BBC - The Channel Tunnel: Life on the Inside (2019)

Documentary going behind the scenes of the Channel Tunnel.

Going with the Flow
As the March Brexit deadline looms, the Eurotunnel teams at both ends of the channel tunnel are on a mission to keep everything moving: getting dog owners home after Crufts, keeping trucks moving despite strikes at French customs, and making sure the trains keep circulating, no matter what, on the world’s busiest and biggest trainset. We see inside Eurotunnel’s mission control centre, a lair any Bond villain would be proud of. And we meet the appropriately named Tash Speed, one of the company’s newest train drivers, who’s already earned the nickname Two Stop Tash for her daily habit of stopping the train just a little too soon. Meanwhile, the once-every-seven-year fan refurbishments at either end of the tunnel are under way. Airflow through the service tunnel, between the two running tunnels, is essential. Without it no trains will run. We find out why high-pressure air has to keep pumping, and how the giant fans at Sangatte in France and Samphire Hoe in England, get overhauled. And why, on the English side, the workers need a good head for heights. Finally, as Brexit rumbles on and deadlines approach and pass, we find out how the tunnel has prepared for the dreaded No Deal Scenario. Is the tunnel really ready?

At the Double
With up to 400 trains a day running on its 62 miles of track, the channel tunnel is the busiest railway system in the world. And doing things at the double is key to its success. Two countries built it. There are two terminals. And there is duplication at both ends. This programme shows how teams of two work on both sides of the channel to keep tourists and truckers moving. But how will preparations for Brexit affect such a well-oiled system of twinning and duplication, finely tuned over 25 years? How will the freight teams cope when car drivers end up in the wrong lanes? How do French cakes keep English teams in shape for handling the kind of chaos that ensues when trucks collide with trains? And is it true that no one chocks better than a channel tunnel chocker?

This episode also explores why two tunnels are better than one. And, although water and electricity are not a good combination, the film follows the catenary team every step of the way as they fix the overhead cables in the 'wet area' of the tunnel. There is also a driver’s eye view of the giant crossover doors that link one tunnel to another in the biggest undersea cave ever built. And the team meet Maurice, the charismatic tunnel travelling bulldog.

The Initial Idea
Eurotunnel teams have a quarter of a century’s worth of experience in getting cars and lorries onto trains. It all hinges on a finely tuned system using letters to send the right vehicles to right trains. But when pre-Brexit passport checks cause slow coaches, how will the allocation team in Folkestone keep the endless stream of half-term holiday traffic flowing?

Meanwhile, with the 25th anniversary well under way, there is some extreme painting going on at both ends of the tunnel: two giant murals that will somehow link to each other across the sea. But how will the
painters work around the tunnel entrance when the trains never stop running? Inside the tunnel, those high-speed trains are being slowed down by the air they push in front of them. And the only way to relieve the pressure is with tubes connecting one tunnel to another. So how do those tubes work and what happens when they need to be repaired? Plus we take a trip on the catenary team’s revolutionary new camera van that will transform the way they look for faults and we meet the Tottenham and Liverpool fans heading to Madrid for the Champion’s League final.

What Goes Around…
After 25 years in business, Eurotunnel is at a junction, with many of its staff facing retirement and new recruits being drafted in. And the next batch of wannabe shuttle drivers has just arrived for the first round of testing. The tests, however, are ruthless, with a 90% fail rate, so who will make it through?

Meanwhile the passenger comings and goings never stop and the summer is the busiest time of all, with super cars arriving in convoy for the Le Mans 24 hour race. But as the French step up their passport controls, and the screens jam at the Terminal Control Centre, will the supercars make it to France on time?

We also find out how the teams cope with “no tarmac day”, the busiest day of the year, when the schools break up and 10,200 cars head for the tunnel. Then we take a rollercoaster ride through the tunnel with train drivers Tash and Steve, who show us why the undersea geology makes the tunnel bend.

Inside the world’s biggest train shed in Calais, we see how maintenance teams keep the locomotives running. Back in Folkestone, we meet the UK team hard at work in the slightly smaller UK shed. Why do they love sheds? How come they don’t want to retire? And why is it that some of the staff are more concerned with Pexit than Brexit?