Featured Image Credit: Getty Images/Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images/Merten Snijders
Topics: London, Money, New York, Travel, World News, Reddit, Technology
Lucy Devine
Topics: London, Money, New York, Travel, World News, Reddit, Technology
Imagine being able to travel between the USA and the UK in less than an hour - you could even commute in that time.
Well, it could one day become a reality, with proposals put forward to create a Transatlantic Tunnel linking New York and London.
At present, the quickest way to fly between NYC and London is by air, with flights taking around eight hours on average.
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So, the idea of being able to cut the journey time to just 54 minutes is certainly appealing - but it would come at a huge cost.
The project would said to come at a price of $19.8 trillion, with the tunnel stretching 3,400 miles.
It's thought the project would take decades to complete, due to the sheer amount of work that would be needed to create a tunnel that stretched so far.
For context, the Channel Tunnel, which links England with France, is just 23.5 miles long and even that took six years.
So how would it even work?
Well, there's a few ideas being proposed, including building it underneath the seabed, while another suggestion is hovering it over the Atlantic Ocean.
The tunnel would essentially be suspended with cables, meaning building a tunnel within the ocean - and all the obstacles that come with the mammoth project - would essentially be bypassed.
It's reported that thanks to vacuum technology, trains could travel through the tunnel at speeds of over 3,000mph, which would slash the journey time down to under an hour.
The idea of using jet propulsion has also been suggested, which is where the engine thrust is produced by fast moving jet of fluid. However, this would require an 18-minute period of deceleration to ensure the train arrives at its destination safely.
Despite the proposals, there are no plans currently being considered by governments in America or the UK, but that doesn't mean it couldn't be a possibility in the future.
However, people on Reddit pointed out that should the tunnel ever be created, the ticket prices would likely be astronomical.
One person wrote: "Perhaps more relevant that any technical issues, at that cost the price of a ticket would be sky high (ironically perhaps) to get any return in a reasonable timescale."
Others said the cost of making the tunnel would be far too high, with another adding: "It would cost an insane amount up‐font. We’re talking enough to bankrupt every government in the world.
"It would never pay for itself, because yearly maintenance costs would always be more than the amount it would save in air and sea transport—which isn’t as much as you might think, because many people would pay for air travel instead of spending several days crossing by train/automobile, and sea freight would remain cheaper."