Transatlantic Tunnel

Caught this fascinating show last night on the Discovery Channel's Extreme Engineering series.

It explores the idea of building a train tunnel across the Atlantic Ocean. The tunnel would be anchored to the ocean floor by cables, and would use ballast tanks to float underwater (similar to the technology used by submarines). The train would be powered by superconducting magnets, and would reach speeds of 5,000 mph. The tunnel would have to be a perfect vacuum in order to do away with the problem of air resistance, and the train would accelerate/decelerate gradually to deal with G-forces.

If it ever happened, the tunnel would be 3,100 miles long, take 3-4 decades to build, cost something like $12 trillion, be assembled in 54,000 separate pieces and dropped into place via huge floating platforms, and would obviously be the single greatest construction project in history. All the world's steel mills would have to be at max production round the clock for an entire year to produce the necessary steel.

A mind-boggling project, to say the least. It faces a huge number of massive problems, but who knows - maybe someday it'll happen.

In case anyone's interested, here's a schedule for the show:

Extreme Engineering on the Discovery Channel

It sounds cool and all, but thats just too much money, and takes up too much resources. I say just work on faster planes.

Yeah, much cheaper and more realistic to build those planes that skim the upper atmosphere. The train thing just seems insain.

3100 miles, and what, a pinprick hole could fuck up the vacuum? Neat idea, but the reliability of the overall structure would need to be insanely high in order to justify doing it.

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Originally posted by Stone
3100 miles, and what, a pinprick hole could fuck up the vacuum? Neat idea, but the reliability of the overall structure would need to be insanely high in order to justify doing it.

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From what I've read:

They have a good number of "fail safe" technologies built into the design, which the projected cost would cover.

It would be a technological marvel and a amazing feat, though I don't think I'll see anything like it in my lifetime.

I agree the risks far outweigh the rewards. A ticket would probably have to cost thousands of dollars to make it cost-effective, and even if the tunnel was 100% safe, I don't think many people would pay that much just to save a few hours.

well if it runs all day long like 24 hours a day and you have a train always going to and coming from london
you wouldnt have to charge a thousand dollars a person

your not looking to make back the cost over night bit over many many many years much like a subway today


personally im all for it
id fucking love it

so what are you doing today
ehh think ill take a ride into london for the afternoon and then come home around 6 ish

to beable to do something like that would be freaking INSANE and id LOVE it

Interesting idea. Maybe in the future something like that will actually be built. Who knows. Japan has those highspeed Bullet trains, so they can start here, and build up.

Still, I'll say work on Teleportation theory :)

I watched that show last week. It was fairly interesting but the entire thing sounded like a cheesy infomercial.

Instead of going NYC to London they'd be better off connecting something like Halifax to Lisbon, and then connect to those two cities via land based rail links in Euro and NA.

Cool idea, granted, but imagine the possibility of natural disasters, terrorist attacks and a whle bunch of other factors. ALso if such events could occur while in transit imagine trying to activate an emergency break at 5,000 mph. Everyone's organs would slam against their rib cages and explode.

That sounds like a huge bitch of a projectto put together. Odds are the people that start the project wouldn't be alive when it's done. We have so far to go technology wise it's crazy.

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Originally posted by Kidnemo
From what I've read:

They have a good number of "fail safe" technologies built into the design, which the projected cost would cover.

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So did the Titanic...

It would be nice but the chances of it being completed during my lifetime are nil. I'd be all over it if it ever did hapen.

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Originally posted by BioMechanic
I agree the risks far outweigh the rewards. A ticket would probably have to cost thousands of dollars to make it cost-effective, and even if the tunnel was 100% safe, I don't think many people would pay that much just to save a few hours.

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It would be at first, and Im sure plenty of CEOs and execs would happily get those tickets. They spend so much of their time on a plane every year, Im sure they would love to get it over with quickly. Plane rides are soooo boring after the novelty wears off!

Economy of scale would drive the cost down, probably to maybe the price of a Concorde flight now. I mean, the very first calculators were like $270, now banks gives them away when you sign up for an account.

