Faster by train.
 

EXPERTS PLAN 2,300MPH RAIL TUNNEL TO THE US
A 2,300mph rail link from Britain across the Atlantic to the US could be built by 2030. The £30 billion undersea link would take just half an hour to cross from Liverpool or Bristol to New York or Boston. Engineers say the technology already exists to build such a supersonic rail link and prototypes are already being built in Japan. Frank Davidson, the man behind the transatlantic rail project, says it could be built by 2030 and it may replace air travel. Mr Davidson, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was involved in the Channel Tunnel project. He says boring a tunnel would be expensive and "old-fashioned". Instead the link would be a floating submerged tube anchored to the sea bed with cables. Magnets would levitate the train and friction would be eliminated by maintaining a vacuum inside the tunnel allowing supersonic speeds. He claims the link would be safer than conventional trains because there is no chance of derailment. "The increase in recent years in the amount of transatlantic air traffic shows how great the market is and technically it's feasible," Mr Davidson told the Daily Mail. He is now forming a consortium of experts to draw up more detailed plans.

Then a bloke said "I know, lets clear a load of toxic land near the Thames, build a huge great tent, call it the Dome and millions and millions of people will come to marvel and it will stand as a tribute to modern Britain. And then, when the celebrations are over, we could turn it into an ultra-modern freight terminal for the new 3 x weekly shuttle service to Mars, due to go to a daily service in the spring of 2021"
Ooops, too much Discovery Channel again....

The US would block up the tunnel unless their trains were given better access to Heathrow.

http://www.stopstart.fsnet.co.uk/aircraft/flypig7.gif

Draper shall apply for the contract to supply cyliders of vacuumn. ;)

I wouldn´t waste my time going by a 2300mph train, because the invention of the "Scotty-beam-me-to-NY" technology will already have taken place in 2025!

Midnight Blue,

I think you are quite right, only two questions though?.

1. Will your luggage make it?
2. Will Scotty beam your clothes as well?
(As in: "Very funny Scotty, now beam over my clothes")

[This message has been edited by Diesel8 (edited 27 June 2001).]

Anyone remember the MagLev train at Birmingham (UK) airport?

During the opening ceremony - with the Mayor of Birmingham onboard - there was a power outage, causing the train to stop levitating; it contacted the track, came to an abrupt halt and the mayor broke his leg!

Imagine the 'mush' appearing at the other end of the track in a similar event on this hairbrained scheme! :rolleyes:

http://www.pprune.org/ubb/NonCGI/cool.gif Underdog

I agree entirely with RVR800. Even if they did build it, there is no way on earth that I would travel in it!

If anyone has read any of the "Nights Dawn" Trilogy by Peter F Hamilton then they will have seen that this idea isn't new.One of the features of the story, and it is only a story, is that the climate has become so f*****d by global warming that permanent violent storms rage,completely knackering air travel.The solution is to build supersonic "vacuum" trains in tubes on the sea beds linking all the continents together.The article seems to have lifted the idea straight out of the book,right down to the fine detail.The story by the way is set in AD2600 so I reckon I might just keep my job until retirement.


Horrible thought for the day: Will railtrack be put in charge?

How long before RB announces he's the launch customer?

"just half an hour to cross from Liverpool or Bristol to New York or Boston."

they're going to move ireland, then! :) :)

(please, no comments on what a good idea tha might be!)

"a submerged tube anchored to the sea bed by chains..."

Safer than flying in a C152 I suppose...

Hmm, interesting thought with that tunnel.
Of course the engineers know there is strong currents on the sea bottom. (The Gulf Stream flows back the other way: NE to SW along the bottom.)
Also there is such thing as underwater uh, sea quakes:
I would think it be hard to keep a tunnel straight enough for a 2300 mph train with these forces of nature factored in.

But on the other hand, I am sure the engineers have already sorted it out.

No mention of what would power the trains?
With vacuum in the tube, would pressured air from behind push 'em forward fast enough?

And, oh, what if somebody forgot to turn the vacuum off before landing?
The thing would shoot out of the hole and jump across the entire USA just from inertia?

Or what if one of them sub marines hit the tube and ruptured it as the train was speeding along the bottom?
Would give new meaning to the phrase: Stopped Dead in the Water...?

Or what if, uh, never mind.

Sounds good and would love to see it happen,
even at $30 Billion.
(Can I sign up for Bonds right now.. :))

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Men, this is no drill...

[This message has been edited by TowerDog (edited 27 June 2001).]

Wouldn't the tunnel have to be rediculously strong and faultless to maintain a vacuum under several thousand feet of water?

Um, wasn't it Harry Harrison who wrote this one first? 1950s some time?

Ah yes, Google he say: "A Transatlantic Tunnel, Hurrah!", but I'm surprised to read that it was published in 1972, I was sure it was earlier than that.

Bet the pax would still smoke in the bogs though! Wonders what the emergency brief would be like?

CCCcc....ough

There was actually a German film (Die Tunnel) on a similar theme in the late 20's /early 30's. The same file had passenger airships with parachute escape - you just had to put on a shoulder harness then climb outside the wimdow to attach the parachutes which were stored outside! There was recently a british designed space plane which could be built for around £20 mill and would only cost a few thousand for an orbital flight- thy were just waiting for a revolution in materials to actually have something to make it with

Over here we are connected to the outside world by two undersea cables stretching from Borneo to Singapore. At least twice a year one of the cables is snagged by a trawler and ripped out, leaving us with poor phone quality and slow internet speeds. I can just imagine a trawler dragging the vacuum tube open and half the Atlantic Ocean being sucked into the tube! Awesome eh?

Or will all the fish have been fished to extinction by then and there will be no more trawlers?

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Through difficulties to the cinema

I think that all these scientist have way to much time on their hands they sit around all day playing with themselves, then they have wet dreams thinking about these supposed supersonic trains and other rediculous inventions and when they wake up they write the idea down and have another pull. They're all just fantasy's of the so called scientist. In my opinion it's all
BULL SH*T !!!!!!

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if your gonna die, die in a kingswood

Liverpool to US via Ireland...

don't forget the Shannon stopover ;)