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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

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honru

I'd imagine a Dublin-Holyhead route that extends to Liverpool and possibly Manchester, with the latter part of the trek being mostly above ground. That would make Liverpool roughly the same distance as it takes to get the train to Limerick!

994

Riddle101 wrote: »

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

it is, but everyone pretends it isn't.

Lundegaard

White Elephant innit bruv?

Agent Smith

i remember a long time ago (early - mid 90's) seeing a poster saying

"End unemployment - DUBLIN - NEW YORK Tunnel NOW!"

clever idea.
the way things are going, we could use the employment boost!

[Deleted User]

seamus wrote: »

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.

I don't like how much sense you're making here. They'll probably build one now

The gee in the sea, anyone?

MrMiyagi

Hello,

Everyone should just buy shares in AIB

If we build a bridge to england we'd still be miles from london

Lundegaard

Rojomcdojo wrote: »

The gee in the sea, anyone?

gee :pac:

[Deleted User]

Richard wrote: »

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.

There used to be a 7ft gauge in the UK on the Great western Railway until the 1890's, didn't know broad gauge was used in Ireland!

Elephant Monkey

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.

Here they exist loads for sale too . . see here

thebman

Alun wrote: »

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".

I'll give you the island thing but Wales doesn't count as a country and Scotland want out so most of the other points will be accurate enough in about 10 years. :P

LordSutch

Riddle101 wrote: »

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.

Actually 'England' never was an island, and Britain is still Europe's Largest island (even with the tunnel).

There was some serious talk a few years ago about a building bridge between Northern Ireland & Scotland, (just 24 Miles away) which seems fairly realistic when compared to a tunnel which is just pie in the sky

)

Maybe they will look again at the bridge idea in about ten years time ~ 'after the recession' . . .

[Deleted User]

thebman wrote: »

I'll give you the island thing but Wales doesn't count as a country and Scotland want out so most of the other points will be accurate enough in about 10 years. :P

Try saying that to a Welshman!

Capt'n Midnight

Irish Halo wrote: »

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.

Back in 1830 every one used different gauges. And joining with a rival company wasn't high on the priority nevermind a different island.
Ours is 1600 mm which is wider and so safer than standard gauge

Capt'n Midnight

Malta is another EU country with no tunnel.

[Deleted User]

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

Back in 1830 every one used different gauges. And joining with a rival company wasn't high on the priority nevermind a different island.
Ours is 1600 mm which is wider and so safer than standard gauge

Even today there are several rail gauges in use, Luas, private lines in the bogs etc and standard Irish gauge.

Capt'n Midnight

A cheaper tunnel would go from Northern Ireland to Scotland. Travel time would be a lot longer than ferry from Dublin / Roslare to Wales. The northen tunnel would also be deep and there are a lot of explosives left over from WWII on the sea bed too.

A tunnel to Wales would be longer than the pair of tunnels needed to link Japan to Russia. Containers by ship to Hamburg take up to 63days , by train it would be 15 days. The EU does more trade with Japan than with us.

And it would be like the M50 bridge
People wanted the bridge bought , and what happened , over half a billion in tax money that could have to gone to hospitals etc. spent and Joe Public now has to pay a higher toll than before ! In Japan they build some very large bridges to replace ferries because people droun in a disaster, but people still use the ferries because the tolls are too hight. How much is the toll on the channel tunnel compared to a Ryanair flight ? We have the worlds largest ferry so there is probably some economy of scale going on somewhere.

In short a tunnel to Wales would be a white elephant.
Unless the Eu want to stump up the cash. Maybe if we vote yes ???

Capt'n Midnight

Deleted User wrote: »

Even today there are several rail gauges in use, Luas, private lines in the bogs etc and standard Irish gauge.

A real Irish solution would have you board a TGV in Gare du Nord , whizz through the chunnel and the UK , down under the Irish Sea , surface near the IFSC and end up on the Luas line

Board Na Mona could make a killing if they could use that track for commuters

n.catenthusiast

your bridge/tunnel ideas are foolish and utopian.

Although I've absolutely no engineering background, I've always felt that I had a technical 'bent' about me, and am confident in outlining my own far more reaslistic and practical alternative.

it's outlined in the simple yet powerful diagram attached.

The red shapes are in fact 'pods' which transport individuals at great speeds between Ireland and the UK. This is possible as the horizontal black line is a giant axis, which pivots around a huge pylon (the vertical black line) which is anchored in the sea bed exactly half way between the two land masses. The base fo the pylon could be used a) to harness tidal energy or b) as some sort of advanced seal sanctuary. That would depend upon a tender process.

This technical innovation is as dynamic as it is majestic, and I am confident that it presents such a comprehensive ansnwer to the quesion posed by the OP that no further posts will be neccesary.

Thread closed.

Capt'n Midnight

If you had towers that high you could just put a cable between then and have cable cars across

[Deleted User]

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

If you had towers that high you could just put a cable between then and have cable cars across

and then you could just go

weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

the whole way to wales!

bren2002

Malta is a European country that is an island. Besides which, The Republic isn't an island, it's bordered by another country.

With that aside, the closest link would be up the North, so who would pay for that? Then who would use it? The bulk of the traffic is from the centre of England through Holyhead & Liverpool. Building a bridge from Dublin to Holyhead would cost Billions and would never make money.

Third_Echelon

Didn't anyway watch '28 Days Later'???

What would happen if we had a tunnel to the UK and they got fecked by a zombie attack/outbreak?

Yeah, you guessed it.. They would come through the tunnel and feck us up eventually..

and that's why Ireland is an Island

[Deleted User]

Third_Echelon wrote: »

Didn't anyway watch '28 Days Later'???

What would happen if we had a tunnel to the UK and they got fecked by a zombie attack/outbreak?

Yeah, you guessed it.. They would come through the tunnel and feck us up eventually..

and that's why Ireland is an Island

Just go to the Quays in Dublin City, the place is feckin filled with Zombies!

Third_Echelon

Deleted User wrote: »

Just go to the Quays in Dublin City, the place is feckin filled with Zombies!

very true... the heroin filled zombies aren't as dangerous as the 'rage' filled zombies though.. they bite

[Deleted User]

Third_Echelon wrote: »

very true... the heroin filled zombies aren't as dangerous as the 'rage' filled zombies though.. they bite

Can't be dealing with Zombies, they are the one thing that freak me the f*uck out! Did you see that Big Brother Zombie programme - now that was savage

galwayrush

Cheap flights will kill off the tunnel dream if they ever happen..................oh wait.........:rolleyes:

Third_Echelon

Deleted User wrote: »

Can't be dealing with Zombies, they are the one thing that freak me the f*uck out! Did you see that Big Brother Zombie programme - now that was savage

Yeah, that's the sh*t i'm talking about!

TetsuoHashimoto

Here's one for you Anglo-Philes

Brits finally admit their transport system is bolloxed for the Olympics, ask Japan for a bailout

The Hitachi class 395 trains will reach speeds of up to 140 miles (220 kilometres) per hour, using sections of the London-to-Folkestone high-speed rail link built for Eurostar trains through the Channel Tunnel.

By the time of the 2012 London Olympics, they will be able to transport spectators from Saint Pancras to the main Games site in Stratford, east London, in just seven minutes.

Britain, which has lagged behind its European neighbours in introducing high-speed rail travel, plans to invest 20 billion pounds (32 million dollars, 22 million euros) in railway infrastructure in the next few years.

Victor

Riddle101 wrote: »

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

And Iceland and Malta?

speedboatchase

And what if we do this and the snakes get back in??