The Channel Tunnel - Life On The Inside

It’s the busiest railway system in the world, with more than 20 million passengers using it every year. Now, 25 years after it first opened, the BBC has been given unprecedented access to the Channel Tunnel - and the people who keep it running.

On the eve of Brexit, The Channel Tunnel - Life On The Inside, discovers what it takes to run an undersea transport system that at its peak has a train running every three minutes.

Stopping the tunnel from hitting the buffers 365 days a year are recently qualified train driver, ‘Two Stop’ Tash, who gets teased by her colleagues for struggling to stop her train at the right spot, and the French employee so appalled by the British diet he brings cakes to Folkestone.

As the journey unfolds, we meet the trains’ unusual cargo, from prize-winning Crufts dogs and hopeful racehorse owners, and supercars on their way to Le Mans to the sisters travelling to Belgium to stock up on wedding wine.

Every day 400 trains pass below the Channel, and at any time there can be seven trains travelling on each line, which leaves little room for mistakes and means engineering works are a race against time.

The BBC Two cameras follow Mark (pictured), also known as Buzz, as his team battles to fix overhead cables crackling with 25,000 volts in the 'wet area', while keeping an eye out for a family of adders.

Meanwhile, at either end of the line, teams are tasked with unloading freight shuttles of 64 lorries in just 26 minutes.

And we find out why the tunnel isn’t a straight line but bends and weaves like a river beneath the sea bed.

With never-before-seen footage and spellbinding stories, The Channel Tunnel - Life On The Inside, reveals what it’s really like inside one of the world’s busiest transport systems.

Pictured: Mark Cornwall Eurotunnel Catenary Manager

Publicity contact: JP