Should Ireland and Britain build a bridge/underground

Riddle101

Ireland is the only country in Europe that is an Island. England isn't an Island anymore because it has the underground connecting to France. So I was thinking. Would it be better if Ireland and Britain built a bridge or an undeground railway that connects the two countries. That way travel to Britain would be easier, trade would improve, interenational relations would improve and we'd be connected to the rest of Europe. Should Ireland build a bridge or should we continue to isolate ourselves on this lonely island with the only neighbours being Northern Ireland

6th

I think you should build a bridge!

Seriously though ...... I think we just need a catapult and a big mattress.

orestes

Sabotage wrote: »

Seriously though ...... I think we just need a catapult and a big mattress.

Ryanair version 2.0?

banshee_bones

who would fund it?
would it be rail or road?
where would you locate it?

Zascar

Would be great but its not going to happen in our lifetimes I'd guess. Too expensive, immagine the cost of going through it. Cheaper to get the boat I'd say. Look at the fiasco that was the port tunnel and multiply the problems tenfold.

ITDept

Cyprus would be similar, wouldn't it?

I'd recommend a large catapault of some sort.

banshee_bones

Zascar wrote: »

Would be great but its not going to happen in our lifetimes I'd guess. Too expensive, immagine the cost of going through it. Cheaper to get the boat I'd say. Look at the fiasco that was the port tunnel and multiply the problems tenfold.

well just get the same lads that built the eurotunnel then!

Riddle101

ITDept wrote: »

Cyprus would be similar, wouldn't it?

I'd recommend a large catapault of some sort.

Cyprus is not a country, i'm talking about countries that are islands

ITDept

Yes it is. The Republic of Cyprus has been a member state of the European Union since 1 May 2004.

orestes

Riddle101 wrote: »

Cyprus is not a country, i'm talking about countries that are islands

You might wanna tell them that, cos someone has been playing a cruel practical joke on them so

MagicMarker

Aren't we building a road under Dublin bay to connect the north and south?

Personally I think we should move all roads underground and leave the normal ground for god's beautiful animals...

All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small...

Mint Sauce

think something silimar was discussed many moons ago, the name tuskar tunnel rings a bell, think it was a rail line between rosslaire and wales, but one thing that was a set back, apart from the huge cost was the rail gauge, quick serch on wiki will tell more, plus its wales

Riddle101

ITDept wrote: »

Yes it is. The Republic of Cyprus has been a member state of the European Union since 1 May 2004.

I see, my apologises. My Geography is rather bad, I always thought Cyrpus was divided between Greece and Turkey

Nodin

MagicMarker wrote: »

Personally I think we should move all roads underground and leave the normal ground for god's beautiful animals...

All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small...

....their bright plumage of Nike and Gortex shining as they dive out the back window of your gaf.....

Latchy

Was thinking myself along the lines of a bridge ,something like the San Fransisco bridge .But not sure if it could witstand the power of the rough wild Irish sea ,specially in winter time .

Caoimhín

And give the Vikings a back door to invade again?

No. The Normans gave us enough bother.

ITDept

I do remember something like this being discussed before the recession came and took all the money away. Rail link from Wexford to Wales, as there's a natural deep-water port around there - probably Rosslare. This was supposed to receive all the cargo for Ireland & UK and then it could be transferred to rail for the onward journey. Pretty unlikely even when the government had some ill-gotten gains, let alone now.

What about Iceland?

Quazzie

MagicMarker wrote: »

All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small...

I couldn't read that without singing it high pitch in my head

Aldebaran

Deleted User wrote: »

What about Iceland?

Nobody cares about Iceland anymore, they're fucked.

L1011

Our train tracks are a different width to the UK and the rest of Europe; so any train tunnel would have to be operated Le Shuttle like with people changing trains - no Eurostar for onward journeys.

seamus

Well you have to look at cost -v- benefits really.

To build a link from Dublin to Holyhead, would be roughly twice the effort of the channel tunnel (being twice the distance). So it would take roughly 12 years to complete at a cost of STG£20bn, probably more.
Not to mention that we would need to massively update and increase our rail infrastructure in Dublin within those 12 years in order to cope with trains coming through. It also wouldn't be a viable passenger link. Why would you take a one-hour train to Wales when you can take a one-hour flight to London? So it would need to focus strongly on vehiclular and freight traffic.

With that in mind building it from Dublin may not be the best plan, due to traffic concerns. We could go up north, where the distance would be half the length of the tunnel. But then time concerns come in. It would take two hours to travel from Dublin to the linkup north, half an hour to load onto the train, an hour across, half an hour off and 7 or eight hours to London. So you're talking a 12 hour trip to get a truck from Dublin to London.
That's versus a 2.5 hour ferry and a 5.5. hour drive. The train link up North would take anything up to 4 hours longer. Which matters when you're a logistics company.

The best option may be Rosslare to Fishguard - roughly the same distance as Dun Laoghaire - Holyhead (twice the length of the chunnel) and relatively good for serving the rest of the Republic, except for Donegal.
Still a huge undertaking though and it would still require massive upgrades on our own infrastructure.

In order to make this viable, it would need to be possible to load freight onto a train in the UK and have it arrive close to where it's supposed to be, and not unloaded in Rosslare and driven to its destination. France and the UK already had excellent rail systems before the chunnel was started. We can't say the same.

mike65

Riddle101 wrote: »

I see, my apologises. My Geography is rather bad, I always thought Cyrpus was divided between Greece and Turkey

It is!

What the hell are kids learning these days?

