biotechpete   10 #1 Posted December 6, 2017 Looking forward to the reversal of Brexit, I think we'll need a grand gesture to acknowledge and reaffirm our commitment to the rest of the continent of Europe.  Watching "the channel" earlier, I got to thinking we need a new tunnel. The tunnel takes 150 trucks an hour and runs trains every 4-ish minutes. It's running at capacity and the infrastructure is struggling to cope. Even the electricity cables become overloaded. Nonetheless the tunnel currently makes a profit of nearly £200m/year.  Interestingly, when EuroTunnel took over, they were required to come up with a plan for a second crossing by 2000. They came up with the plan but it was never put into action.  Now...my suggestion is to reclaim the longest tunnel in the world title; by building a tunnel from Felixstowe to the Netherlands. This would give a failsafe against breakdowns in the current tunnel as well as any breakdown in relations with French workers or governments. It would also provide a direct route to the rest of the UK without having to go through or around London - a massive time and productivity boost. It wouldn't be a short tunnel (~200 km) which is about 4 times as long as the current longest tunnel and about 3 times as long as crossrail. A back of a fag packet calculation suggest a cost estimate of £60bn. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Share this content via...
Fogey   10 #2 Posted December 7, 2017 I do like the idea of a major infrastructure link to Europe that doesn't involve London. Didn't someone say on another thread recently that the Netherlands has a huge container port or something? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Share this content via...
dutch   68 #3 Posted December 7, 2017 If you are lucky maybe Santa will give you a new tunnel.  Maintenance of longer tunnel would be ridiculous, personally would not consider it and put second tunnel nearish existing one. I do my calculations on toilet roll. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Share this content via...
Lockdoctor   10 #4 Posted December 7, 2017 If you are lucky maybe Santa will give you a new tunnel. Maintenance of longer tunnel would be ridiculous, personally would not consider it and put second tunnel nearish existing one. I do my calculations on toilet roll. The Irish could always start digging one under the same route the Dublin to Cherbourg ferry takes. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Share this content via...
Andy1976   10 #5 Posted December 7, 2017 Looking forward to the reversal of Brexit, I think we'll need a grand gesture to acknowledge and reaffirm our commitment to the rest of the continent of Europe.  Watching "the channel" earlier, I got to thinking we need a new tunnel. The tunnel takes 150 trucks an hour and runs trains every 4-ish minutes. It's running at capacity and the infrastructure is struggling to cope. Even the electricity cables become overloaded. Nonetheless the tunnel currently makes a profit of nearly £200m/year.  Interestingly, when EuroTunnel took over, they were required to come up with a plan for a second crossing by 2000. They came up with the plan but it was never put into action.  Now...my suggestion is to reclaim the longest tunnel in the world title; by building a tunnel from Felixstowe to the Netherlands. This would give a failsafe against breakdowns in the current tunnel as well as any breakdown in relations with French workers or governments. It would also provide a direct route to the rest of the UK without having to go through or around London - a massive time and productivity boost. It wouldn't be a short tunnel (~200 km) which is about 4 times as long as the current longest tunnel and about 3 times as long as crossrail. A back of a fag packet calculation suggest a cost estimate of £60bn.  Great idea and one I'd fully support as worth the money. Far more beneficial to the north of England than HS2 in my view, if it were possible to build/dig/whatever you do to a tunnel it further north.  The tunnel is great, but driving to Dover etc can be a bind, given the traffic on some of the motorways. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Share this content via...
sgtkate   10 #6 Posted December 7, 2017 Great idea and one I'd fully support as worth the money. Far more beneficial to the north of England than HS2 in my view, if it were possible to build/dig/whatever you do to a tunnel it further north.  The tunnel is great, but driving to Dover etc can be a bind, given the traffic on some of the motorways.  What about from Aberdeen to Norway? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Share this content via...
Guest   #7 Posted December 7, 2017 No, the current one wants filling in. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Share this content via...
tinfoilhat   11 #8 Posted December 7, 2017 Great idea and one I'd fully support as worth the money. Far more beneficial to the north of England than HS2 in my view, if it were possible to build/dig/whatever you do to a tunnel it further north.  The tunnel is great, but driving to Dover etc can be a bind, given the traffic on some of the motorways.  The a14 is a slow moving queue at the best of times. Unless you're going to turn the a14 into at least a 4 lane motorway, ideally from the m6. The a12 could do with an upgrade too . Pointless doing anything in felixstowe unless you sort out that bottleneck first . Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Share this content via...
dutch   68 #9 Posted December 7, 2017 Why a tunnel? A bridge supported by floating pillars with wind turbines and solar panels. Let me grab my toilet paper to run some figures. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Share this content via...
sgtkate   10 #10 Posted December 7, 2017 Why a tunnel? A bridge supported by floating pillars with wind turbines and solar panels. Let me grab my toilet paper to run some figures.  What about something that travels over the water, perhaps it can float on it and take a large amount of cargo? No that's a ridiculous idea. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Share this content via...
Ridgewalk   102 #11 Posted December 8, 2017 A huge fleet of Catamarans may help  ---------- Post added 08-12-2017 at 11:13 ----------  Can we build a tunnel to Australia via India, Canada, South Africa, New Zealand ? Or would that be impractical ? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Share this content via...
Guest makapaka   #12 Posted December 8, 2017 This might have been possible when we were in the EU. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Share this content via...