IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jotrge/v31y2013icp104-112.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Channel Tunnel: transport patterns and regional impacts

Author

Listed:
  • Thomas, Peter
  • O’Donoghue, Daniel

Abstract

Since its opening in 1994 the Channel Tunnel has become a key element in the transport infrastructure linking Britain and continental Europe. But, as well as forming part of the Trans-European Rail Network, the Channel Tunnel was also seen as a potential stimulus to trans-frontier collaboration and as a possible catalyst for regional economic development. The aim of the paper is to evaluate the regional impacts of the Tunnel within the Anglo-French frontier zone on both sides of the English Channel. Although millions of passengers travel through the Tunnel every year, numbers have failed to reach the forecast levels and the overall benefits are fewer than had been anticipated. The English Channel still represents a psychological barrier (partly due to language differences) and the frontier zone has failed to develop as an integrated labour market. Moreover, the findings suggest that the Channel Tunnel has only had a limited impact on the spatial economy of the trans-frontier zone in Kent and Nord-Pas-de-Calais. While Ashford has undoubtedly gained from its high-speed rail connection, the greatest impacts have occurred in metropolitan regions further from the Tunnel, including Lille and East London.

Suggested Citation

  • Thomas, Peter & O’Donoghue, Daniel, 2013. "The Channel Tunnel: transport patterns and regional impacts," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 104-112.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jotrge:v:31:y:2013:i:c:p:104-112
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2013.06.004
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0966692313001142
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2013.06.004?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Knowles, Richard D. & Matthiessen, Christian W., 2009. "Barrier effects of international borders on fixed link traffic generation: the case of Øresundsbron," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 17(3), pages 155-165.
    2. Bent Flyvbjerg, 2008. "Public Planning of Mega-Projects: Overestimation of Demand and Underestimation of Costs," Chapters, in: Hugo Priemus & Bent Flyvbjerg & Bert van Wee (ed.), Decision-Making on Mega-Projects, chapter 7, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    3. Flyvbjerg,Bent & Bruzelius,Nils & Rothengatter,Werner, 2003. "Megaprojects and Risk," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521009461, September.
    4. Anguera, Ricard, 2006. "The Channel Tunnel--an ex post economic evaluation," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 40(4), pages 291-315, May.
    5. Chen, Chia-Lin & Hall, Peter, 2012. "The wider spatial-economic impacts of high-speed trains: a comparative case study of Manchester and Lille sub-regions," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 89-110.
    6. Henk Van Houtum & Martin Van Der Velde, 2004. "The Power of Cross‐Border Labour Market Immobility," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 95(1), pages 100-107, February.
    7. Hugo Priemus & Bent Flyvbjerg & Bert van Wee (ed.), 2008. "Decision-Making on Mega-Projects," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 4112.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Curl, Angela & Davison, Lisa, 2014. "Transport Geography: perspectives upon entering an accomplished research sub-discipline," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 100-105.
    2. Shahtahmassebi, Amir Reza & Wu, Chun & Blackburn, George Alan & Zheng, Qing & Huang, Lingyan & Shortridge, Ashton & Shahtahmassebi, Golnaz & Jiang, Ruowei & He, Shan & Wang, Ke & Lin, Yue & Clarke, Ke, 2018. "How do modern transportation projects impact on development of impervious surfaces via new urban area and urban intensification? Evidence from Hangzhou Bay Bridge, China," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 479-497.
    3. Liu, Weichen & Cao, Youhui & Wu, Wei & Guo, Jiaying, 2020. "Spatial impact analysis of trans-Yangtze highway fixed links: A case study of the Yangtze River Delta, China," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    4. Jean Ryan & Anders Wretstrand, 2020. "Improving Coherence in a Cross-Border Public Transport System: Lessons from the Greater Copenhagen Region," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(15), pages 1-18, August.
    5. Bjarnason, Thoroddur, 2014. "The effects of road infrastructure improvement on work travel in Northern Iceland," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 229-238.
    6. Aigner, Rafael & Weber, Katharina, 2017. "The Fehmarn Belt duopoly – Can the ferry compete with a tunnel?," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 1-15.
    7. Wu, Qitao & Fan, Jie & Zhang, Hongou & Ye, Yuyao, 2017. "The spatial impacts model of trans-strait fixed links: A case study of the Pearl River Delta, China," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 30-39.
