Eurotunnel: fascinating facts you may not have known…

The Channel Tunnel is the longest undersea tunnel in the world, with this section being 38km (23.6 miles) long.

4.9 million cubic metres of chalk was excavated from the tunnel during construction. This was used to enlarge the British Isles by 30 hectares, by creating Samphire Hoe Country Park.

The Channel Tunnel actually comprises three tunnels: two running tunnels carry Eurotunnel freight and passenger vehicle trains, and Eurostar, with a smaller service tunnel in the middle.

The first ever passenger on Le Shuttle was Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II - on May 6 1994.

In 2014, Tour de France champion Chris Froome was the first person to ride a bicycle through the Channel Tunnel. It took him approximately 55 minutes to complete the 31-mile journey from Folkestone to Calais.

Anglo-French crime drama series The Tunnel was filmed inside the Channel Tunnel for Sky Atlantic.

Since it opened, the equivalent of six times the population of the UK has crossed through the Tunnel.

Around one million e-commerce express delivery parcels travel via Eurotunnel each day.

A Eurotunnel passenger shuttle train is almost 800 metres long, the same length as seven football pitches. If all nine shuttles were parked end to end, they would stretch for nearly four and a half miles!

The Channel Tunnel connected the island of Great Britain with the European mainland by land for the first time since the Ice Age, about 8,000 years ago.

Eurotunnel Le Shuttle trains have transported over 3.5 million pets since 2000, an average of 156,000 a year! They have also transported all kinds of weird and wonderful animals - including red pandas, sloths, orangutans, snow leopards, pythons, jellyfish, bears and wolves.

Travelling with Eurotunnel emits 73 times less C0 than travelling 2 by ferry.