Topic: Bridge over the Irish Sea

[Captain Z]

They use a condom up the arse Blods.

Someone should tell them you can’t get pregnant that way.

[SteK]

Yup, here's what I scribbled last year (which took fucking ages to find as Google wasn't playing, in the end checked out the date Boris last mentioned this and looked at my posts from around then):


Yeah, this was all ripped apart the last time he mentioned it.  As has been said, this is just a distraction tactics from the news about the court ruling and Cummings' attempted data-snatch.

For the reasons that have been stated, the shortest route is completely impossible due to depth and Beaufort's Dyke (super-deep and full of explosives).

Having done it myself via ferry it really is amazing how short it is, but unfortunately the journey to get to that bit of Scotland is non-trivial (two hours plus by train & coach from Glasgow alone) so unless they also opened a high-speed road/railway to get there it'd be largely pointless anyway.

There are a couple of other routes but ultimately the only one that would make any economic sense at all would be Holyhead to Dublin... which is also the longest, thus unlikely to happen.  Would probably work best as a tunnel... still staggeringly deep though but the Japanese have apparently gone deeper.

The other issue is that Irish trains (such as they are) run to an entirely different gauge (5'3" instead of 4'8.5"), so through-running would be extremely difficult.

I'm sure I read about all this on a Railforums thread a couple of years ago, but the only one I can find now is this much older one (which links to older ones still), but it repeats many of the same arguments I remember reading before: https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/united-kingdom-ireland-tunnel.77694/




(Click to expand this one.)


I think tunnels further south (e.g. Holyhead to Dublin, or maybe Whitehaven/Barrow-in-Furness - Isle of Man - County Down) are probably the only viable option.

Gauge not so much of a problem, Russian/China/Mmongolia border have either bogie switching or axle regauging, or, connect to the LUAS at The Point, LUAS is standard gauge not Irish gauge, train straight to Abbey Street! (For O'Connell Street). Train announcer could say 'An Chéad Stáisiún Eile/Next Station/Next Stop Old Chap, Sráid Uí Chonaill/O'Connell Street/Sackville Street.

All friends together!

[Johnny Yesno]

As has been said, this is just a distraction tactics from the news about the court ruling and Cummings' attempted data-snatch.

What ruling is that? I can only find stories from September last year regarding the gov.uk data harvesting, which I guess is what you're referring to. Has there been more on this?

[Ambient Sheep]

Gauge not so much of a problem, Russian/China/Mmongolia border have either bogie switching or axle regauging...

Indeed, however correct me if I'm wrong but isn't it rather a lengthy process?  Fine for loco-hauled trains that take days to cross continents, rather less so for a high-speed hi-tech modern multiple-unit with quick turnarounds required.

...or, connect to the LUAS at The Point, LUAS is standard gauge not Irish gauge, train straight to Abbey Street! (For O'Connell Street). Train announcer could say 'An Chéad Stáisiún Eile/Next Station/Next Stop Old Chap, Sráid Uí Chonaill/O'Connell Street/Sackville Street.

All friends together!

Heh... I must confess I had to Google LUAS: had never heard of it before, let alone its gauge!

Somehow I think routing high-speed trains down a tramline for the last little bit of the journey mightn't wash. :-)

[Ambient Sheep]

What ruling is that? I can only find stories from September last year regarding the gov.uk data harvesting, which I guess is what you're referring to. Has there been more on this?

I'm pretty sure I was talking about a two different things ;) there.

Yes, the latter was the hoo-hah over Cummings' attempted gov.uk data snatch.  Have no idea what became of it.

Am 98% sure "the court ruling" I was referring to was the Supreme Court judging that Boris wasn't entitled to prorogue parliament for the length of time he did, with the implication that he'd lied to The Queen about his reasons for doing it and the legality of it.  No sooner had the former hit the headlines and before too many people could say too much about the latter, it was suddenly a case of "Oh look, a bridge!!  Yes I know it's a ridiculous idea but now you can fill up your pages with just how ridiculous it is!"

I wonder what the reason is this time?  I've been trying to avoid the news lately.

Btw, as far as I can tell, railforums haven't even bothered with a thread this time round...

[weekender]

railforums

Slut.

[Urinal Cake]

I want to see Jeremy Clarkson driving over it while extolling great English Engineering with a bag of potatoes in the passenger seat of his Jaguar XK120. Then the bridge falls apart and he drowns.

