Eurotunnel security

[Chris]

When heading to France recently we were asked if we were carrying various
items, including pen knives. I answered 'no' as a reflex, as I expected the
usual questions about LPG, pets, etc. It was only after we moved on that I
realised the significance of this. (I have a Swiss Army knive in one of my
bags.) It's been standard for flights for some time, of course, but are
they really forbidding knives on Eurotunnel?? Are we to be forced to take
plastic cutlery with us in future?

I've searched the Eurotunnel site in vain for any security measures. Can
anyone shed any light on this?

[Tom Bradbury]

Post by Chris
When heading to France recently we were asked if we were carrying various
items, including pen knives. I answered 'no' as a reflex, as I expected the
usual questions about LPG, pets, etc. It was only after we moved on that I
realised the significance of this. (I have a Swiss Army knive in one of my
bags.) It's been standard for flights for some time, of course, but are
they really forbidding knives on Eurotunnel?? Are we to be forced to take
plastic cutlery with us in future?
I've searched the Eurotunnel site in vain for any security measures. Can
anyone shed any light on this?

That would be ridiculous to suggest you can't carry knives thru' the tunnel.
What do people in camper vans and caravans do when towing a down sized
version of their house thru' the tunnel - dump all their cutlery in a
massive skip on the way into the terminal?

Bottom line, going thru' the tunnel is probably as much risk, or riskier,
than going on a plane knowing what I saw this weekend - if a fanatic wanted
to blow up their car in a Eurotunnel train carriage there is probably little
anyone can do about it. With the volume of traffic using the tunnel, it
would be impossible to check every single vehicle going thru', so the risk
of not being detected is high. The carriages on the trains using the tunnel
are designed to stand extreme fire, and very high temperatures and also I
dare say explosions - that was how they were designed so in the event of a
fire on board any vehicle on the train - suspicious or not - the passengers
would survive, by either the train halting in the tunnel and the passengers
escaping thru' to the service tunnel or the train carrying on until it exits
the tunnel either in France or in blighty.

At the end of the day, life's all about risks - if we worried about any of
them then none of us would get out of bed in the morning - and even then
you're not safe. More likely to be drowned by rising flood waters than
blown to pieces by a terrorist bomb!

[NM]

Post by Chris
When heading to France recently we were asked if we were carrying various
items, including pen knives. I answered 'no' as a reflex, as I expected the
usual questions about LPG, pets, etc. It was only after we moved on that I
realised the significance of this. (I have a Swiss Army knive in one of my
bags.) It's been standard for flights for some time, of course, but are
they really forbidding knives on Eurotunnel?? Are we to be forced to take
plastic cutlery with us in future?
I've searched the Eurotunnel site in vain for any security measures. Can
anyone shed any light on this?

At Schipol I witnessed a very distresses ninety plus year old being
relieved of a tortoise shell decorated stich ripper that she later said
was given to her by her now deceased daughter over 25 years ago (I opted
to carry her bag thus I was a witness to this, I had no idea she was a
potential terrorist) then we got on the plane (Martinair) and were
served lunch with stainless steel cutlery.

Nonsense or what?

[Stuart G Gray]

Post by NM
Nonsense or what?

Absolutely. Luckily the bad people seem to be even more inept than the good
people. :-)