England and Ireland wanted to create the longest tunnel in the world. One “stupid” and “ahead of his time”

Europe has subscribed to macro tunnels. The world’s longest submerged tunnel is currently being built between Germany and Denmark. Also the most pharaonic railway under the Alps, but even the 64 kilometers of that project are nothing compared to the 87 kilometers of the tunnel that sought to unite Ireland and Wales.

This is the tunnel between Holyhead and Dublin, a project that has gone through a roller coaster and about which not everything has been said, although it is far from becoming a reality.

Connecting Ireland. Great Britain is experiencing a particular situation. England, Wales and Scotland are perfectly connected by land, but Northern Ireland is separated from the rest of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. That is why, over the years, projects have been proposed to link the archipelago, with bridges/tunnels between Northern Ireland and Scotland.

Also between the Republic of Ireland and Wales, the Rosslare and Fishguard, Dublin and Holyhead corridors being the most attractive as they link nerve centers in both countries and have good road connections with the rest of the territory. Of all, the most attractive project was the tunnel to link Dublin and Holyhead.

Irish Mail. It was not the first time that a connection was made between both cities. From 1848 to 2002 there was a train with the nickname ‘The Irish Mail’ that linked, precisely, the two cities. The train left London and arrived at Holyhead, where the goods headed to Dublin through the ferry connection.

This new ‘Irish connection’ seemed the most viable. Bill Grose is the former president of the British Tunneling Society and, a few years ago, he told the BBC that “intuitively, the Holyhead to Dublin route is more preferable than the others. It is closer to Manchester and Liverpool and connects directly to Dublin.” That was in 2013, and there are good reasons why so much time has passed without any news on the project.

Money and jobs. Of the four projects, this tunnel was the longest, covering about 87 kilometers. That, intuitively, would work against it, but the plus point was that the depth would only have to be about 100 meters, making the works somewhat simpler. It would be a railway tunnel for which adjustments would have to be made to the Welsh line in order to prepare it for high speed and the estimates were stratospheric.

Estimates of the project were of 35,000 new jobs in its construction, as well as a cost of about 15,000 million pounds. An absolute outrage.

The stupidest tunnel in the world. With this in mind, and taking into account that the Financial Times commented in 2021 that the project was “dead, at least for now”, we cannot speak of the new European megatunnel as a reality. There is still talk about it, as we can see in Express, but for now, the project to unite both countries is at a standstill. The Irish media also stated that it was better to ignore the promises that came from England, with Boris Johnson thinking of resurrecting the project.

The Financial Times also reported statements by Dominic Cummings, Johnson’s former adviser, who commented that “the prime minister’s only agenda is to Buy more trains, buy more bicycles, buy more buses and build the world’s stupidest tunnel to Ireland.”

Interests. The interests of both countries also come into play. It was already mentioned here that the Republic of Ireland had much more to gain than England. While these would only get a direct route with their neighbors to the west, the Irish would achieve a direct connection with continental Europe thanks to the fact that they could go from Dublin to France through the macro-bridge with England and, later, through the English Channel.

It’s not all said. There are, however, three points that could rescue this project. One is that, in the 2021 report, it was suggested that the structure could generate energy from wind, sea and solar sources, so it could be a good excuse to undertake the project. Another important point is that 15 billion is a lot, but less than the estimate for a bridge.

And the latest is a comment from one of Johnson’s government officials who stated that the idea was “ahead of its time,” making sense only in a future where cars were driverless. Specifically, Switzerland has a plan to, by 2040, build a 500-kilometer underground network through which automated vehicles transport goods.

If one day this tunnel is built between Ireland and Wales, these three aspects could be its main driving force, but as far as is known so far, the project is shelved.

Imagen | Daniel Schwen

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