[SteK]

Indeed, however correct me if I'm wrong but isn't it rather a lengthy process?  Fine for loco-hauled trains that take days to cross continents, rather less so for a high-speed hi-tech modern multiple-unit with quick turnarounds required.


Heh... I must confess I had to Google LUAS: had never heard of it before, let alone its gauge!

Somehow I think routing high-speed trains down a tramline for the last little bit of the journey mightn't wash. :-)

One word - Weymouth Harbour Branch - Google/YouTube it! And bogie-switching is slow, train went off to a shed leaving passengers on the platform, axle re-gauge is quick but to be fair I've never seen it.

[Ambient Sheep]

One word - Weymouth Harbour Branch - Google/YouTube it!

No need, it's famous enough, as is Newhaven Marine.

Which are both disused...

axle re-gauge is quick

Worth knowing. :-)

[Ambient Sheep]

I want to see Jeremy Clarkson driving over it while extolling great English Engineering with a bag of potatoes in the passenger seat of his Jaguar XK120. Then the bridge falls apart and he drowns.

Yes, that's the only reason to make it a bridge.  100% agreed. :-)

[SteK]

No need, it's famous enough, as is Newhaven Marine.

Which are both disused...


Worth knowing

True, but it's ok for them! That's from Goodnight Sweetheart....   

[The Culture Bunker]

I think tunnels further south (e.g. Holyhead to Dublin, or maybe Whitehaven/Barrow-in-Furness - Isle of Man - County Down) are probably the only viable option.

Problem with the second option is that both Whitehaven and Barrow are complete pains in the arse to get to by road. State of the railway isn't much better, either. Still, my fellow coastal Cumbrians were fucking dumb enough to vote Tory en masse, so I can imagine the idea being flagged up as a (in reality never going to happen) concept to convince the locals that their post-industrial hellhole towns might have something coming their way beyond the usual shipments of hard drugs.

[SteK]

Problem with the second option is that both Whitehaven and Barrow are complete pains in the arse to get to by road. State of the railway isn't much better, either. Still, my fellow coastal Cumbrians were fucking dumb enough to vote Tory en masse, so I can imagine the idea being flagged up as a "never going to happen" concept to convince the locals that their post-industrial hellhole towns might have something coming their way beyond the usual shipments of hard drugs.

I'd go part bridge, part tunnel with artificial islands at Liverpool and Dublin areas, like the Oresund DK to SE.

But then again I'm not a full time bridge and tunnel designer, just do it in my spare time.

[Johnny Yesno]

I'm pretty sure I was talking about a two different things ;) there.

Oh, I see. I thought the court ruling and Cummings's snatch were one thing.

I wonder what the reason is this time?

Ah, right. I thought you were talking about this time. I think I've lost the ability to read.

[Ambient Sheep]

Problem with the second option is that both Whitehaven and Barrow are complete pains in the arse to get to by road. State of the railway isn't much better, either.

I was assuming some sort of M6 side-extension (like the M50 off the M5 or M54 off the M6) and/or an HS2.5 if they took that option.

[Ambient Sheep]

Oh, I see. I thought the court ruling and Cummings's snatch were one thing.

Understandable on an out-of-context re-read. :-)

Ah, right. I thought you were talking about this time. I think I've lost the ability to read.

The bit between the horizontal rules was from last September as I attempted to describe in the intro. :-)  More readable than stuffing it all in a quote-box... in my experience people tend to skip those in situations like this.

[jobotic]

Wait so I vote for Brexit thinking they'll block the tunnel to stop Europe sending all their jihadis here to bomb us and get council houses, and now they're building a bridge to Ireland just as the IRA get voted into government! What happened to this once great counrty ? are we just a firing range?

[buzby]

I was assuming some sort of M6 side-extension (like the M50 off the M5 or M54 off the M6) and/or an HS2.5 if they took that option.

Uh-huh - Whitehaven and Barrow are both cut off from the M6 and the route of HS2 by the Lake District National Park, so no motorways or new railway lines could get to them without tunnelling under the park. It's the same reason the M67 comes crashing to a halt at Mottram, east of Manchester - the Peak Dsitrict National Park blocked it's planned route to Sheffield. It was going to use the Woodhead Rail Tunnels to get under the Peak District until the plans were cancelled and they were handed over to the CEGB to carry the National Grid (as they aren't allowed to build new pylons in National Parks either).

