Work began on the railway in 1841 (same year as work on the Summit Tunnel was completed) and finished in 1847.
Work began on the railway in 1841 (same year as work on the Summit Tunnel was completed) and finished in 1847. Many workers stayed on in France afterwards, finding work on other railway projects. However revolution was to put an end to the British workers’ employment in early 1848. Unemployment and low wages had led to civil unrest in Paris and later in Rouen in April, when bad feeling towards the thousands of British and immigrant workers in the north of France boiled over into rioting. The railway companies were forced to evacuate thousands of their workers, who fled to the ports often with only what they could carry in way of possessions. There were harrowing tales of men, women and children starving on the roadside trying to get to the ports and back to Britain.