INTRODUCTION

If the British and French really have some interest and aim in common, they will find a way of surmounting all those much-trumpeted cultural and traditional differences (Sir Nicholas Henderson, chair of Channel Tunnel Group and former British ambassador to France, Henderson 1987 p 43). This paper is aimed at providing a description and analysis of the Channel Tunnel project from the point of view of the five themes that we have articulated within the Groupe Bagnolet. The data are drawn from both an extensive review of secondary sources, and from interviews conducted with key informants towards the end of 1993 within TML, and during 1995 within Eurotunnel. The paper will describe the public policy background to the project, the strategies adopted by the actors on the project, and the choice of technology, before investigating the management of the project and the organisation of TML. The paper will not cover issues of the processes of public policy formulation, and regional policy, which are well covered in Church (1995), Holliday et al (1991) and Marcou et al (1993), nor those of the wider economic benefits of the project, and marketing questions associated with its operation, which are covered by Kay et al (1989) and Szymanski (1995). It reports the state of affairs as at the end of 1996, at which time the financial future of Eurotunnel was still in doubt.