Tunnel vision of horror at link with Trump’s US

IT is ironic that we face exit from Europe as we celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Channel Tunnel.

The 31-mile rail connection between Folkestone and Coquelles near Calais has made a journey easy and comfortable that has, over the centuries often been dangerous and caused trepidation in travellers susceptible to mal de mer, of whom I am one.

A 10-hour crossing from Poole to Cherbourg in a Force 10 will live in my mind forever, and on a Calais crossing I held onto my stomach contents by willpower alone, in the knowledge that the lavatories were overflowing, when the 90-minute trip was extended to four hours because due to rough conditions.

Having a tunnel linking us to France was first proposed by a French engineer in 1802. One cartoon showed how it could work with horse-drawn coaches and a man-made island halfway to change the steeds.

Another showed it being used for invasion with Napoleon’s army marching to England below the waves while armadas of ships and balloons sailed overhead.

Serious plans were submitted to Napoleon III in 1856 but there was an understandable lack of enthusiasm on the British side. They still remembered Bonaparte’s invasion cartoon.

When

the

First World War started, both sides wished a tunnel had been built. It was estimated a tunnel could have shortened the war by two years.

Construction got under way for real in 1988. Since it opened in 1994, the Channel Tunnel has carried more than 57 million passengers on the 35-minute journey beneath the sea.

As Brexit could be close, perhaps Prime Minister Johnson might prefer a tunnel to America.

The 3,000-plus miles from New York to London could be travelled in special trains that, at the moment are concept only, at speeds up to 5,000 mph, making the journey time less than an hour to be that much closer to Trump’s America. Now that is more frightening than Bonaparte.