BBC story http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/south_west/4121001.stm

Mark200

I think one should be built from Northern Ireland to Scotland. Ok, it'll be a long distance for us to travel if we wanna go through it but it'll be the British government paying for it, not us.

pablomakaveli

Mark200 wrote: »

I think one should be built from Northern Ireland to Scotland. Ok, it'll be a long distance for us to travel if we wanna go through it but it'll be the British government paying for it, not us.

It'd be still faster to get the ferry if you wanted to go from the Republic to England or Wales. Probably cheaper as well as you'd save money on petrol.

javaboy

Riddle101 wrote: »

Cyprus is not a country, i'm talking about countries that are islands

I wish that was true. Then we could have that 5-2 humiliation stricken from the record.

twanda

I definitely think we should have one - I have used the Chunnel and it was a breeze. Drove in, sat in the car for around 25 mins, drove off again in France. No luggage restrictions and no queues for a passport control. I don't know why our govnt didnt build one when the Celtic tiger was still alive -- but then again there's a lot of things they should have done in those years.....

xOxSinéadxOx

from rosslare to somewhere in wales maybe?

Professey Chin

We can barely build our own feckin roads. Never mind one across a sea

xOxSinéadxOx

yeah but britain could do it!

Ass

We should turn Dublin Bay in to a giant dry dock first. That way all of the trolleys and such that have made their way down the liffey and it's tributarie can be reclaimed.

The reprocessing of trolley metal will supply Ireland with enough jobs to combat and end the recession, and it will supply Ireland with approximatly one third of the materials needed to build a tunnel connecting Dublin to Wales.

My name is Mud

Malta is a European country that is also an island

mowgli-mcnob

Good idea but who would you trust to build it?! If Irish people were involved the tunnel wouldn't meet in the middle! and would be too small to fit trucks or would leak!! And of course, it would go over budget!

Professey Chin

xOxSinéadxOx wrote: »

yeah but britain could do it!

But then theyre takin our jerbs:(

robinph

When was England an island?

Lump

There are already plans to do this......

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/south_west/4121001.stm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_Sea#Proposed_tunnel_projects

I also remember reading in the Irish Times about it, along with plans to build a massive sea wall/ring road across dublin bay to avoid flooding and complete a ring road around Dublin.

Lump

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2007/0825/1187332533418.html

I don't have a log in but there's some of the article.

Fratton Fred

Riddle101 wrote: »

Cyprus is not a country, i'm talking about countries that are islands

in that case, neither is Ireland. Problem solved.

af_thefragile

^Oh and cyprus is a country!

Lump wrote: »

There are already plans to do this......

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/south_west/4121001.stm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_Sea#Proposed_tunnel_projects

I also remember reading in the Irish Times about it, along with plans to build a massive sea wall/ring road across dublin bay to avoid flooding and complete a ring road around Dublin.

It'ld cost €20 billion!
No way anyone's gonna bother. I think the catapult and mattresses idea has more of a chance!

Alun

robinph wrote: »

When was England an island?

As a Brit myself, it always amuses me that Irish people get all uptight about the Brits not knowing that Ireland isn't part of the UK, yet often refer to that big island over the Irish sea as England, or talk about such mythical concepts as "English reg" cars, "English customs", or the "English army".

SheroN

Malta.

Cool Mo D

Technically, Cyprus is in Asia, not Europe, even though it is in the EU.

Irish Halo

MYOB wrote: »

Our train tracks are a different width to the UK and the rest of Europe; so any train tunnel would have to be operated Le Shuttle like with people changing trains - no Eurostar for onward journeys.

I think this is the biggest stumbling block really, I never understood why Ireland has a different gauge to Britain, I mean when the tracks etc were being set the two countries were part of the union so you'd think ... oh wait was that the problem? The need for forethought? OK never mind.

bikki

U seen the balls they made of the port tunnel. So britian would build there half on time and on budget, 6 years later we would finish our half and be bankrupt

Richard

bikki wrote: »

U seen the balls they made of the port tunnel. So britian would build there half on time and on budget, 6 years later we would finish our half and be bankrupt

It's interesting that a lot of people here see the British as being organised and efficient, yet many British wouldn't agree with you and instead look to the Germans or Japanese as examples of efficiency.

ART6

Teleportation will be discovered in the next 50 years, and then roads, railways, tunnels, bridges, planes etc will become irrelevant. "Beam me up Scotty." Welcome to the truly green society.

Professey Chin

ART6 wrote: »

Teleportation will be discovered in the next 50 years, and then roads, railways, tunnels, bridges, planes etc will become irrelevant. "Beam me up Scotty." Welcome to the truly green society.

Unless these teleporters work on fossil fuels

Richard

af_thefragile wrote: »

^Oh and cyprus is a country!

Correct. The Republic of Cyprus covers the whole island, although the northern part is occupied by Turkey (I know there are differing views on this but only one country recognises that Northern Cyprus is not occupied and that's Turkey). The Greek part is ethnically Greek and speaks Greek but is not part of Greece. They joined the EU only in recent years and swapped the Cypriot Pound for the Euro even more recently.

And I'd doubt you'd get a tunnel out to it.

As for the different railway gauge in Ireland - the Irish gauge used to be wider but they decided to make it halfway between this old gauge and the main British gauge for some reason.

Cool Mo D

And even though the Port Tunnel was leaky and took forever to build, it did come in on budget, which is more than can be said for the channel tunnel.

Lump

And wasn't it designed by a Brit? So the fact that it's too small can be blamed on them

BlitzKrieg

if iceland joins the EU can we build a tunnel to them aswell?