In which year did the Channel Tunnel open?

The Channel Tunnel opened in 1994.

The tunnel was officially inaugurated on 6 May 1994 by Queen Elizabeth II and French President François Mitterrand at a ceremony in Calais. It connects Folkestone in Kent with Coquelles near Calais, running beneath the English Channel and creating the first fixed rail link between Great Britain and continental Europe.

Construction began in 1988 after engineers on both sides bored two rail tunnels and a central service tunnel through chalk marl. The two tunnelling teams met in the service tunnel on 1 December 1990, with the breakthrough misaligned by only a small amount. The completed system is about 50.5 kilometres long, including roughly 37.9 kilometres beneath the sea.

“Opened” can cause confusion because services began in stages. Freight trains started running in June 1994, Eurostar passenger service began in November, and vehicle shuttles began later that year. Thus 1994 is the correct year for the tunnel’s official opening, even though full operations developed over 1994 and 1995.