The vision sounds irresistible: step onto a train in New York, and emerge 54 minutes later in London, having traveled through a tunnel beneath the Atlantic Ocean. This kind of travel is described in some recent proposals. But is a trans-Atlantic tunnel really possible or the stuff of science fiction?
The short answer: It’s probably not possible with current technology.
First of all, the 54-minute journey would require vacuum trains traveling at 5,000 mph (8,000 km/h) — technology that doesn’t exist yet. With conventional rail speeds, the trip would take around 15 hours, making it slower than an 8-hour flight.
Currently, the world’s longest undersea section of a tunnel belongs to the Channel Tunnel, which has a 23.5-mile (37.9 kilometers) underwater section connecting England and France. Construction on the tunnel, nicknamed the Chunnel, took six years, 13,000 workers, and 4.65 billion pounds in 1994 (12 billion pounds, or $16 billion today).
“Writer Fuel” is a series of cool real-world stories that might inspire your little writer heart. Check out our Writer Fuel page on the LimFic blog for more inspiration.
