kato wrote:The only thing that's new is that Eurotunnel renamed itself "Getlink" in November in a move to apparently remain appealing to anglo customers post-Brexit.
Eurotunnel/Getlink is the company that operates the channel tunnel, some freight services and the vehicle ferry trains running through it (from Calais to Folkestone); for the latter the Eurotunnel brand name will be retained. For the freight services Brexit will be interesting with regard to the customs/border issue. Eurotunnel/Getlink e.g. transports about one million Amazon parcels per day from the UK to France.
If Britain actually leaves the EU the question will arise about border crossing. How extensive will be passenger border checks and where will they occur? Maybe in France but the french may well insist that they be in Britain, thus at Folkestone or St Pancras - and Ashford. Where will freight checks occur? Possible huge backlogs will take place in or near Folkestone. The process of crossing the channel may well take much longer. The potential for disasters of this kind are all too real. And the situation in Ireland is equally obscure. No-one can say what will happen there. There are hundreds of places where the present border can be crossed. None of them have any check at all. Will they all be blocked? How many will have immigration posts? Will the IRA resume atrocities on the border - they have been dormant for several years now but may well start up again.
Not too long ago I crossed the Irish border in a bus between Omagh and Londonderry. That involved two crossings as the normal route passed into a piece of the Irish republic. The bus didn't even slow down. Will that route be blocked? Will there have to be immigration checks between Larne and Stranraer to prevent EU citizens sneaking into Britain? It's the same kind of stupidity as they are experiencing in the US with their current president's thoughts about Mexico.
In the 1960s I took a train from Belfast to Dublin. There was an immigration check at the border and I had to show my passport at a border station - and open my luggage. At least I didn't have to get out of the train. At present the trains don't always stop at the border stations, and if they do it is only an ordinary passenger stop with no immigration check.