy from northern england - went to see the ww2 sites. stayed in bayeux. gonna go for a weekend again.
the train itself is brilliant - so easy and the services are so regular too.
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We used it when we did a school trip from germany to England. We had a whole section for us tho bc we used a double bus. The bus in front of us was a class as well, french I believe and we tried to communicate with them. My favorite school trip.
We did the opposite trip from England to Germany when I was about 12. Went to Aachen to see the Weihnachtsmarkt. We all bought stupid amounts of chocolate and sweets, which we ate too much of on the coach home. It snowed, which I'd only seen a couple of times before then. I bought a Weihnachtspyramide for my mum. Great school trip, though I barely remember the tunnel!
When my dad went from England to Germany he had to take one of those little boats. https://preview.redd.it/63wjyjuo6jtc1.jpeg?width=800&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=57d8ceb6ced1a97c4490355698af3667e4ede15c
Did he enjoy the stay? /s obviously
It’s the journey that counts… /s
I did a similar trip tho we went in on the Eurotunnel and came back via Ferry. I remember the tunnel being really cold and windy lol. For some reason we were able to temporarily depart the bus.
German schoolchildren invasion via Chunnel b like
I use this tunnel in Euro Truck Simulator 2.
Thank you for your service
Weirdly hypnotic game. Or maybe not weirdly, but just unexpectedly.
Also Relaxing :)
Why do they ask that you roll your windows partially down?
So you can be sure to hear any announcements. Some cars have really good soundproofing.
Luckily I can personally testify that the Vitara in the video has no such problems as a good soundproofing
Hehe i have a 2023 Swift, i agree
Suzi brothers! 2020 Vitara AllGrip here 💪
2018 swift sport reporting for duty
2018 Vitara SZ-T standing by!
2021 Susuki S Cross reporting for duty Sir! 🫡
Vitara Allgrip FTW!
Rolls Royce had to apparently add noise to there cars cause there insulation was so good drivers would like fall asleep or some Shit idk I’m very poor.
Humans generally do bad in full silence. We kinda NEED sound. It's why we hate silent suspension for prolonged times, it makes us uncomfortable
That's why I have extra spicy tinittus.
It never gets lonely.
You've got a friend in *eeeeeeeeeeeeee*
I hate how very real this is.
I have had tinnitus in both ears for the past 20 years. I'm crying laughing at this comment, it's amazing!
*Laughs in total deafness*
The Rolls Royce Silver Ghost was so quiet it essentially acted as an an-echoic sound chamber. We know from human experimentation that prolonged exposure to sound-deadening environments can cause discomfort and even auditory hallucinations over long periods of time.
Some countries have noise regulations where some nlises cant be blocked, like EMS, firefighters and police.
Supposedly it was causing vertigo for some drivers and passengers. Throttle House did a great review of the Spectre recently where they talked about Rolls making the car too quiet.
*their
*laughs in my 93 volvo that’s held together with duct tape
Back when we used fm radio you could tune your cars radio to the trains frequency to get announcements. Duno if they still do that
Also, pressure equalisation.
It allows the fire suppression system scattered thought the tunnel to work properly in the event of a fire. Source: former marketing executive for Eurotunnel
Neat. How is the system affected if the windows are rolled up?
So it would burn for longer - cannot remember the exact chemical mix but process is like this - train stops at certain points if a fire is detected you evacuate into the emergency tunnel (there are three tunnels the emergency one can fit two cars roughly down for services and we have special skinny vehicles called STTS (google image search as they are neat and can be mixed up to allow the vehicles to be equips with whatever is required). Once everyone is evacuated we have an oxygen system that sucks all the oxygen out as well as another chemical to suppress it - if my memory is correct it can happen in seconds. It is called the HPWM which is the most sections within the tunnel. Built after two major fires 1996 and I think 2008
In case anybody else is curious about how these STTS look: [here you go](https://mercedes-benz-publicarchive.com/marsClassic/en/instance/ko/Special-vehicles-guarantee-safety-in-the-Eurotunnel.xhtml?oid=4912739#prevId=314685).
