Thursday 24 April 2014 11:44 am

Four things we could be sending through the Channel Tunnel

The Channel Tunnel carried an average of 25,617 passengers, 3,855 trucks and 7.84 freight trains every day during the first three months of the year.

But the tunnel, completed in 1994, is equipped to shuttle much more than this. Here are a few of the things that we could be sending to the Continent through the Chunnel.

1. A lot more trains

An obvious idea, but the two rail tunnels are capable of taking a lot more trains carrying passengers and freight.

Eurotunnel chief exec Jacques Gounon told City A.M. today that there is “no real limit to deal with new traffic”. Deutsche Bahn is waiting in the wings to set up a rival to the Eurostar – but its trains are still being built by Siemens, so services are not expected until 2016 at the earliest.

2. Horses

When the Channel Tunnel was first proposed in the 19th century, it was originally thought that travellers would enter by horse-drawn stagecoaches, changing animals halfway through. Modern-day horses can traverse the Chunnel in air-conditioned carriages – handy for the World Equestrian Games in Normandy this summer – though not everyone uses the service for show-jumping.

Eurotunnel boasted in November that it has carried more than a million pets.

3. Electricity and internet cables

Eurotunnel aims to offer 4G mobile internet from this summer, once Vodafone and EE rig up the tunnel with mobile radios and cables. Plans to send electricity cables through to France are further away, with the Eleclink joint venture between Eurotunnel and Star Capital Partners snarled up in regulatory disputes until recently. Work is due to start later this year.

4. Walkers

Definitely not recommended, but theoretically possible. There have been a handful of cases of desperate or confused ramblers walking some or all of the 31-mile underwater route.

The Daily Mail even partnered with a charity to support a walk through the Chunnel in 1994, before it opened for train travel.