Train GraphicClick on the map to explore geographics
 
I need help
FAQ
Emergency
About .
Travel & transport from BBC stories as at 04:55 29 Mar 2024
- Bus plunges off South Africa bridge, killing 45
* Easter getaway begins with flood alerts in place
- Easter travel warning as millions set to hit roads
Read about the forum [here].
Register [here] - it's free.
What do I gain from registering? [here]
 02/06/24 - Summer Timetable starts
17/08/24 - Bus to Imber
27/09/25 - 200 years of passenger trains

On this day
29th Mar (1913)
Foundation of National Union or Railwaymen (*)

Train RunningCancelled
07:00 Bedwyn to Newbury
07:22 Newbury to Bedwyn
08:13 Newbury to Bedwyn
08:46 Bedwyn to Newbury
09:54 Bedwyn to Newbury
10:22 Newbury to Bedwyn
11:29 Newbury to Bedwyn
11:57 Bedwyn to Newbury
12:52 Bedwyn to Newbury
Short Run
04:54 Plymouth to London Paddington
05:12 Reading to Bedwyn
05:33 Plymouth to London Paddington
05:55 Plymouth to London Paddington
06:00 Bedwyn to London Paddington
06:37 Plymouth to London Paddington
07:03 London Paddington to Paignton
08:35 Plymouth to London Paddington
10:35 London Paddington to Exeter St Davids
Delayed
21:45 Penzance to London Paddington
23:45 London Paddington to Penzance
05:03 Penzance to London Paddington
06:05 Penzance to London Paddington
07:10 Penzance to London Paddington
08:03 London Paddington to Penzance
08:15 Penzance to London Paddington
09:04 London Paddington to Plymouth
09:37 London Paddington to Paignton
10:04 London Paddington to Penzance
11:03 London Paddington to Plymouth
PollsOpen and recent polls
Closed 2024-03-25 Easter Escape - to where?
Abbreviation pageAcronymns and abbreviations
Stn ComparatorStation Comparator
Rail newsNews Now - live rail news feed
Site Style 1 2 3 4
Next departures • Bristol Temple MeadsBath SpaChippenhamSwindonDidcot ParkwayReadingLondon PaddingtonMelksham
Exeter St DavidsTauntonWestburyTrowbridgeBristol ParkwayCardiff CentralOxfordCheltenham SpaBirmingham New Street
March 29, 2024, 04:56:35 *
Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Forgotten your username or password? - get a reminder
Most recently liked subjects
[98] West Wiltshire Bus Changes April 2024
[97] would you like your own LIVE train station departure board?
[86] Return of the BRUTE?
[74] Infrastructure problems in Thames Valley causing disruption el...
[53] If not HS2 to Manchester, how will traffic be carried?
[23] Reversing Beeching - bring heritage and freight lines into the...
 
News: the Great Western Coffee Shop ... keeping you up to date with travel around the South West
 
   Home   Help Search Calendar Login Register  
Pages: [1]
  Print  
Author Topic: Dream, nightmare or the future of long-haul travel?  (Read 2101 times)
Bmblbzzz
Transport Scholar
Hero Member
******
Posts: 4256


View Profile
« on: June 15, 2020, 14:36:30 »

My son told me about a strange dream he had. He was on a school trip to America, for some reason, but they didn't have return tickets. They were told this didn't matter because flying with British Airways – for some reason it was specifically BA» (British Airways - about) – was truly public transport, walk on, walk off, no tickets required. So they walked on and were made to walk off again. The plane, incidentally, had no connecting corridor to the terminal; its door connected directly with the building.

One of the them said not to worry, he could buy tickets for everyone with an array of stolen credit cards. However, direct flights from New York to Bristol – because there were no longer any flights to London – cost $3,000 each. This made transport for the whole class too expensive even for a wallet full of stolen credit cards!

So they ended up on a bus, which took them through a tunnel under the Atlantic to France. Although they didn't actually want to go to France, but that's where the tunnel went.

What do the esteemed panel say? A trans-Atlantic (or rather sub-Atlantic) tunnel by, let's say, the end of the century? And direct flights from Bristol to the USA? I won't ask about teenagers with stolen credit cards as I don't feel that would be sufficiently forward-looking...
Logged

Waiting at Pilning for the midnight sleeper to Prague.
eXPassenger
Transport Scholar
Hero Member
******
Posts: 547


View Profile
« Reply #1 on: June 15, 2020, 18:28:29 »

Direct flights Bristol / USA come and go.  Currently (pre COVID) there aren't any.
Logged
stuving
Transport Scholar
Hero Member
******
Posts: 7156


View Profile
« Reply #2 on: June 15, 2020, 18:46:15 »

What do the esteemed panel say? A trans-Atlantic (or rather sub-Atlantic) tunnel by, let's say, the end of the century? And direct flights from Bristol to the USA? I won't ask about teenagers with stolen credit cards as I don't feel that would be sufficiently forward-looking...

