Transport Ministries: Channel Tunnel (CT Series) Files

MT 144

1907-1989

This series contains the files of the Channel Tunnel Division and its successors in the Ministry of Transport and the Department of the Environment.

In 1960 and 1961 The Channel Tunnel Study Group and the Channel Bridge Study Group submitted proposals for Channel crossings. A joint working group of the UK and French governments examined the schemes, reporting in September 1963 (Cmnd 2137).

In 1964 the two governments commissioned the Channel Tunnel Study Group to carry out full surveys and the results published in 1964, confirmed the technical feasibility of boring the tunnel.

Meanwhile, the governments negotiated with an international group of investment institutions and in 1971 an agreement was signed with the group to carry forward the project on the basis of a mixture of risk capital and government guaranteed loans. This was followed by a detailed agreement in October 1972 for phase 1 of the project. A Treaty between the two governments and a further agreement with the companies for phase 2 were signed in November 1973 (Cmnd 5486).

Meanwhile, the estimated cost of the high speed link between London and the tunnel had risen substantially, and in April 1974 the new Labour Secretary of State for the Environment announced the setting up of an independent Channel Tunnel Advisory Group, under the chairmanship of Sir Alec Cairncross, to carry out a reassessment of the economic and financial viability of the project.

The enabling legislation needed in Britain had been delayed by the two general elections of 1974, and the new Government was unable to ratify the treaty by the agreed date of 1 January 1975. The private investors exercised their right to withdraw, and the project was abandoned.

The subjects covered in the files include the organisation of the project, its financial, legislative and physical planning aspects, the design and construction of the tunnel, geological surveys, Anglo-French policy discussions and the anticipated impact of the tunnel on other cross-Channel services.

CT Series

Public Record(s)

English

• Department of the Environment, Channel Tunnel Division, 1970-1972
• Department of the Environment, Channel Tunnel Studies Unit, 1972-1975
• Ministry of Transport, Channel Tunnel Division, 1967-1970
• Ministry of Transport, Channel Tunnel Group, 1964-1967

611 file(s)

Open unless otherwise stated

From 1992 to 2008 Department of Transport

Topics

Railways

Transport management

Treaties and alliances

Democracy

Construction industries

Banking

Series is accruing.

The Channel Tunnel Division, then Unit, was responsible for co-ordinating the department's work on the tunnel project. This included organisational, financial, legislative and physical planning aspects. The division gradually moved on to supervision of the British Government's interest, appraisal of British Railways Board proposals, general consultation, and setting up and operation of the Channel Tunnel Intergovernmental Commission, the Channel Tunnel Safety Authority, the UK Plenary and Kent Consultative Committee and related sub-committees.

The Channel Tunnel Studies Unit was wound down in 1974. When the project came to be revived in the late 1980s, as a completely commercial venture, infrastructure issues were handled in the Railways Directorate of the Department for Transport.