You can build three tunnels...

[class26]

OK, if we're now in the realms ot total phantasy;

1. Thurso - Orkneys.
2. Orkneys - Shetland
3. Shetland - Bergen

To close the Northern part of a North Sea circle.

Change at Shetland for Faroes and Iceland

 

[Purple Orange]

How about a North Pole to South Pole tunnel...

 

[Journeyman]

How about a North Pole to South Pole tunnel...

I like the way you're thinking! Straight through the centre of the earth?

 

[Purple Orange]

I like the way you're thinking! Straight through the centre of the earth?

Yep. Straight through the centre of the earth. No messing about.

Maybe there can be other tunnels to different points on the surface. London to Sydney might be direct, but Tokyo requires a change in the earth’s core. 6x400m through platforms should do it - oh and it will obviously need a couple of metrolink platforms too. Liverpool and Sheffield continue to be left out.

 

[Journeyman]

Yep. Straight through the centre of the earth. No messing about.

Maybe there can be other tunnels to different points on the surface. London to Sydney might be direct, but Tokyo requires a change in the earth’s core. 6x400m through platforms should do it - oh and it will obviously need a couple of metrolink platforms too. Liverpool and Sheffield continue to be left out.

Make sure you get hold of some 442s to run services too!

 

[Gareth]

Yep. Straight through the centre of the earth. No messing about.

Maybe there can be other tunnels to different points on the surface. London to Sydney might be direct, but Tokyo requires a change in the earth’s core. 6x400m through platforms should do it - oh and it will obviously need a couple of metrolink platforms too. Liverpool and Sheffield continue to be left out.

Maybe Liverpool & Sheffield can have "compatable" trains which trundle on the legacy "Victorian" network and join the main line somewhere just south of Casablanca.

If they complain, we'll just tell them Mars isn't getting any services at all and so they should be grateful.

 

[Journeyman]

Maybe Liverpool & Sheffield can have "compatable" trains which trundle on the legacy "Victorian" network and join the main line somewhere just south of Casablanca.

If they complain, we'll just tell them Mars isn't getting any services at all and so they should be grateful.

Hmm, an Earth to Mars railway...interesting!

 

[HSTEd]

Avoiding the escalation into truly surreal tunnel proposals..... how about a tunnel from Meols to Talacre, with Merseyrail running to Abergele?

 

[RobShipway]

My three tunnels would be as follows:

1) Lewes to Ringmer with the line then able to go onwards via Isfield and then on to Uckfield.
2) I would built a tunnel between the Northbound Lichfield Trent valley line and the West Coast mainline, so that trains on divert can re - join the West Cost mainline at that point.
3) Reinstate the line from West of Prestatyn Station, that would have been for the mines towards Dyserth. Building tunnel or Tunnels where property is now in the way of that route, such that a Station could be built for Dyserth on the outskirts with the line going onwards in the future towards St Asaph.

 

[Killingworth]

This thread has rather gone off the rails since the OP made first suggestions which included estimated mileages. Dive unders would be worth discussing rather than Pole to Pole short cuts. Costs outweigh benefits on even the simplesrt schemes or they'd have been attempted by now.

Three down the north-east coast.

Every time I see the map of the Tyne and Wear Metro a tunnel between South Shields and North Shields/Tynemouth looks logical. Being trapped in South Sields after the Great Norh Run confirms a need to get across the Tyne morre easily than waiting for small ferries. But where to link up and costs bring us back to reality.

The recently completed Humber Tunnel was very near the right place although combining a railway with a gas or oil pipeline would have been frowned upon. The planning for that however would be helpful if a rail link were ever seriously considered, but true need and costs don't easily align.

Whitby to Middlesbrough could have linked up with the Woodsmith project for their long tunnel, but again the railway wouldn't mix with a mineral conveyor belt operation and the small need for such a rail link is totally outweighed by the potential cost.

Apart from brand new HS2 tunnels the most useful tunnelling is likely to be beneath congested cities other than London. And reboring some of our old tunnels that are too narrow, wet or badly connected at their ends for modern rail traffic.

 

[Ken H]

1. Change the HS2 tunnels to run under New Street, with an underground HS2 station under New St. make it so this station is a through station, so Brum becomes a stop on trains going north.
2. Tunnel under Leeds, taking one or more of the lines approaching Leeds from the east, and the other portal near Neville Hill. Through trains and less congestion at Leeds Stn
3 South of Slade lane to somewhere east of Victoria with an underground station at Piccadilly. Something like the unbuilt PICC-VIC scheme. and

and if trams are allowed, put the tram underground through Piccadilly gardens and across Portland Street.

thats 4 - sorry

 

[Gareth]

I'm not sure it'll ever make sense to have London-North trains to through Birmingham, when a significant amount of the PAX will be travelling through. Through Birmingham would be better for North-South West.

Not the least credible idea on this thread, mind.

 

[Bevan Price]

In total fantasy land, requiring a mixture of new surface & tunnel sections - and far too much money !!!!
HS-C (High Speed Celtic)
Belfast - (east of Ballycastle) - Mull of Kintyre - Tarbert - Rothesay - Dunoon - Gourock - Glasgow.