It was eight in the morning and the boat linking Saint-Malo on the north coast of Brittany to Jersey, the largest of the Channel Islands, had just docked. The pedestrian street of Saint-Hélier, the capital of the Channel Island, was crowded with hurried passers-by. Employees and customers rushed to the banks that ensure the wealth of this 116-square-kilometer piece of land, just a stone's throw from the Normandy coast. It was a morning like any other on an island known for its attractive tax conditions.
Well, almost. For the past few weeks, all conversations have revolved around the underwater tunnel project designed to link the two islands of Guernsey (the second largest island in the Channel Islands) to Jersey, and then onto mainland France by 2040. In early March, the Jersey and Guernsey Chambers of Commerce organized a meeting with Scandinavian engineers.
The meeting was initiated by Martyn Dorey, director of a Guernsey financial company and president of the Connect 3 Million initiative, which is campaigning for a tunnel between Granville on the French coast and Saint-Pierre-Port (Guernsey). "When I was president of the Guernsey Chamber of Commerce, I was asked what I was doing to promote links between the Channel Islands and France," he remembered.
360,000 passengers a year
Access difficulties, supply issues, an aging population and a growing need for manpower prompted him to investigate the issue in 2019. "I called my team together and asked them for the wildest ideas to remedy these challenges. Among them was building a tunnel."
It's not the first time the Channel Islands have given it thought. Every year, around 360,000 passengers make the journey between the islands and the continent. "I remember that, in the 2000s, a Jersey MP put forward the idea of a bridge to France. At the time, nobody gave it another thought," said geographer Christian Fleury, from the University of Caen-Normandie. "But this latest project seems much more serious this time."
In the meantime, Brexit has happened, which left a bad taste among locals who were barred from taking part in the referendum. So close to France, the three Channel Islands, along with the smaller island of Sark, have a distinct status. While they are not strictly speaking part of the United Kingdom, they do depend on the British crown. Although they were never part of the European Union, post-Brexit relations with the continent have become considerably more complicated.
"Almost all our imports go through the UK, while a lot of it comes from Europe. It doesn't make sense," said Dominic Jones, owner of a Jersey-based catering group. He too is convinced of the tunnel's merits. Tourist revenues are plummeting. In 2023, the number of French tourists (deterred by the need to have a passport if staying for more than a day) was still half that of 2019.
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