The safety and security are the utmost priorities to Eurotunnel, key requirements which have been taken into account since the Channel Tunnel was designed. Whether faced with exceptional circumstances, or every day routines, the safety and security of Eurotunnel’s passengers and members of staff, closely linked to that of the various systems, remains at the heart of Eurotunnel’s choices.

A major challenge: prevention

The Eurotunnel transport system and its safety procedures were put to the test in September 2008 by an exceptional event: a fire broke out, during crossing, onboard a Truck Shuttle, at 11km of the French Tunnel exit. To find out more on the return to normal operations, click here

This incident made it possible, most importantly, to gauge Eurotunnel’s efficiency and effectiveness in terms of the safety of people. The safety systems instantly detected the fire and the 32 people onboard the Club Car wagon at the front of the train were immediately evacuated to the Service Tunnel. The unique design of the Channel Tunnel has allowed to maintaining air pressure higher in the Service Tunnel, which keeps it smoke-free in case of a fire thus ensuring that people can be evacuated efficiently.

An analysis of the event timeline and management has led the group to establish that no fundamental changes were necessary concerning its processes in this area.

Nevertheless, the scale of the damage to the infrastructure and the consequences in terms of quality of service for our customers and loss of business for the company was considerable. In light of this, Eurotunnel very quickly launched a review looking into the means to be implemented in order to minimise the impact of such incidents in the future.

This review has already led to the immediate implementation of some initial measures:

• Strengthening Shuttle surveillance at platforms, by an additional agent responsible for checking that all safety operations have been carried before each departure.
• Distribution of safety guidelines to truck drivers in 9 languages, which is unique in the world, during loading operations on the Shuttle and display in the Club Car wagon.

Other prevention actions will be carried out over the short or medium term, once they have been approved by the relevant Authorities, such as:

• Review of operating procedure and conditions of intervention for fire services
• Creation, in the Tunnel, of some stations specially equipped with automatic fire suppression systems.

Bi-national safety exercise
In order to test the response and coordination of emergency services in the event of an incident inside the Channel Tunnel, Eurotunnel and the French and British governments organise every year a vast simulation safety exercise called Binat (as in bi-national).

Held in January 2009, the latest Binat was the 19th exercise since the construction of the Channel Tunnel and the 13th since the opening of Shuttle services in 1994.

Ensuring the safety of everyone working on Eurotunnel’s sites is a major task, regardless of role or activity, whether employees, temporary staff or sub-contractors.

When it comes to safety at work, the safety management implemented at Eurotunnel is quite satisfactory, even if the objective to minimise the possibility of accidents remains a constant priority.

To meet this objective, Eurotunnel continues each year to set up new systems as well as to develop and reinforce safety training.

After spending more than €30M on security equipment since 1999, Eurotunnel spent more than €10M in 2008 and is gearing up to make further investments, in line with its commitment to provide its customers with the best level of protection at all times and to manage the growing pressure from potential illegal migrants.

Under the Concession agreement, Eurotunnel is required to provide the governments with the means to enforce their national duties in terms of security. In this area, the company has always exceeded its contractual obligations. The entire video surveillance system fro the Folkestone and Shakespeare Cliff sites in England was renewed in 2008. On the French side, the already modernised video surveillance equipment will be upgraded again in 2009.

Before boarding a Shuttle,, each truck is scanned by the passive Millimetric Wave (PMMW) control system, enabling the real-time detection of any people hidden on board. If there are any doubts, the vehicle may then be subjected to a CO2 check and a visual inspection.

Following its 1st full year of use, the new Euroscan has proven its efficiency. This X-ray scanner, 2/3s funded by the French customs authorities and 1/3 by Eurotunnel, can detect the presence of any weapons or explosives in trucks by x-raying their loads; This Euroscan is contributing significantly to the higher level of security.

With more than 5,000 interceptions in 2008 on Eurotunnel’s sites, the number of people discovered in trucks or attempting to break in increased by 50% in 2008. Pressure from migrants who are trying to enter the United Kingdom illegally has therefore continued to grow. During this period, this phenomenon has not had any significant impact on operations or quality of service and has resulted in only a few slight delays on the trains. To continue managing this effectively in the future, with the dual concern of ensuring the safety of the migrants themselves as well as the quality of the operational services, Eurotunnel is looking into various high-technology solutions, and at the same time calling for the governments to further strengthen their resources.