Few projects have stirred the imagination as much as the building of the Channel Tunnel. The sheer scale of the enterprise and the immense effort involved in creating the Tunnel, can only be admired. Aware of the historic significance of the project, Eurotunnel employed camera crews to film every stage of the work as it progressed. It is from this vast and hitherto largely unseen Eurotunnel archive that much of this programme has been made. Beginning with a brief historical survey of previous efforts to construct a fixed link across the Channel, the programme concentrates on the railway aspects of the project. The story of the construction of the Tunnel is interwoven with the vital role that railways played in its execution. The large narrow gauge railway network built to service the construction work is explored as is the building and testing of the locomotives and rolling stock which were to be used on Eurotunnel’s ‘Le Shuttle’ service. 

The programme also looks at the futuristic Euro star trains which provide the through passenger services between Britain and the continent. Anyone with even a passing interest in the Channel Tunnel will be engrossed by this programme. Those who believe in railways and who feel that they should play an enhanced role in our lives will be inspired by the Tunnel and the trains which use it and at the vision they present of what can be done if both the finance and the will to develop a railway for the twenty first century, can be brought together.