Firemen want Chunnel ban
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by Sally Nash • Firefighters are warning drivers to boycott the Channel Tunnel following Eurotunnel's internal report into the fire, which ruled out re-designing the semi-open freight wagons.
The Fire Brigades Union (FBI:), which issued its own report into the fire, says drivers should not risk travelling on the lattice-type wagons because they are inherently unsafe and help fire spread more quickly.
Assistant general secretary of the FBU, Mike Fordham, says: "Drivers are putting themselves at risk." He accuses Eurotunnel of complacency and putting economics before passenger safety.
Another fire is a certainty, says Fordham. Next time there will be fatalities if the fire begins near the club car. where the drivers are travelling, he adds.
He says the decision to introduce smoke hoods for passengers and crew members reveals that Eurotunnel has accepted the inevitability of another fire. And he rejects Eurotunnel's claim that issues of gauge and weight make it impossible to run enclosed wagons.
"1 don't believe it is beyond the wit of man to design a light material that would not increase the weight. We don't need a very robust skin on the wagon."
Enclosed wagons would allay concerns about other issues such as the types of goods carried, says Fordham.
Arrogance Fordham also accuses Eurotunnel of arrogance. He claims Eurotunnel had ordered 1:200m worth of wagons even before getting approval from the Safety Authority and has just reordered another .C400m of new rolling stock.
But Eurotunnel, which does not even mention the issue of wagon design in its report, claims that only drastic structural work would enable enclosed wagons to be run. It can't be done without redesigning the whole system without reaming out the tunnel," says Eurotunnel's director of public affairs John Noulton. On weight, Noulton says that Eurotunnel is already close to its maximum weight threshold because it has to he in a position to carry 4-4 tonne lorries.
Any extra weight — on the outside skin and doors of the enclosed wagons for example — would push Euro-tunnel over this threshold, says Noulton.
Eurotunnel insists that the measures that it is introducing, on procedures, equipment and training will make a safe system even safer. It says the £1bn service tunnel "gives a level of safety that no other tunnel in the world can provide". Eurotunnel co-chairman Patrick Ponsolle says: "I'm not optimistic to the point of thinking that nothing will happen again — you cannot provide 100% safety."
Noulton has been told that the French judicial authorities looking into the incident are still trying to establish whether the fire was a result of an accident or a deliberate act. The authorities have ruled out any mechanical systems failure on the part of Eurotunnel equipment or rolling stock.
Noulton now hopes that the Channel Tunnel Safety Authority report. which is likely to be released after the election, will be favourable to Eurotunnel.