Bridge to Portpatrick

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Quandary

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I can understand the OPS determination to avoid Larne but not his desire to inflict Boris common or garden bridge on the Dee. To be realistic a project of this nature takes minimum of 25 years to plan and finance plus at least 5 for organizing the Chinese to procure and construct. In 30 years we will not be driving about in cars on surface roads, to get to Ireland, or anywhere else it will need a pneumatic tube, like they had in hardware shops, semi-submerged below the wave level, you will climb in to the capsule and then 'Pouuuuuf' you will be at your destination.
Of course Scotland will by then be independent, have got over its initial set backs and be back in the EU and an economic superforce, whether we can be persuaded to spare our energies to send folk to Donaghadee might be uncertain.
 

dgadee

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I can understand the OPS determination to avoid Larne but not his desire to inflict Boris common or garden bridge on the Dee. To be realistic a project of this nature takes minimum of 25 years to plan and finance plus at least 5 for organizing the Chinese to procure and construct. In 30 years we will not be driving about in cars on surface roads, to get to Ireland, or anywhere else it will need a pneumatic tube, like they had in hardware shops, semi-submerged below the wave level, you will climb in to the capsule and then 'Pouuuuuf' you will be at your destination.
Of course Scotland will by then be independent, have got over its initial set backs and be back in the EU and an economic superforce, whether we can be persuaded to spare our energies to send folk to Donaghadee might be uncertain.

It's not so much the Larne people, just their gospel tents and bible bashing.

This is all getting too depressing. Seeing that survey ship, I could envisage a long, long bridge arcing over the North Channel. Now you are saying I might not be around to actually see whatever they build. Sad.

The mate is convinced, too, that Scotland will be a superpower. Only if they can turn rain into an energy supply, I think.
 

JumbleDuck

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In 30 years we will not be driving about in cars on surface roads, to get to Ireland, or anywhere else it will need a pneumatic tube, like they had in hardware shops, semi-submerged below the wave level, you will climb in to the capsule and then 'Pouuuuuf' you will be at your destination.

Elon Musk's "Hyperloop" is a tribute to the strength of modern cannabis strains, but you might not be a million miles from a real possibility. The Norwegians are are planning to build a north-south coastal highway: in most places it will cross over fjords by bridge or under by tunnel but in a few cases, where both span and depth are large, they are seriously considering floating tunnels. One of them might be a possibility for the North Channel too.
 

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I presume it's a joke, but just in case you didn't know, there are two car ferries, from Cairnryan near Stranraer to Belfast (Stena) and Larne (P&O). The Portpatrick to Donaghadee ferry went about a century and a half ago.

A bridge would make sense for Ireland but only if (a) a high-speed railway line went all the way from London and (b) someone found a way of dealing with the fact that British railways are 4'8.5" gauge and Irish ones are 5'3". Spain dealt with this problem by building its high speed network to 4'8.5" instead of their usual 5'5.5".

It may sound daft now, but I am absolutely sure it will happen at some time. London to Dublin in three hours or so,
Hovercraft : You don't have the cost of constructing highways; you only need to clear a swathe of land.
 

dgadee

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Hovercraft : You don't have the cost of constructing highways; you only need to clear a swathe of land.

Ah, reminds me of the 80s when I had a boat on the south coast - going from Dover in fog with those things roaring away and you'd no idea where they were going to/coming from. So, no 1980s technology please. We want the hose pipe.
 

Quandary

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It's not so much the Larne people, just their gospel tents and bible bashing.

This is all getting too depressing. Seeing that survey ship, I could envisage a long, long bridge arcing over the North Channel. Now you are saying I might not be around to actually see whatever they build. Sad.

The mate is convinced, too, that Scotland will be a superpower. Only if they can turn rain into an energy supply, I think.