They just grounded the Concorde. There wasn't enough demand to keep it going.

I remember seeing a show about how they plan on making a "super monorail" of sorts...can't remember where. It might have been Germany. They want to link big cities together, they think they have the technology at a point where it makes economic sense to be able to do it. Trains would do over 100 mph easy. Looked cool as hell.

hey - isn't their already an ocean floor tunnel connecting the UK to France?

And i'm wondering - wouldn't the pressure of the ocean at the ocean floor just crush anything that went down there... tunnels included? I mean... how the hell would they construct that anyway - sounds like something i'd read in popular mechanics... neat idea - just not very pratical i think...

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Originally posted by station82o
hey - isn't their already an ocean floor tunnel connecting the UK to France?

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There is - it's something like 30 miles long. The BART in SF bay also goes underwater - well, it actually travels under the bottom of the bay there.

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And i'm wondering - wouldn't the pressure of the ocean at the ocean floor just crush anything that went down there... tunnels included? I mean... how the hell would they construct that anyway - sounds like something i'd read in popular mechanics... neat idea - just not very pratical i think...

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You're right - no way could the tunnel survive the pressure there, plus the ocean bottom is far too rugged - it's like a mountain range in spots, with peaks almost as tall as Mt. Everest and trenches miles deep. Not to mention the common earthquakes on the ocean floor.

The proposal would have the tunnel floating a hundred feet or so below the sea's surface, secured by cables attached to the ocean floor.

id like to see something like a tunnel in the future, that really sucks that the tiniest hole could screw it up but if it would work the more power to them

Holly Shit!

5,000 mph?

Jeez...

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Originally posted by BioMechanic
rugged

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:lol:

really - the bart in SF is partly underwater - i rode that and didn't remember that?! and this was only back in 1999 - ... then again - i was reading a book while traveling - but man... i'm sure i'd have remembered that.

They're not going to just build the vaccum so it's made of thin steal, it'll be hard but I think they could do it.

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Originally posted by Shakey
So did the Titanic...

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Especially since we have ocean liners, many times the size of the titantic sailing around the world everyday that aren't crashing.

You can't anticipate all problems, but you can do your best to minimize the chances of fault.

If we didn't take chances on new technologies and always played it safe we'd still be living in caves and eating raw meat.

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Originally posted by station82o
really - the bart in SF is partly underwater - i rode that and didn't remember that?! and this was only back in 1999 - ... then again - i was reading a book while traveling - but man... i'm sure i'd have remembered that.

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It only goes underwater when it crosses the bay, and when it does, it's in the same tunnel that's above the surface, so it's not like you can tell by looking out the window or anything - you'd just see the tunnel wall. I didn't know about it either, until I read about it after riding. Weird, huh? ;)

Up to 5,000 mph? What ever happened to working on teleportation?
Perfect vacuum? Like Stone said, only a pinprick...$12 trillion!? Who's paying for it? Underwater? Think of all the disaster movies Hollywood can make about THAT! And not to mention the resources...Just something else to suck up what we don't have.

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Originally posted by SapphirePhoenix
Think of all the disaster movies Hollywood can make about THAT!

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Like Daylight. Christ don't give anyone an excuse to make another Daylight. Please God.

Think about the maintanance of this thing. 3,100 miles long? Underwater? You got all sorts of shit swimming around, the tide to deal with? How would you protect it from attacks? I'm sure it would be more than one tube...it would be like a tunnel, in a tunnel, in a tunnel. 2 or 3 lines of defense for cracks and stuff.

Not likely going to happen. I would love the idea, in a perfect world, but I don't think that this is that world.

A Swiss company has plans to connect major citys by rail underground all over Europe. I'd like to see that sort of thing in the USA. I'd like that better than airliners and being underground or partially underground (it couldn't go undergroud in many parts of Houston or all of New Orleans)

ºTracer

It's one of those things that would be super cool, but I can't even afford to buy 1st class tickets on an airline. I live in the US, but I moved here 4 years ago from London. I go back every year to visit, that would be fantastic if it were affordable.

This would be the first official connection between the two worlds, ever. I think it sounds pretty cool.