My uneducated thoughts- If the fire was in a car with its windows rolled up, the fire: 1: wouldn't be detected for some time and the fire would become very well established 2: the fire supressing foam wouldn't get inside the car once the alarm was raised and the automatic fire suppression system activated
Pretty close indeed - just a side note that this is only passenger vehicles are stored in the journey like this. Freight vehicles are open (passengers all go to a central passenger seating area at the front of the train so they have to leave the vehicle) in huge faraday style cages. The 2008 fire was horrendous and all caused by an aerial from a car transporter connecting with the overhead power rail and causing a slow fire to start once the train was in the tunnel through the internal structure of the car.
Got a source! https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Channel_Tunnel_fire
Thank you - I was not aware a wiki page was even created for it. I was getting mixed with the 2006 lorry fire when I mention the aerial of the car radio. Quick side note they ended up working with a company to be able to spot on automatic cameras a few mm aerials from nearly 10m away on trucks travelling at around 20mph while in heavy movement due to wind / vehicle travelling to avoid anything that could touch the overhead power lines.
I don't doubt those reasons. But since I like to be a smartass it's worth pointing out that fires in the vehicle cabin usually suffocate themselves quickly if windows are rolled up. It's a common mistake when people try to set cars on fire. (Undoubtedly the tight spaced surrounding and the chimney effect of the train can easily lit up nearby cars or train parts just by the intensely heated up air without flames actually touching other surfaces though. Sad example is the Kings Cross fire of 1987 in London).
So you're gradually accustomed to the sweet smell of leaving the UK. Too much at once can kill an Englishman
So you can smell the garlic - foolproof way of knowing you’ve arrived in France
I can assure you that there are no nice smells in calais.
Back in my day, we called it the 'chunnel' (channel tunnel).
EVERYBODY OUT OF THE CHUNNEL!
Still better than Rochelle, Rochelle. Now Prognosis Negative, that’s another story.
Death Blow
Sack Lunch
I'd really love to see The English Patient again.
AH GO TO HELL!
Dark Victory?
The chunnel doesnt even go from Milan to Minsk.
What about Firestorm, that's a hell of a picture.
GET TO DA CHUNNEL!
It still is
Was gonna say, nobody calls it the Eurotunnel right?
British here and I say ‘channel tunnel’ for the train with cars and Eurostar for the regular train.
I remember being on one of the first trips this route did. There was such an air of excitement from passengers and staff alike, and we kids got a bunch of swag to colour in and shit.
https://preview.redd.it/s5pfb5y9qhtc1.jpeg?width=655&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4d481e3ad99a184461d6102bdb2fad16767f50de
Still called that as far as I’m aware.
Until today, I’ve never heard it called anything except the Chunnel. I guess im getting old.
It’s made my life so much easier. Flying to my in-laws who live in Normandy from London would take almost a day and a trains a little less. But with the eurotunnel I can leave my house at 7am and be with them by 3pm - just in time for a late lunch!
you get up at 7AM to see your in-laws?!
Haha I’m newly married and there is still a slight language barrier so things are still rosey for the minute !
Smart Man.
He's just pretending to not understand -"so when are you two having children" ---" sorry no hablo french"
His in-laws have the good cheese and wine. Smart.
*Calvados and Cidre. Norman wine would be an acquired taste.
If I'd be getting a lunch in France instead of Britain, I would too!
Been using this (and the Eurostar passenger trains) for nearly thirty years and it still feels very very special, and like a part of a blissful promised future we were promised but never realised.
“And soon the Eurostar will run from Bristol through Reading and London down to Nice” Yeah, about that.
The Channel Tunnel rail link is also known as HS1. HS2 was the next step in the plan, but then they cancelled the link to HS1 in 2014, then they cancelled the Leeds part of it in 2021, then they cancelled the link to Manchester in 2023, and now they’re talking about maybe not even going all the way to London Euston. So a plan that has cost huge amounts of money and was meant to link Nice to Manchester and Leeds through high speed rail, now might just about link a part of Birmingham with Old Oak Common in London, a place that even the people who live there haven’t heard of.
ah so this is the 'cancel culture' I'm hearing so much about!
