LeShuttle: the transport service for passenger vehicles

Eurotunnel’s passenger customers are looking for simplicity, flexibility and convenience when crossing the Channel. Last-minute bookings, ticket changes up until very late before departure, top quality service… the development strategy for the passenger shuttle service is based on a continuous upgrading of the LeShuttle offer.

The development of new services reinforces the quality of the Shuttle’s service every year. A watchword: low carbon high simplicity!

• Tickets that reflect the changing behaviour of our customers,
• A premium and 100% flexible service, Flexiplus, guaranteeing absolute priority from check-in to boarding,
• A scanner to facilitate the control of high vehicles,
• Provision of free charging stations for electric vehicles.

Did you know that?

• The 9 Shuttle passenger shuttles transport more than two million vehicles and their passengers every year.
• A LeShuttle is as long as 2 Eurostar.
• 35 minutes is the time it takes to get from Folkestone to Coquelles.
• Eurotunnel is equipped with automated airlocks with facial biometric recognition for coach passengers travelling with LeShuttle. For an agile and intelligent border!

LeShuttle Freight: the freight transport service

LeShuttle Freight is a strong link in the European logistics chain and has become a key player in cross-Channel transport, meeting the needs of manufacturers, logistics companies and e-commerce players in terms of reliability, punctuality and frequency.

In recent years, new services have been added to the LeShuttle Freight offer to simplify and facilitate the crossing for truck drivers:

• Eurotunnel Border Pass, a post-Brexit virtual wallet, set up to simplify import-export administrative procedures prior to arrival at the terminals (thanks to the automatic sharing of import and export documents with the French and British administrations);
• FIRST, a subscription that includes a range of innovative services including priority access to check-in or boarding lanes.
• Driver Info, a web app dedicated to truck drivers and transporters that delivers personalised information on transit times at each stage of their journey through the terminals, from check-in to arrival at their destination;
• The Truck Village (Coquelles), which offers an unprecedented package of services to truck drivers (270 secure parking spaces, available 24/7, connections for refrigeration units, a food truck, a lounge, an automatic mini-market, showers and sanitary facilities, a laundry, a temperature control cabin for sanitary measures, a mobile truck garage, a practical information website, etc.);
• a Border Services building, with the presence of RDEs (Registered Customs Representatives) on site to assist truckers and shippers in case of incomplete customs formalities.
• An unaccompanied trailer service, launched in September 2021, this service not only meets the objective of decarbonising logistics chains (40 times less CO₂ emissions than ferries on the Calais-Sheerness route) but also responds to the shortage of truck drivers in Europe.

With approximately 1.5 million trucks transported each year and a growing satisfaction rate among carriers and drivers, LeShuttle Freight is a vital link in the European supply chain. It contributes fully to the vitality and fluidity of pan-European trade.

Smart border: innovative solutions to simplify customs formalities

In a fast changing market, with a complex geopolitical and regulatory environment resulting from the Brexit, our customers expect their journey to be simplified and more secure. For the first time since 1973 when the UK joined the European single market and customs, a political and administrative border between the UK and the European continent has been re-established. But trade will not stop. And administrative formalities are not bound to be bureaucratic.  Getlink is at the forefront of innovative digital services, in particular the Smart Border between France and the UK. These services are dedicated to haulers and operated by Eurotunnel. Getlink’s smart border reduces the administrative burden of Brexit for its freight customers!

For hauliers and truck drivers, customers of LeShuttle Freight

• Eurotunnel Border Pass, a post-Brexit virtual wallet, set up to simplify import-export administrative procedures, adopted by 60% of our customers.
• FIRST, a subscription that includes a range of innovative services including priority access to check-in or boarding lanes and to customs veterinary and phytosanitary checks, for a smooth and simplified crossing.

To date, the Channel Fixed Link remains the only safe way to cross the inlet between England and mainland Europe, 365 days a year, 24 hours a day. It is also the fastest and most environmentally friendly way to cross the Strait.

The lowest carbon mode of cross-Channel transport

A pioneer in low-carbon mobility, Eurotunnel’s LeShuttle passenger rail shuttle offers a solution for crossing the Channel by car that emits 73 times less CO2 than a Calais-Dover ferry crossing. For lorries travelling between France and the UK with LeShuttle Freight, the figure is 12 times lower.

This score is supported by :

• 100% electric trains
• 54% of the electricity used to power the trains comes from renewable sources

The Channel Tunnel infrastructure, a rail link between Europe and the United Kingdom

The Cross-Channel Fixed Link has become the busiest rail network in the world with an average of 400 trains per day…

Open access to all rail operators, Eurotunnel’s rail network allows high speed trains such as Eurostar (a subsidiary of SNCF) to pass through from Paris, Brussels, Lille and Amsterdam to London. Every year, almost 10 million passengers use high speed trains through the Tunnel.

Eurotunnel is actively working with rail operators to develop new cross-Channel services.

Continuing to innovate to support the development of High Speed Rail between London and the European capitals.

Since the beginning of 2022, the Channel Tunnel has been equipped with STATCOM, the world’s most powerful synchronous static compensator (VSC technology) connected to an electric rail traction system, built in partnership with GE. With STATCOM, the Group can confidently consider future traffic growth, including the latest generation high speed trains and the optimised management of its current electrical capacity.

Eurotunnel will be able to run up to 16 latest generation trains simultaneously through the Channel Tunnel, i.e up to 1,000 trains per day, confirming its potential to develop low-carbon cross-Channel transport. STATCOM technology will ensure the long-term performance of Eurotunnel’s infrastructure and open up new growth opportunities by facilitating access to cross-Channel services for new generation high-speed trains.

Cross-Channel rail freight, THE low-carbon freight mode

Cross-Channel rail freight is the ultimate low-carbon mass transport mode. It enables very long distances to be covered without any break in load.

Its particularity is that it offers a quality of service that is independent of road or weather conditions. But it also has a major advantage in terms of the environment: freight is currently the least polluting mode of goods transport, all modes combined, and is fully in line with political choices to combat global warming in Europe (Fit for 55 plan aiming to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 55% in 2030 compared to 1990), and in Great Britain (Net Zero Strategy: Build back greener) .

Did you know that?

• Rail freight has 9 times lower CO₂ emissions than road, consumes 6 times less energy and has 12 times lower external costs
• The full freight train scanner, operated by Customs in at the Eurotunnel French terminal, can check up to thirty 750m long trains per day at the Fréthun yard.
• CAT Group has been operating a cross-Channel rail freight service since February 2022 on behalf of Toyota, transporting cars between the Toton (UK) and Kolin (CZ) and Onnaing (FR) factories via the Channel Tunnel. This service operates 6 links per week, representing 270 trains. It contributes to the modal shift of more than 8,500 trucks per year to rail and avoids more than 8,000 tonnes of CO₂ each year.