Eurotunnel Calais Terminal

Calais Terminal
Eurotunnel Shuttle vehicle transport terminal
A Class 9 locomotive waits at Coquelles
Location	Coquelles, Pas-de-Calais France
Coordinates	50°55′22″N 1°48′50″E / 50.92278°N 1.81389°E / 50.92278; 1.81389Coordinates: 50°55′22″N 1°48′50″E / 50.92278°N 1.81389°E / 50.92278; 1.81389
Owned by	Eurotunnel
Line(s)	Channel Tunnel
Platforms	8 island Platform
Tracks	8
Construction
Structure type	At Grade
History
Opened	6 May 1994

The Eurotunnel Calais Terminal is a railway terminal built for the transport of road-going vehicles on specially constructed trains through the Channel Tunnel. The terminal is one of two, with the Eurotunnel Folkestone Terminal located at Cheriton, near Folkestone.

As part of the Channel Tunnel project, the plan for services included the use of dedicated shuttle trains that would carry both passenger and freight vehicles between Britain and France, which would compete with the cross-channel ferries. In order to accommodate these services, it was planned to build a brand new vehicle terminal on each side of the tunnel that would allow cars and lorries to be loaded quickly onto the trains. The site chosen for the French terminal was Coquelles, near Calais, not far from the French tunnel portal.

The site chosen was a large greenfield area of more than 1700 acres, which provided significantly more space than the British terminal. However, a large proportion of the area chosen for construction was marshland, with anything from 3 to 10 metres of peat on top of the solid ground. As a consequence, 12,000,000 m³ of material had to be removed to provide solid foundations, before work could begin on building the actual facility.

The main parts of the passenger terminal to be built were the platforms and overbridges that connect it to the A16, and thence to the rest of the autoroute network. The tunnel was officially opened on 6 May 1994, with services between Cheriton and Coquelles beginning in July the same year, when the first freight shuttles started running. Passenger services then started in December 1994.

The terminal consists of eight island platforms, with four overbridges connecting them to the autoroute. The overbridges are located at approximately equidistant points along the length of the platforms so that vehicles have to drive for as little distance as possible along the platforms themselves; vehicles unloaded from the front to the middle of the train would use the furthest bridge, while those unloaded from the centre to the rear would use the next bridge in, and vice versa for those vehicles embarking. The bridges at the western end of the platforms are intended for embarking vehicles, while those at the eastern end are for those disembarking. The island platforms are separated by single track, allowing vehicles to access the train from both sides.