Eiretunnel

[WestCoast]

In any case Ireland would be better served by express train lines to the Belfast and Dublin ports, and improved train lines from Holyhead and Stranraer to the big English and Scottish cities that tourists actually want to go to. Its a pity there isnt an EU grant available to spur this on.

Direct express links to the Irish ports and also to Stranraer could well boost traffic taking these routes. Holyhead is probably the most well connected of all of them - direct links are available to e.g. London, Birmingham, Manchester and Cardiff. One stop connections are available to e.g. Leeds, Newcastle, Liverpool, Bristol, Nottingham e.t.c. It's a case of improving what's already there.

 

[Cyberbeagle]

The cost would make that a non-starter regardless of how good the times are. It would mean re-gauging every line in Ireland or designing some fangled dual gauge bogie. Remember also that the loading gauge is a bit more generous the narrow gauge used in the UK ; )

Sure just ask Eurotrack Ireland to do all the regauging...!

(bit of an in-joke there for those-in-the-know...)

 

[NornIronMan]

A dual gauge bogie has already been developed and in use in Spain for quite a few years with over 200 million successful changes, changing from Iberian Gauge of 5'6" to and from Standard Gauge, as this Adif (Spanish Railway administrator) video shows: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8N7Ikw87tM

 

[eMeS]

A dual gauge bogie has already been developed and in use in Spain for quite a few years with over 200 million successful changes, changing from Iberian Gauge of 5'6" to and from Standard Gauge, as this Adif (Spanish Railway administrator) video shows: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8N7Ikw87tM

Fascinating and impressive.
The video has a lot about the gauge changing mechanism on the track, but I didn't see anything on the train to hold the correct gauge once the transition is done.

 

[NornIronMan]

This video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8c7ehHel2z (in French this time, sorry!) seems to suggest that system developed by Talgo maintains the gauge by hydraulic assistance. In http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGn0o_wFsGI&feature=player_detailpage#t=122s it looks like the CAF bogies use hydraulics too... If anyone wants a translation of the important bits in the French video, let me know and I'll see what I can do

 

[dalmahoyhill]

i am civil engineer and technically it is not really a problem connecting belfast with stranraer however practically it would be very expensive for the following reasons:

The deep beaufort channel is in the middle and with the gentle gradients required to get to the required depth below sea level means the tunnel would be much longer than the distance of the sea crossing. The Seikan tunnel in Japan has the same issue. The tunnel is 35 miles long but the sea crossing is 15 miles long due to the 1500 depth of the sea. Also the beaufort trench is loaded with second world war ammunition.

Next the economics dont add up. England has 50mill population scotland has 5mill, ireland 5mill, N ireland has 3 mill. A long route from dubline, belfast stranraer back down south just wouldnt compete with airlines and the ferry services from wales. A tunnel to belfast would still need a new line laid to carlisle.

You could put a tunnel from dublin to Hollyhead the water is shallow but the distance is enormous.

My conclusion is the channel tunnel struggled to pay back its private investment and it links 60mill people to europe. i think a tunnel to ireland just doesnt stack up financially

 

[es373]

Not to mention the fact that they would probably be sold driveway tarmacing or block paving for a good price...

 

[Rick1984]

Would a better connection to troon with a harbour station and fast ferries from there more make more sense? It would be difficult and expensive to improve line to stranraer.

A airport shuttle bus is no replacement for a train service. The bus connection at glasgow is appalling just ask my poor wife who broke her ankle on a crummy first bus shuttle. Something that wouldn't have happened on the canceled airport link, thank you very much SNP!