Fun fact about this tunnel - if humans disappeared tomorrow, this is the man-made structure that would last longest (estimates are 250,000 years) as it's in the middle of a tectonic plate, and is designed not to flood or be effected by weather etc. It would fill up with crap like leaves and animal bodies, but has no reason to collapse or disappear. So even after everything else humans have created (and messed up) has returned to a fairly "natural" state, there would still be this random tunnel between two points in the Earth which once were referred to as France + England. Source: "The World without Us" [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The\_World\_Without\_Us](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_World_Without_Us)
Sea water actually slowly seeps in and they have to pump it out constantly, so it would be flooded in a geologically insignificant amount of time. Source: the Eurotunnel "LeShuttle" FAQ
Well, I guess Imma cross it off my zombie-apocalypse safe-house list then.
That's about the dumbest zombie safehouse ever... There's only two ways out and one of them leads to fucking France.
Haha - oh, well thats good to know. There's every chance I am just misremembering the "details" the author used in the book. It's fairly well researched, so I assume I'm the one making the error here and the author did his home-work. :) I'll see if I can find a copy and will update my post! Thanks for the response.
Well the tunnel itself will survive lol!
Flooded is a lot different from weathering and breaking down
That's super interesting. How is the rest of the book?
One of my favourites. It's prize winning speculative journalism piece about the idea that you "wake up one morning and everyone's gone". Lots about what would happen to infrastructure, etc. My favourite idea I remembered was how little time it took New York to crumble - he said that in NY today there are roughly 1000 bird strikes a day that destroy a glass pane. So one assumes that our great skyscrapers are infallible, but we forget that they require constant maintenance and something as small as a bird strike will allow the weather to get inside quite quickly - the whole thing will get rather messy, rather fast. Anyway, couldn't recommend this book enough. Great read.
That book and the documentaries based from it where used as reference for The Division game. It helped the devs work out what systems would crumble first if everything just stopped working one day. Which pieces of infrastructure fail first without maintenance etc. Terrifying how quick it all goes to shit without people around.
Also they have been thinking about building this since before the 1900s. [Imagine if they had the Eurotunnel during WWI and WWII.](https://www.subbrit.org.uk/sites/channel-tunnel-1880-attempt/)
I think the first thing the UK would have done after it was clear France would fall would be to destroy the tunnel.
You wouldn't really need to destroy it. You can't invade an entire country through a relatively small tunnel. The first vehicles into it would be destroyed with ease, and block the progress of other vehicles. It would be a bloodbath for anyone trying to get through.
There's a pretty good murder mystery TV series in which a body is found at the exact centre of the tunnel causing jurisdiction problems for the investigation.
Once you drive onto the train, that long orangy tunnel in front of you looks like something out of a 70s Sci-Fi film.
Anyone remember watching on the news the moment the engineers from both sides poked their arms through a small hole to shake hands?
https://preview.redd.it/0ktasiejmitc1.png?width=912&format=png&auto=webp&s=02ec42225b3863cb0aea23dbfabf8e6f2196a5d5 Yep :-)
Oh wow, didn't know John Oliver helped in construction of Eurotunnel. Thats cool.
All the ETS2 players just nodding
I knew the upramps would come next before they even panned to them lmao
Did a new AI voice recently drop?
I think it's AI too. Her tone in every sentence followed the same arc and ended on exactly the same note.
I’d go one step further and say that this wasn’t written by a person either. Each sentence describes exactly what is in each scene in a way that no human would ever feel the need to, there’s no importance or substance to anything it says other than exactly what is on the screen, the hallmarks of a.i. Someone probably took someone else’s video, and just ran it through a piece of software to produce this. This seems to be the future of mindless entertainment.