    8. Nabin, Munirul H. & Sgro, Pasquale M., 2018. "Bilateral international agreement, cooperation and reneging," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 27-33.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Miller, Michael & Szimba, Eckhard, 2015. "How to avoid unrealistic appraisal results? A concept to reflect the occurrence of risk in the appraisal of transport infrastructure projects," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 65-75.
    2. Carl Koopmans & Piet Rietveld, 2013. "Long-term impacts of mega-projects: the discount rate," Chapters, in: Hugo Priemus & Bert van Wee (ed.), International Handbook on Mega-Projects, chapter 14, pages 313-332, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    3. Wu, Qitao & Fan, Jie & Zhang, Hongou & Ye, Yuyao, 2017. "The spatial impacts model of trans-strait fixed links: A case study of the Pearl River Delta, China," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 30-39.
    4. Martijn Leijten, 2013. "Real-world decision-making on mega-projects: politics, bias and strategic behaviour," Chapters, in: Hugo Priemus & Bert van Wee (ed.), International Handbook on Mega-Projects, chapter 4, pages 57-82, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    5. Bent Flyvbjerg, 2014. "What You Should Know About Megaprojects, and Why: An Overview," Papers 1409.0003, arXiv.org.
    6. Sanko, Nobuhiro & Morikawa, Takayuki & Nagamatsu, Yoshitaka, 2013. "Post-project evaluation of travel demand forecasts: Implications from the case of a Japanese railway," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 209-218.
    7. Bert van Wee & Jan Anne Annema & Hugo Priemus, 2013. "Model building for infrastructure initiatives," Chapters, in: Peter Karl Kresl & Jaime Sobrino (ed.), Handbook of Research Methods and Applications in Urban Economies, chapter 17, pages 423-441, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    8. Atif Ansar & Martin Pohlers, 2014. "Fluid populations, immobile assets: Synchronizing infrastructure investments with shifting demography," International Area Studies Review, Center for International Area Studies, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, vol. 17(2), pages 222-248, June.
    9. Giorgio Locatelli, 2018. "Why are Megaprojects, Including Nuclear Power Plants, Delivered Overbudget and Late? Reasons and Remedies," Papers 1802.07312, arXiv.org.
    10. te Boveldt, Geert & Van Raemdonck, Koen & Macharis, Cathy, 2018. "A new railway tunnel under Brussels? Assessing political feasibility and desirability with competence-based multi criteria analysis," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 30-39.
    11. Lauriane Gorce (ed.), 2017. "Parameters influencing the choice of durability of a public infrastructure - a literature review," Rapports, Polytechnique Montreal, Groupe de recherche en Gestion et mondialisation de la technologie, number 2017-02, January-J.
    12. Bent Flyvbjerg, 2021. "Four Ways to Scale Up: Smart, Dumb, Forced, and Fumbled," Papers 2101.11104, arXiv.org.
    13. Hugo Priemus & Marian Bosch-Rekveldt & Mendel Giezen, 2013. "Dealing with the complexity, uncertainties and risk of megaprojects: redundancy, resilience and adaptivity," Chapters, in: Hugo Priemus & Bert van Wee (ed.), International Handbook on Mega-Projects, chapter 5, pages 83-110, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    14. Knut Samset, 2013. "Strategic and tactical performance of mega-projects – between successful failures and inefficient successes," Chapters, in: Hugo Priemus & Bert van Wee (ed.), International Handbook on Mega-Projects, chapter 2, pages 11-33, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    15. Rothengatter, Werner, 2019. "Megaprojects in transportation networks," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 1-15.
    16. Bent Flyvbjerg, 2013. "Why Mass Media Matter to Planning Research: The Case of Megaprojects," Papers 1304.1665, arXiv.org.
    17. Thomopoulos, N. & Grant-Muller, S. & Tight, M.R., 2009. "Incorporating equity considerations in transport infrastructure evaluation: Current practice and a proposed methodology," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 32(4), pages 351-359, November.
    18. Dean, M., 2021. "Participatory multi-criteria analysis methods: Comprehensive, inclusive, transparent and user-friendly? An application to the case of the London Gateway Port," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    19. Federico Savini, 2017. "Planning, uncertainty and risk: The neoliberal logics of Amsterdam urbanism," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 49(4), pages 857-875, April.
    20. Dimitriou, Harry T. & Ward, E. John & Dean, Marco, 2016. "Presenting the case for the application of multi-criteria analysis to mega transport infrastructure project appraisal," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 7-20.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jotrge:v:31:y:2013:i:c:p:104-112. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-transport-geography .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.