Small fire: Continent cut off

[Gangster Octopus]

Fire in the Chunnel.

[Eggchaser]

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Daily Mail readers rejoice until they realise cheap trips to Paris are now out for a bit.

[My Name Is Ian]

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Had I not been an utter idiot regarding dates this week, I'd have been due to be coming home on the Channel Tunnel tonight. Or not, as it turns out.

[Crusoe]

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BOLLOCKS.

I'm supposed to be on a Eurostar train to Brussels tomorrow.

[anton pulisov]

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You'd think they'd have learned by now that putting trucks on a train and sending them through a tunnel isn't a good idea.

[Crusoe]

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Well, fuck. That's my wife's birthday ruined and no holiday for us. Fuck.

Anyone know where I can change Euros back into Sterling without paying commission?

[Bill Poster]

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More to the point putting them on trains WITH HOLES IN. This was the 'cheaper' option and has the effect of fanning the flames of the (so far) 3 fires that have occurred on vehicles on the trains, this being the second serious one.

There’s a lot being made about the ‘chemicals’ involved here and why are they being carried through the tunnel but they’re missing the point - phenol would not cause this fire. The point is you shouldn’t have open wagons. Suspicion is currently being levelled at an overheated brake. Again without the fanning, I can't see this causing a fire otherwise. They are quite common occurances.

Given the involvement of Dangerous Goods it will make it more difficult to deal with the fire not least as the fire crews will require gas tight chemical protection suits and fire kit. Given the conditions in that tunnel you can stand about 5 minutes of that before you become a boil-in-the-bag body.

This is gonna burn for a while and create a lot of damage. I’d book a flight instead Crusoe.

[Eggchaser]

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Except Excel have just gone bust as well...

[Bill Poster]

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Obviously their sums didn't add up.

You missed a trick in not setting up a new Thread with "Urgent XL Help Required"

[kugelrund]

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Anyone know where I can change Euros back into Sterling without paying commission?

Marks and Spencer - and the Post Office. If they haven't all been shut round your way.

Have you thought about the train / foot passenger on ferry / train option, by the way?

[ursus arctos]

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Bill, does "open wagons" include shipping containers on flatbeds ("intermodal" in US speak).

Those are the standard in Switzerland, which is in process of building a 60 km long tunnel to supplement the Gottardo. Given the problems that they have had with road tunnels, I'd hope that they would have learned their lessons.

[Jimmy Bignutz]

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Containers do go through the tunnel, and aren't particularly flammable I don't think, but this incident was a Roll-on Roll-off service, which conveys lorries. They are in open wagons, rather like cages, as opposed to the car-carrying vehicles, which are closed. (see the images here).

The car carrying shuttles through the tunnels in Switzerland generally have open wagons, I'm pretty sure.

[ursus arctos]

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The current ones do (they are just on flatbeds which don't even have sides, unlike the one in the photo).

I'm not sure if they are changing that for the "AlpTransit" tunnels.

[Incandenza]

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ursus arctos wrote:

Those are the standard in Switzerland, which is in process of building a 60 km long tunnel to supplement the Gottardo. Given the problems that they have had with road tunnels, I'd hope that they would have learned their lessons.

There's a great article in the New Yorker this week by Burkhard Bilger on the Gotthard Base Tunnel. Unfortunately it's not online.

[ursus arctos]

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Excellent. It should arrive in a couple of weeks.

We were there last week, but didn't have a chance to visit the AlpTransit visitor centre. Ursus minor and I may go for the day later this year.

[Bill Poster]

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UA: they are designed like this:



So as you can see it is basically justa flatbed with heavily ventilated sides. Perfect for fanning fires.

Rather than their DG policy, I think after a third fire and the second in which heavy tunnel damage has taken place they'll need to rethink the design of these carriages.

P.S. The headline of the BBC web article I took that off was "Chunnel trains 'safer than ever' - Eurotunnel". Yeah... right!

[Spearmint Rhino]

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Wow, I can't remember when I last heard the word 'Chunnel', but it can't have been long after I last heard the phrase 'Olivia Neutron Bomb'.

[Bill Poster]

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BTW - I wanted to Big Up GO for his thread title. For those who don't know it's in reference to the headline "Fog in Channel, Continent Cut Off". Tells you all you need to know about the Middle England attitude to the rest of Europe.

More here

[Jimmy Bignutz]

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Yeah, I think they dropped the name Chunnel at about the time it opened. The word just makes me think of the made-up film in Seinfeld.

[Incandenza]

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Jimmy Bignutz wrote:

Yeah, I think they dropped the name Chunnel at about the time it opened. The word just makes me think of the made-up film in Seinfeld.

Really? I thought that was still used (it was used in the New Yorker article I mentioned).