England to France - Channel Tunnel

This opinion is on the Le Shuttle service operating between Dover and Calais. There are two services that operate through the Channel Tunnel, the Eurostar and Le Shuttle. The Eurostar is a passenger service operating between London Waterloo and Paris or Brussels and Le Shuttle (it may be called Eurotunnel now, but it says Le Shuttle on the trains, so there!) is the service for passengers with cars.

I traveled on Le Shuttle on my way to Spa-Francorchamps and here is my opinion on what is probably the best way to get to France by car.

>>Destination
This service operates between Dover/Folkstone and Calais/Coquelles (sorry for any typos), basically it brings you a few miles inshore or both countries and these are the only options. The signs are clearly marked on the M20 and it’s not too far off the motorway. It also is not too difficult to find off France (and even Belgium) follow the clear signs to “La tunnel sur le manche”.

>>Frequency
Depending what you are travelling on, trains can leave every 15 minutes or so, but if you have something like an MPv (which takes a different train or a different part of a train) book early as slots are limited meaning you may not get the time you want, I was on an allegedly full train to France, but it was very empty. No complaints about the frequency though.

>>Booking
There are two ways to book, either online or by phone. If you book online you save £2, the phone lines are open from 08:00hrs to 20:00hrs Monday to Friday and from 08:00hrs to 18:00hrs Saturday/Sunday and Bank Holidays (UK times). The telephone number is 0870 840 0046 (national rate) and the website is at www.eurotunnel.com my advice is to use the website to get an estimate and then book by phone, it is worth having the assurance in my opinion. When you call, you are given a number, and if you take this to the toll, you will be given your tickets, and you can also use this number to make any enquiries.

Basically the details you need are travelling time(s), a credit card number and possibly the length/dimension of your vehicle and its make/model.

The hotline is quite efficient, though I was probably not calling at a busy time, the calls were answered in a minute and the call handler knew what they were doing, their computers seemed to be a little slow though, but I did have a complicated order.

>>Prices
First of all, look at this, this was one of the offers currently at the site (04 September 2001)

“Join in the summer madness with Eurotunnel. Evening trips for a car and passengers are from just £13 return when you book on line - so you would be crazy not to!”

WOW! That is cheap right? But there are obviously clauses and travel times are hugely limited and inconvenient. I urge you to check the price of what you want yourself, the pricing strategy is obviously correlated with the ones of its competitors (the ferry companies) and they are very variable.

Just don’t expect a single fare to be anywhere near £13. The trip I booked, for a 32 ft (10 metres) motorhome (which is classified in the same price range as a Land Rover or an MPV) cost £460 leaving on a Monday evening and returning on the early hours of the following Monday. It would have been £680 had we wanted to take the last Sunday train that was available. It think that that is a little expensive. The longer you are out of the UK, the more it will cost! It would have been only £360 if we wished to return that same evening.

>Naughty tip
This advice was given to me by a friend of mine, on how to save money. Let’s say that you want to go for a week to France and the ticket came up at £100. Well the advice I was given was that you should book a return ticket (the £13 one mentioned above) you won’t have a convenient departure time but who cares? And then forfeit the return, i.e. don’t show up. Then, while in France or wherever, book another £13 return, come back to the UK and don’t take the return trip, clever eh?

That’s a total cost of £26 and a little inconvenience, saving you £74! Is that against the terms and conditions? I don’t know, but in my opinion there is something terribly wrong with their pricing policy.

>>Getting there
Allow time so you start boarding the train with 30 minutes before departure!

>To France
As I said, there’s a junction for the Eurotunnel off the M20, there is one route for freight and one for cars/vans/buses etc… Once at the toll, just give them your booking number (and maybe credit card) or your ticket and they’ll give you a sign to hang on your rear view mirror and then let you through, then why not park the car and take a break or go to a tax-free Dixons or take a bite at Pret or Burger King before going to customs?

You are stopped by customs and they may check your passports and ask about meats and dairy products and if your car has any LPG, then that will be inspected and you will be given a sticker for that.

It’s a fairly long and tedious drive (and narrow) drive to board the train after customs, it may be okay in a car, but not if you are on a 32 foot Winnebago Brave SE which is wider than a bus!

>To Dover
It’s the same situation here but I don’t remember this as well, (I was too tired and reminiscing the events at Spa-Francorchamps). The drive to the train was shorter, but the customs place was much narrower!

>>Boarding
Once at the train, you are asked to drive onto it and make your way as far forward as possible. Each carriage is separated by a set of hydraulic fire doors, all looking very high tech and safe. The width of the train is wide enough for most but not for us, we almost knocked off the mirrors!

It’s different for cars, as I said, we were on the one for Jeeps, MPVs and caravans, this is single decker, the ones for cars are double decker, and I cannot comment on their width.

>>The Journey
>Time
We were told the crossing part takes 35 minutes, and that is probably a fair estimate (I am a frequent UK train traveller so I am very lenient here). There were no delays on the journey to France, but the return trip was delayed by 10 minutes and we arrived 20 minutes late. But beware, you may have heard on the news about asylum seekers trying to get through in the evenings causing major delays, this should be taken into account!

>Comfort
First of all the train is well lit and ventilated, probably air-conditioned. The ride if you are in your car, is very smooth, your car’s suspension absorbs all the bumps, you hardly know that you are moving. If you choose to stand outside the car (I am not sure if this option is available to all) then you will feel a very fast and smooth train ride, it’s only when you make your way through the fire doors to the next carriage to go to the bad toilets or whatever that U realise that things are not so comfortable. Also I wouldn't worry about Channel tunnel fires again, it feels very safe.

>All change, all change
Getting off the train is a slow and delayed process but once off it’s a simple ride and you are given the chance to refuel (but obviously at a more expensive rate than locally). You may have to go through customs on this side if you haven’t been through the other side.

>>Overall
This is a very good overall product, the question that is begging to be answered is “is it better than by ferry?” My answer is a yes, but both have their pros and cons. Le Shuttle is a nice modern form of transport and the ferry rather more traditional, and it takes longer to board a ferry and the crossing also takes longer, but there’s also more excitement on a ferry right? And the children have things to do...

If your aim is to get to the other side in the most efficient manner, this is it, but if you want scenery and something to do whilst crossing “la manche” then a ferry booking may be for you. Next time I should be taking Le Shuttle (hopefully L’Eurostar, maybe I'll win first class tickets from Ciao???).