LNW-GW Joint
Veteran Member
One difference is that with 40km of tunnel under the channel, Transmanche Link had to publish regular progress reports for their bankers and shareholders to believe they were making progress.Eurotunnel also did this, but it was a phone number with recorded message, updated weekly, listed each TBM, how much dug each week, total length from each start point for each of the 11 TBMs
The first PR efforts of Eurotunnel were opaque statements like "more tunnel excavated in the last 6 weeks than in the previous 6 months" (without any actual distances quoted) - which fooled nobody!
With multiple shorter tunnels and much easier ground and access conditions, HS2 should be able to convince us it is making progress without an inch-by-inch commentary.