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-   -   Chunnel Train Arrangements (https://www.fodors.com/community/europe/chunnel-train-arrangements-331933/)

PalenQ May 21st, 2008 12:52 PM

But anyway Chunnel is still a neat truncation of Channel Tunnel and can't see why Brits have tunnel vision in anally being revulsed by it

hausfrau May 21st, 2008 01:20 PM

I have to admit, I checked out this thread just to see if the OP got blasted for calling it the "Chunnel!"

johanna, I too have traveled a fair bit and, by golly, even lived in Europe for the last couple of years. I have always called it the Chunnel and always will. Why on earth does anyone care one way or another??

Enjoy your trip!

Hooameye May 21st, 2008 01:59 PM

PalenQ,
"But anyway Chunnel is still a neat truncation of Channel Tunnel and can't see why Brits have tunnel vision in anally being revulsed by it."


You said it yourself, it's a truncation, we sometimes get tired of people (especially septics) trying to be "slick". Usually prompts the "fingers down the throat" response.

alanRow May 21st, 2008 02:08 PM

Perhaps we should talk about San Fran

janisj May 21st, 2008 03:27 PM

&quot;<i>Perhaps we should talk about San Fran</i>&quot;

Or Frisco or Cali or the OC (unless we're is talking about the towns in Colorado or Columbia or Obsessive Compulsive disorder)

Just 'cuz folks say it don't make it right . . . . .

PalenQ May 22nd, 2008 07:00 AM

a rose by any other name is still a rose

a rose is a rose is a rose is a rose is a.....

And let's not forget the many hits the word Chunnel brings up in British media and who in fact first coined the word

kerouac May 22nd, 2008 09:48 AM

Still a disgusting name.

Don't see why Americans keep pushing it since they are so politically correct. Or maybe political correctness only counts in their own country and in the rest of the world it is just fine to use terms that many find offensive.

PalenQ May 22nd, 2008 10:02 AM

It's not that Americans or others are purposefully using that term it's just that it comes naturally to them and is indeed the term we use

like when Brits or French use certain terms they use in daily tongue

that said Brits should let is pass rather than anally, in my opinion, interupting the question of thread with their innane 'it's properly the Channel Tunnel'

who cares what terms folks use and yes Brits obviously feel that it's an attack on their language, etc.

news flash - it ain't their language any more than French French is the language in the Francophone world

i say get over it - if a Brit says going to the Big Apple, a term i hear a lot in England i do not stop and correct them and say it should be NYCity but accept it as what they may call it

Hooameye May 22nd, 2008 10:15 AM

&quot;And let's not forget the many hits the word Chunnel brings up in British media and who in fact first coined the word&quot;

I think that would be a very good reason NOT to use it !!

PalenQ May 22nd, 2008 10:21 AM

you use what comes naturally to you and if someone has a problem with it it's there problem and not yours

helen_belsize May 22nd, 2008 10:33 AM

The Chunnel is the Channel Tunnel and it is just that a tunnel. There are different services which use it.

Eurostar, which is passenger rail services basically from London to Paris and Brussels, with links to other cities. It sometimes stops elsewhere in England and France. There are through rail freight services, not likely to be of interest to Fodorites. There is the service for freight lorries (trucks) and cars and their passengers known as the Shuttle now officially the Eurotunnel Shuttle.

The tunnel figured a lot in the press because the construction took almost ten years from letting the contract to finish. The idea for a tunnel was first mooted in 1802.

The rail tunnels in Europe which link Europe through (beneath?) the Alps etc have names but they are not usually the name of the rail service.

Respondents who ask for more precision only do so , so that they can give advice on Eurostar services versus the services for cars on the Shuttle.

PalenQ May 22nd, 2008 10:42 AM

The Channel Tunnel (French: Le tunnel sous la Manche), also known as Chunnel or Eurotunnel, is a 50.5-kilometre (31.4 mi) undersea rail tunnel linking the United Kingdom and France,

Wikipedia accepts the use of the word Chunnel as do many other Channel Tunnel themed sites

Josser May 22nd, 2008 10:45 AM

I have a problem with illiterates who confuse there, their and they're


janisj May 22nd, 2008 11:21 AM

PQ - you pick the weirdest issues to get het up about!! Chunnel sounds tacky - is confusing because it does not describe if one is talking about the Eurostar or the Shuttle - and was coined merely to fit into the limited space for newspaper headlines. (LOTS of words are used in headlines that are never used in normal conversation/writing)

Sorry - but wikipedia is no more reliable than the amateurs who contribute to it.

If you want to sound like a rube - that is your right. Call it what you want - but quit telling others it is the &quot;correct&quot; term . . . . .

kerouac May 22nd, 2008 11:42 AM

If the creators of the Eurotunnel consortium had trademarked the name &quot;Chunnel&quot; and used it in their corporate communiqu&eacute;s, I would have no problem with the term. As just an ugly nickname, the term 'Chunnel' raises my hackles. If a second tunnel is ever built, I suppose that the term 'chunnel' would die a very quick death.

Similar to this is the term 'Euro-Disney' which I also oppose systematically in favor of the official term 'Disneyland Paris.' However, in this case I must indeed blame the Disney company which made the mistake of using the Euro-Disney name officially for the first 2 years. If a second Disneyland is ever built in Europe, people will stop saying 'Euro-Disney.'

PalenQ May 22nd, 2008 12:07 PM

but quit telling others it is the &quot;correct&quot; term

not the but a correct term if folks use it in their daily parlance and others know what it means - and it means the actual tunnel - going to Europe by the Chunnel instead of Channel Tunnel, be it via eurostar train or euro tunnel shuttle

talk about getting hung up about something - i could care less what folks call it and that's my point


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