Fantasy : London to Spain tunnel

[Mgameing123]

I am bored ok so lets build a railway from London to Spain so that way British holiday makers can stop using Ryanair.

 

[JonathanH]

I am bored ok so lets build a railway from London to Spain so that way British holiday makers can stop using Ryanair.

I suspect a route via the French Mainland would be easier to build than one under the water, even if it was all underground. Is a route under the Bay of Biscay even technologically possible?

Unfortunately, it will always be cheaper to fly from the UK to Spain than going by land routes.

How much would we need to pay France to construct a dedicated line for transit between the UK and Spain across its territory?

 

[Haywain]

How much would we need to pay France to construct a dedicated line for transit between the UK and Spain across its territory?

It depends if you want a dedicated route or not. If not, the lines already exist, don't they?

 

[brad465]

I suspect a route via the French Mainland would be easier to build than one under the water, even if it was all underground. Is a route under the Bay of Biscay even technologically possible?

The Bay of Biscay's average depth is over 1,700m, which will definitely not make tunnelling possible.

 

[Magdalia]

I am bored ok so lets build a railway from London to Spain so that way British holiday makers can stop using Ryanair.

Not all UK->Spain holidaymakers start from London, and they don't all go to the same destination in Spain.

Not long after Eurostar opened to St Pancras I did Barcelona and back by train. It took a lot longer than flying. It only worked because I had the opportunity to stop on the way in the South of France, and I returned on the Barcelona-Paris sleeper. Even with lots of direct trains from multiple starting points in the UK to multiple destinations in Spain, the train could never compete with the plane on journey time.

 

[Calthrop]

I'm reminded of a sci-fi / alterative history novel which appeared some fifty years ago, by Harry Harrison; set in an alternative-time-line 1970s, with the title A Transatlantic Tunnel, Hurrah !

 

[Sorcerer]

London to Spain would be a nightmare since you'd be doing more tunneling to go around France. Starting from the south-west is the best chance of a straight shot, even when you assume all other obstacles like depth and cost aren't a factor. But maybe if we dug a tunnel connecting Gibraltar to Spain we could argue that we did actually achieve a UK-Spain connection on a technicality, right?

 

[Mgameing123]

London to Spain would be a nightmare since you'd be doing more tunneling to go around France. Starting from the south-west is the best chance of a straight shot, even when you assume all other obstacles like depth and cost aren't a factor. But maybe if we dug a tunnel connecting Gibraltar to Spain we could argue that we did actually achieve a UK-Spain connection on a technicality, right?

I knew someone would bring this up and thats why I said London

 

[Bletchleyite]

I am bored ok so lets build a railway from London to Spain so that way British holiday makers can stop using Ryanair.

We already have such a railway that runs under the Channel then over land - just need to run the trains! I'm not sure direct services of that sort of length would do well, though; decarbonising aviation is probably a better bet for such longer trips.

 

[Sorcerer]

I knew someone would bring this up and thats why I said London

Couldn't pull the wool over your eyes, eh?