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.