No need , we will be turning the rain into water and piping the surplus down to England, they are used to buying their water down there and as it dries up our price will go up, they might try to utilize sea water, there will be a big surplus of that but by then it will be so polluted and full of microplastics that only the poorest and folk in the North will have to drink it. We will of course need to keep some to produce our hydrogen for industry, heating and transport.
Ireland should have a water surplus too but less opportunity to exploit it way out there on the far fringes of Europe. That is why you must not give up on your bridge or transit system. Joanna will not want to go down in history as having failed you.
 

JumbleDuck

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Hovercraft : You don't have the cost of constructing highways; you only need to clear a swathe of land.
North Channel is too rough for them. When Stena tried HSS high speed ferries there were cancelled too often, particularly in winter, to be an viable proposition. The were great fun to travel in, but far too unreliable. Large hovercraft are similarly limited by wave height.

Anyway, there is no point in having a faster crossing if you can't get there fast. getting there fast means a railway, and there is no sense in changing modes twice to get to Ireland.
 

awol

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The Nogs have tunnels well below 200m and length has also been done elsewhere. The water between Cork and Brittany is shallower than the North Channel and a 250 mile tunnel would be a world beater. A rail link from Scotland to Europe by-passing England has huge political and commercial possibilities. If it popped up in the Scillies they could join the EU too.
 

dgadee

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The Nogs have tunnels well below 200m and length has also been done elsewhere. The water between Cork and Brittany is shallower than the North Channel and a 250 mile tunnel would be a world beater. A rail link from Scotland to Europe by-passing England has huge political and commercial possibilities. If it popped up in the Scillies they could join the EU too.

But Larne!
 

Quandary

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dgadee

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The news is not good, I have to admit. First, the lumpenproletariat on the mainland are laughing at the idea of spending any any money at all on bridge, tunnel or floating tube. The comments section in The Guardian would break your heart. And the article that set the rabble off was written by Ian Jack! Until I read that, one of my favourite writers. How could you do this to Donaghadee, Mr Jack? A tunnel linking Scotland and Northern Ireland? Fantasy has replaced British modesty | Ian Jack I'll never read you again.

Second, the alternative plan taking shape would involve making links with IoM, England and Scotland and would take the link to Cloughey! Who wants to go to Cloughey when the real action is in Donaghadee? I really don't get these engineers.

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Mr Johnson. Listen to Carrie. Listen to Joanna. Build the bridge/tunnel/tube to Donaghadee!
 
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Quandary

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They could have the TT races round that big roundabout, avoid all those nasty hills and bends. Starting to make sense now though I agree with you about Cloughey, who would go there when they could experience the sophistication of Donaghadee? But then would Dee folk really want to go to Heysham or Liverpool?
 

dgadee

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Well, it's back on. Yippee. Real engineers, too, so Joanna must have bent Johnson's ear:

NI to Scotland bridge: Official feasibility study for Irish Sea link

JumbleDuck, send off your floating tube calculations now!

"Concrete and Corruption", they say. I can almost hear the money dropping into our bank accounts in Donaghadee. [Edit: though we are happy to take cash.]

Thank you, Joanna. Your name is back on the bridge/tunnel/tube.
 
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ProDave

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I gave up when I read

"An upgrade of the A75 would mean improving the main road between the port of Cairnryan and the M6 motorway in Scotland"

Since the M6 does not enter Scotland, they clearly have not done much basic research yet.

So is the tunnel via the IOM now dead and we are back to the bridge? Or both?

I wonder how many £billions will be wasted without a single bit of work actually being done?
 

dgadee

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I gave up when I read

"An upgrade of the A75 would mean improving the main road between the port of Cairnryan and the M6 motorway in Scotland"

Since the M6 does not enter Scotland, they clearly have not done much basic research yet.

So is the tunnel via the IOM now dead and we are back to the bridge? Or both?

I wonder how many £billions will be wasted without a single bit of work actually being done?

Aye, you got your bridge at Kessock, your upgrade to the A9 and yet you want to deny us our bridge/tunnel/tube! So much for the Celtic fringes working together.
 
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dgadee

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I wonder how many £billions will be wasted without a single bit of work actually being done?

Don't you understand that's how government procurement works these days! You really need to get up to date with macro economic thinking,
 
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