Chunnel support
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WIDE SUPPORT for a Channel tunnel which one Euro MP suggested should be called the Europe Tunnel was given in a debate in the European parliament in Strasbourg last week.
Euro MPs discussed a report by Belgium socialist Paul de Keermaeker who backs a singlerail link, 49.36km long, which would allow a 35-minute journey. The cost is estimated at £500m, and an additional road alongside would double the bill. Work could begin in 1983, it was proposed, and end in 1989 with EEC loan and interest subsidies.
Most MPs viewed the project favourably, but Euro MP Christopher Jackson (Conservative) was afraid that the county of Kent, known as the Garden of England, would be turned into a "Garden of Lorries".
New transport commissioner in the European parliament Georges Kontogeorgis now hopes to raise the tunnel issue again with the EEC ministers.