Regarding the bridge plans, as well as the depth of the sea bed, munitions dumps and bad weather there is going to need to be at least one clear span of around 200+ metres above mean sea level to allow post-Panamax-sized container ships on transatlantic routes through to access ports on the west coast of the mainland and the east coast of Ireland. You would be looking at something like the Millau viaduct, but ten times longer and offshore.

[Jerzy Bondov]

Jesus Christ. So even if it was built it would be so high up you would shit yourself going over. And then you get off and where are you? Ireland. Fuck that.

[JesusAndYourBush]

Wasn't this debunked last year due to the massive munitions dump off the coast of Scotland ?

Another munitions dump??  (There was also one under where Boris's floating airport was going to be.)

[buzby]

Another munitions dump??  (There was also one under where Boris's floating airport was going to be.)

That's not a munitions dump as such, but a sunken WW2 munitions ship the SS Richard Montgomery that ran aground on a sandbank in the Thames Estuary near Sheerness and broke it's back, which still has about 1400 tons of explosive onboard.

[paruses]

I used to work in Southend  and it was always rumoured that the seawater was eating through the hull and that at some point the whole thing would go up with pretty devastating consequences. Not that that would bother me - although the conservation area was quite nice.

[Flatulent Fox]

Nah,we don't want a bridge up here in Scotland.
                                                                            We've already got a bridge.It's very nice.

I'd not want any more bridges hanging about the place spreading confusion.

[Blinder Data]

As others have pointed out, by the time the bridge is built it could link an independent Scotland with a united Ireland at the expense of English taxpayers, which would be hilarious. For this reason alone it's a good idea.

In the abstract I support it as a way to stop people flying between the UK and Ireland. But the cost-benefit analysis of connecting two small countries with an absolutely massive bridge in impractical circumstances is probably going to result in a "no effing way" from the Treasury bods, so it's just silly paper talk from the manchild PM

[dissolute ocelot]

The only feasible solution is to fill and drain the Irish sea. You could do from Kintyre to Torr Head relatively easily (you could even do a bridge there if anybody wanted to go to Kintyre, but if you fill in from there south you would have a useful route further down.) Just north of Dublin to Holyhead is longer but there's a lot of rock in Wales that nobody's using. This would also have the advantage of ensuring the closure of Llandudno as a holiday resort, put the racist bastards with their honest-to-god 2010s gollywog shop out of business. Plus it'd really piss off the Isle of Man: no more offshore tax haven if you can walk there from Birkenhead. COME ON BORIS!

[Sebastian Cobb]

As others have pointed out, by the time the bridge is built it could link an independent Scotland with a united Ireland at the expense of English taxpayers, which would be hilarious. For this reason alone it's a good idea.

In the abstract I support it as a way to stop people flying between the UK and Ireland. But the cost-benefit analysis of connecting two small countries with an absolutely massive bridge in impractical circumstances is probably going to result in a "no effing way" from the Treasury bods, so it's just silly paper talk from the manchild PM

It'd take longer to get to the bridge than it'd take to fly to Ireland. If you're prepared to drive all that way you can go to Liverpool and get a Ferry.

I think when there was plans to drill for oil there the Mod got a bit 'but me submarines' about it.

[Jerzy Bondov]

Bridge should go from LONDON to DUBLIN. Why not? Seems just as feasible.

[hamfist]

Let's build a bridge to ICELAND too, with services at The Faroe Islands. Get it bridged.

[Clatty McCutcheon]

It’s typical Boris bollocks.  The latest Tory wheeze to try and stymie those terrible separatists in Scotland is to come up with infrastructure projects and label them ‘funded by a Westminster’ in the manner that projects used to be labelled ‘funded by the EU’.  He cares and understands so little about the needs of NI and Scotland that he’s latched onto this old nonsense.  He just thinks in terms of the big, flashy grandiose projects that his narcissism and egotism draws him towards.

[jobotic]

Meanwhile British people are to be deported tomorrow and the government are accusing Lammy of "shrill virtue signalling and faux outrage". I'm surprised they don't wear Pepe badges.

Still we're all talking about this fucking nonsense.