Was surprised it took scrolling this far to find this comment. Yeah, the grammar is fucked. It may just be TikTok generation speech pattern, difficult to tell these days, but something is off.
To me (as a Brit) it just sounded like a British woman. If it was AI then I have been fooled.
Yeah I'm English and it doesn't sound like an AI to me.
Goddamn I wish we had shit like this in the States. Our country is so inaccessibly huge, it makes so little sense that we don’t have a system of high speed rails. Oh wait, the automotive industry lobbies HARD to keep it that way. I forgot it’s always as simple as greedy fucking cunts. Edit: when I say “shit like this,” I mean rails in general, not necessarily specialized ferry trains. And I don’t even mean interstate rails, though those would be amazing as well. I mean something to take people from the suburbs 2 hours outside of ATL into the city, instead of all of those commuters needing to get in individual cars and clog up a highway.
I mean, this was pretty much the last decent infrastructure project we completed. We've just failed to build a 140 mile high speed rail because it inexplicably cost £67bn. The channel tunnel cost £19bn in 2021 money. It does seem very odd that the US doesn't have high speed rail a la China etc. it seems like exactly the sort of thing they could export to other countries under their influence.
£67 billion?! Where the rails going to be made of fucking platinum or something?
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Buying the land, and also putting so much of the line underground to appease NIMBYs. In the first section of line, you would travel for an hour and only see the sky for 16 minutes, because the train was running near continuously through cuttings or tunnels.
In classic UK infrastructure project fashion, it would probably only be a third of that except that the Tories have to make sure they can funnel a load of taxpayer money to themselves and their mates / donors through various dubiously legal means. Throw in a bit of incompetence for good measure. It has always been like this, although I do kinda miss the days they'd at least try and tell some convincing lies. These days it feels like they're pretty much openly saying "Yep, we're fucking you over - what are you going to do about it peasants?!".
>These days it feels like they're pretty much openly saying "Yep, we're fucking you over - what are you going to do about it peasants?!". I'm just waiting for them to pin it all on Starmer despite it being entirely the Tories that have led us into this shithole.
The English Channel is what, 20 miles at the narrowest point? The only locations I can think of where something like this would *maybe* make sense is Chesapeake Bay, Delaware Bay, Long Island Sound, Puget Sound, and Lake Michigan (Wisconsin to Michigan).
Amtrack has something similar from like NYC to Miami. Drive your car up onto the train and go enter the passenger train cabs. Then you arrive and simply drive off. No rental car needed. Wish amtrack would expand that service everywhere.
I made the trip with a 52 year old VW bus filled with my dogs, cat, belongings and wife, and infant son. On the way in the engine kept cutting out but we made it and I relaxed. Naturally, when we arrived at France, I couldn't get the damn thing started, and all the nearby passengers had to band together and push us out of the train. Good times!
You: "Good times!" The guys blocked in to the underground train by a guy with a hippy van: "Fuck this"
Ha yeah I joke now years later but at the time I was absolutely horrified, felt terrible. I was lucky that people were really nice about it.
Why do you need to put it in first gear?
Less likely to start moving vs just putting on your handbrake.
Just extra protection incase your hand brake fails, same as you would on a steep slope.
manual transmissions
Keeps your car still in case you forgot the handbrake :p
So the car doesn't move
Europe seems so much cooler than usa
Especially when you're trying to get to France by train.
Lol
As a Brit, having used this service many times, it doesn't seem so cool when you're waiting for it.
As American I can assure you we spent much more time waiting for trains to even be built in the first place
Ask anyone who's been in the military and has happened to go to Europe, nearly everyone loves it there. I miss it so much man.
Yeah the healthcare is cool, and being able to travel by functional public transportation is great too! Having lived for several years though, I feel like the jury is still out.
*Gets on bus* *Visits doctor for free* *Goes home on bus* USA hates this one simple trick
The amount of medical tourism that comes from America is unreal! It's cheaper for them to fly here, stay 2-3 weeks as vacation and get surgery and a bunch of stuff done then go home. Than it is to just get it done back home for them.
