Another False Start

When the Labour Party was returned to power in October 1964 it inherited the work on the Tunnel begun under the Conservatives. Eight months earlier the joint announcement by the British and the French Governments had stimulated a more committed administrative response. In Britain a special department called the Channel Tunnel Group was constituted within the Ministry of Transport in February 1964. Led by an Under-Secretary, O.F. (Overy) Gingell, a committed tunneller, its function was to co-ordinate further inter-departmental studies on the Tunnel. A similar group was put in place in France, led by Philippe Lacarrière. ¹ At the same time, the British and French railway institutions continued their close co-operation on more detailed technical and operating issues, a process begun as early as 1958, in response to the work of the CTSG. ² In September 1964, following pressure exerted by André Segelat, President of the SNCF, the British Railways Board (BRB) agreed to create its own Channel Tunnel committee, which was to form the British half of a joint working party or steering group. ³ The co-chairmen were Philip Shirley, Vice Chairman of BRB and its representative on the CTSG, and Roger Guibert, Deputy Director-General of SNCF. Together they presided over a comprehensive if rather cumbersome set of eight committees and working parties convened to examine technical, commercial, financial, and legal implications. ⁴