Re: How did the channel tunnel get built?

In message <4gpg6eF1ncfthU1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
"tim \(back at home\)" <tim_back_home2006@xxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:


"Roland Perry" <roland@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:yShqHKE4S4pEFAUi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
In message <4gpc5cF1ojb7kU1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, at 08:49:46 on Sun, 2 Jul
2006, "tim (back at home)" <tim_back_home2006@xxxxxxxxxxx> remarked:
I think that just because it isn't covering it's costs
it isn't necessarily failing.

Although it's possible (wiki E&OE) that the plan against which success is
measured includes, and I quote, "The cost of the bridge is expected to be
paid back by 2035".

AIUI the number of users exceeds the expected number.

Their own page says they are "approaching its target" for HGVs, although
that's a percentage target, which leaves it open that the overall numbers
are down (a bit like E* taking a huge share of the London-Paris passenger
market, but that market not having expanded as expected).

This makes it a success even if it is not immediately
commecially successful. It has to be remembered
that there are additional social benefits from the link
that can be considered if, as here, the link has been
built by Government rather than a commercial
organisation.

Yes, but I would like to understand how much of that's hindsight. It's all
very well to start [even a government funded] project on the promise of a
particular payback, but when you need to change the criteria a few years
later in order to claim it's a success, I get a bit concerned.

I don't think that they have changed the criteria.

The Danish Government (and yes I know that this is not
a Danish only project) have a policy aiming to replace
*all* their main ferries with bridges. Some of them have
no hope of covering their costs with traffic tolls but they
still want to build them.

In Norway they are trying to replace all ferries by tunnels, not
always along the same routes, there are things like avoidance of
regular avalanche paths to consider, and the tolls are normally set at
the level of the ferries they replace. The routes are often very
short, and traffic light. I have never heard of any calculation of
payback time, they seem to think that such building is part of the
state's duty and bugger the cost.

Michael Bell

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