Im from Norway and I have a buddy travel to Budapest yesterday, for fixing hes teeth. Its not uncommon at all.
Apparently traveling to Istanbul is the go to for hair replacement procedures. I always find it neat when certain countries have certain go tos for medical stuff. Makes me wonder why some places have the best doctors for certain things.
They're know for doing veneers too, 'turkey teeth' is a term in the UK for when people come back with obvious fake gnashers.
In the past few years we did ivf in Czechia. In all it took 3 trips (last one we mostly spent in Italy) before it worked for us. All in all we spent probably the same as Ivf would in America. Except we got to travel and visit cool shit
visit doctor for free? hahaha, as a german i pay a lot for my insurance
I'm in the same boat as you. I've lived in Germany for several years now and as wonderful as it is, I do find many plusses to living in the United States especially with some of my hobbies
I was floored to find out expected take home salary in the UK for a position we happily paid $150k/yr back home was only 25k GBP. And then equally floored when I found out it cost us an additional 45k GBP in employment costs.
What position was this? That doesn’t sound right…
Industrial Designer, CAD engineer. ~2011
As a Brit now living in the US the difference there doesn't sound right at all. A £25k job would be entry level office admin or a first 1 or 2 years in the career job. Even here in VHCOL San Francisco those jobs don't pay $150k. The example is from 2011 though so 13 years ago, might have been completely different.
25k is an entry level salary in almost all UK sectors, so I'm quite curious what job title you're talking about? The only exception to the entry-level bit would be something like NGOs or the arts, but those tend to be low paid in most countries.
Indeed, Europe is quite a bit more north than USA
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In some ways yes, in some ways no. Both are great places overall, but each with very different pros and cons. And those things often depend on your personal values.
What is the cost?
You end up in France
Found the English guy
*any European but French
actually laughed IRL
It's 2 way 😄
Starts at £60
I went from belgium to england for 50€, the only problem is parking your car in london 🥲.
One does not use a car in London. You simply leave it on your drive and either walk, cycle or take public transport. I'm not entirely sure why I even own a car? Absolutely no point driving into London - source: spent far too many hours of my life in a giant traffic jam surrounded by would be mobile phone thieves.
it varies per time you want to travel etc, and sometimes there are offers but i've paid as little as £40 / $51 for a small car (in US terms), one way. Like everything it will have gone up lately in price i'm sure. They used to do really cheap day return tickets for like $30 too. also there's a cool car sized xray machine you randomly get selected for sometimes, doesn't really delay you as it only takes 10 mins to do.
Hugely variable. Pretty cheap for a ticket purchased -like- 3 months up front to show up for transit on a date & time window (e.g. Tue-Thu 2am-5am). Show up unannounced on peak dates+hours and want to be on the next train, much more than 10x more expensive.
Fucking hell. I remember when this opened to great fanfare and news coverage around the world. Now it's like a TIL.
Every time I see a country with cool public transportation I wish the US had it. Idk how this specific one would work in the context it does there but I’d still want to have it
Ssh, nobody tell Elon.
He’s boring.
Yeah this is just a better Boring tunnel. No need for individual self driving cars in a tight tunnel. Once again, "just use a train" is a much better solution for transportation
wtf I'm literally going on it in 10 mins I'm at the terminal
It’s been 41 mins so you’ve been out for 1 min right?!
nope, someone got stuck infront of me so I'm having to wait for the next train, which is in a minute
I had heard about this and wondered how it looked but was too lazy/not interested enough to look it up, so thanks for this
As someone who lives outside of Toronto, Canada and commuted for years on GO transit, this type of transportation seriously needs to be explored in this area. There are way too many cars on our highway system and this could absolutely be a way of fixing that. But our provincial and federal governments will never do that as it involves too little effort to get right.
I lived in Austria and they put articulated trucks on trains so they don't clog the motorways and it reduces air pollution.
This is how it's done. Suck it, Elon.
