Swiss plan tunnel under Strait of Gilbraltar

i am not holding my breath. they havent done a feasability study yet. i believe the area is riddled with granite and isnt there a fault line in there too?
not the best area for building long rail tunnels!!
are spain really wanting a rail link with all the immigration problems it intails?

its a nice idea but i really dont think this is going to happen any time soon,

Peter

They would be mad. There is a fault line and not only that a bit of a crumple zone as Africa pushes north into Europe. I don't think Spain would want this at all.

I think the Swiss have an addiction to building tunnels. It starts in childhood as they watch the big cheeses being cut and they see the holes. As the eat the cheese, something the cows ate (and if you've been to the demonstration creamery in Gruyere, you'll know that Swiss cows eat a very wide variety of stuff) triggers a reaction in the brain that says "holes are good; must make more holes". The Swiss alps are rapidly reaching saturation (or maybe that's desaturation) with tunnels, so they have to look elsewhere for bigger, deeper, more challenging places to dig.

David

I've heard about this before. The issue as stated above is the amount of traffic that it would carry. Is there a ferry service over the route and how many people travel that route to warrant a tunnel?

QUOTE (Doug @ 1 Oct 2006, 19:15) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>I've heard about this before. The issue as stated above is the amount of traffic that it would carry. Is there a ferry service over the route and how many people travel that route to warrant a tunnel?
I've been on the ferry which goes to Morocco. This route is nothing like as busy as the Channel. Mainly day trippers popping iover to see Tangiers. I really don't think there's the traffic to warrant such a huge investment.

>The Spanish were definitely not about to allow Hitler use of Spanish rolling stock for this purpose!
An interesting "thank you" for the help they got during their own civil war.

David

As previously mentioned linking 2 differant continental plates with a tunnel is a lot more of an engineering challenge than the channel tunnel was and as for the implications for increased numbers of asylum seekers well !

>Or Germany with Italy directly linking up two large EEC members. No refugee problems there!
They are /almost/ doing that with the new Simplon basis tunnel which is due to open for traffic around about 2012 if I remember correctly.

David

>Then again maybe they see that as a challenge
I think they have run out of alp.

>Boring tunnels under the sea
There's not much to see...
but seriously folks, the guy leading the design team was involved in the Channel tunnel so he ought to know. He is also 82 which makes me wonder if he will get to see if completed. The chief engineer of the Simplon was killed during construction.

David

This project has popped up as a news item on the BBC website. You can read it here. It's got some nice graphics.

This story could run and run...

David

There's just so many reasons why this is not a good idea. The list is endless.

I find it very hard to believe that Morocco and Spain, neither of which could be described as affluent nations, could raise the finances for such a project and I see absolutely no reason why the European Union should finance it.

Anyway, what purpose will it serve, getting tourists across to Africa for a day trip, who does that benefit? Certainly not the EU. I'd have thought that a mini-cruise on the ferry was more fun than half an hour in a tunnel for the tourists. Freight traffic tends to be road based rather than rail so does it make a significant difference - a few hours on a ferry or a couple of hours, including loading/unloading, by tunnel? The break on the boat is usually welcomed by the truckers.

Both ferry and tunnel would still need customs checks which add significantly to the time factor. As stated elsewhere there is the issue of track gauge, so any rail freight would require transhipment or re-wheeling, it is not a matter of through freight trains as is with the Chunnel.

It seems absolute madness, not only is it expensive and difficult but there is very little traffic to justify it. There is also the illegal immigrant issue. Who is going to pay for this?