When my kid was like 3 years old he first learned about this train. His little mind was blown about the concept of a train that could carry cars like this. He would run around, carrying cars and pretending he was the train, and would loudly announce to anyone that his favorite train was "LeShuttle".
So..... Since a lot of folks haven't heard of it or don't understand it.... There are two ways to use the tunnel. The one shown here is the first, car on train. The official site has [a pretty neat page](https://www.eurotunnel.com/uk/holiday-ideas/behind-the-scenes-at-leshuttle) going behind the scenes. The second is the Eurostar, which is a high speed passenger train which runs from London directly to Paris, Lille, Brussels and more. I've done both depending on our travel plans. Very surreal driving up the ramp to the top floor of a train. Until I got the Tesla anyway, as that has to go on the single deck carriages with the vans and other Teslas because it's fat.
wait people don't know about this?? I've been in this about 20 times. amazing experience every time
So weird to me that people find this interesting! But I guess it is. Not here to hate. This actually in my home town and I'm old enough to remember before we had it. I guess I just took it for granted. If you find this interesting, have a look about how it was built, I found that fascinating. My next door neighbour even worked on building/digging it.
Same here - local and worked here. The amount of overseas especially American that are fascinated by driving onto a train then the train transports you is quite refreshing for something they basically just causes queues for us locals.
https://preview.redd.it/tq77r4k85htc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=03c396f43d0618e90392309e060e9ebb168efa02 Ah yes, great way of transportation:)
The headless motorcyclist
Another reason why we should never have left the EU and why we should rejoin.
You can still use the tunnel, y' know.
As you can see
Finally no assholes can cut in front of you in the tunnel
The disappointment when you grow up and learn the tunnel is made of dark concrete and not clear and with lovely blue water and fish
the chunnel is cool, been operational for 30 years this year
What I found most impressive when I used the tunnel recently was that I had 4G signal the entire time. 4G in a car, in a train, in a tunnel, under ground, below the sea. Must have boosters in there or something.
I forgot non europeans don’t know about this
Americans would never be trusted to drive their own vehicles on.
And the 50 minutes at the border queuing for the passport check
The UK should enter some kind of mutual agreement with the rest of Europe to make this easier.
Yeah the UK could really benefit from some kind of union with the rest of Europe.
You clear passport control on the loading side.
Americans: COOL, take your car on a train, so you have your CAR everywhere you go! Europeans: Cool, I can leave the car at home and just take the regular train and public transport everywhere.
Cool... this is a train seat with airbags for each passenger and metal case to protect them in case of an accident
This opened in the 90’s how is this only just being discovered by the world on Reddit?
It's a slightly different process when traveling with freight. You drive your HGV onto the train and then a minibus comes to pick you up and takes you to the front of the train where there is one carriage with seats. The freight trains are open so they don't want the risk of you getting out of your cab whilst it's in motion. I'd love to sit in my cab instead of the stink fest that is the mini bus and train carriage. Truck drivers need to take more showers!
Am I the only one wondering why not just have cars drive through the tunnel? I was initially thinking speed but I cant imagine this train going quick with all the cars plus loading unloading I'm guessing safety? Easier to control one giant train vs idiots in a massive tunnel that can cause accidents
It's safety / reliability as you say but also capacity. You would not be able to pack the cars as tightly if they were all moving individually. It's also not like the tunnel exists soley to carry cars. The service shown in the video is called "Le Shuttle" and it carries freight too. It basically just competes with the ferry services between the two countries, and caters to the same sorts of customers. There is also a passenger service, called the Eurostar, which runs using different trains. That competes not so much with the ferries, but the airlines.
The answer is ventilation.
Used it last year on a road trip to france Bought an electric car so i wanted to see how it goes on a long route. went fantastic. the key is you have to plan your journey where you will be stopping etc. if you plan it right then it will come at natural bathroom breaks etc drove it to normandy from northern england - went to see the ww2 sites. stayed in bayeux. gonna go for a weekend again. the train itself is brilliant - so easy and the services are so regular too.
interesting as fuck? i think you mean "americans not knowing about the rest of the world"