You could ask Elon Musk about the tunnel - he might well say "sure". But the evacuation provision,  whether imposed by a TSI or the ORR» (Office of Rail and Road formerly Office of Rail Regulation - about) or the FRA, could be tricky to meet.
Logged
Bmblbzzz
Transport Scholar
Hero Member
******
Posts: 4256


View Profile
« Reply #3 on: June 15, 2020, 19:15:11 »

Don't most of our evacuations go into tunnels?

(Sorry.... )
Logged

Waiting at Pilning for the midnight sleeper to Prague.
Merthyr Imp
Full Member
***
Posts: 82


View Profile
« Reply #4 on: June 15, 2020, 22:28:10 »

A science fiction novel was written in the 1970s about a railway tunnel to America. Written by Harry Harrison, the British title is 'A Transatlantic Tunnel, Hurrah!'

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunnel_Through_the_Deeps
Logged
Bmblbzzz
Transport Scholar
Hero Member
******
Posts: 4256


View Profile
« Reply #5 on: June 15, 2020, 22:53:15 »

He'd probably enjoy reading that. Thanks!
Logged

Waiting at Pilning for the midnight sleeper to Prague.
Oxonhutch
Transport Scholar
Hero Member
******
Posts: 1244



View Profile
« Reply #6 on: June 16, 2020, 09:05:00 »

The mid-Atlantic Ridge - volcanically seperating by several centimetres each year - could prove interesting to a tunnelling engineer. Even as a geologist, I find it fascinating that America is a fathom further away from me than it was when I was born.
Logged
grahame
Administrator
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 40690



View Profile WWW Email
« Reply #7 on: June 16, 2020, 09:30:09 »

The mid-Atlantic Ridge - volcanically seperating by several centimetres each year - could prove interesting to a tunnelling engineer. Even as a geologist, I find it fascinating that America is a fathom further away from me than it was when I was born.

But then with global warming and the immense distances, would the expansion of the rails and other components compensate / fill the gap?   One of the rail programs that Infoman has brought to my attention from New Zealand showed bridges designed to withstand the most active of the earth's activities.
Logged

Coffee Shop Admin, Acting Chair of Melksham Rail User Group, Option 24/7 Melksham Rep
Clan Line
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 858



View Profile
« Reply #8 on: June 16, 2020, 11:25:41 »

But the evacuation provision,  ................, could be tricky to meet.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Submarine_Escape_Immersion_Equipment
Logged
Celestial
Transport Scholar
Hero Member
******
Posts: 674


View Profile
« Reply #9 on: June 16, 2020, 14:14:54 »

The mid-Atlantic Ridge - volcanically seperating by several centimetres each year - could prove interesting to a tunnelling engineer. Even as a geologist, I find it fascinating that America is a fathom further away from me than it was when I was born.
It's fascinating to walk along part of it as well, although I'd recommend wrapping up warm, especially in winter.
Logged
Surrey 455
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 1229


View Profile
« Reply #10 on: June 16, 2020, 19:41:22 »

The mid-Atlantic Ridge - volcanically seperating by several centimetres each year - could prove interesting to a tunnelling engineer. Even as a geologist, I find it fascinating that America is a fathom further away from me than it was when I was born.
It's fascinating to walk along part of it as well, although I'd recommend wrapping up warm, especially in winter.

And perhaps pack a wetsuit / drysuit and oxygen tanks Grin
Logged
Celestial
Transport Scholar
Hero Member
******
Posts: 674


View Profile
« Reply #11 on: June 16, 2020, 20:52:47 »

The mid-Atlantic Ridge - volcanically seperating by several centimetres each year - could prove interesting to a tunnelling engineer. Even as a geologist, I find it fascinating that America is a fathom further away from me than it was when I was born.
It's fascinating to walk along part of it as well, although I'd recommend wrapping up warm, especially in winter.

And perhaps pack a wetsuit / drysuit and oxygen tanks Grin
Not at all, the ridge continues through Iceland and is marked a wide valley, that at one point where there is a small "micro-canyon" geologists and guides can see it widen year by year if you know where to look.  I was on a day trip though, so took their word for it...
Logged
Do you have something you would like to add to this thread, or would you like to raise a new question at the Coffee Shop? Please [register] (it is free) if you have not done so before, or login (at the top of this page) if you already have an account - we would love to read what you have to say!

You can find out more about how this forum works [here] - that will link you to a copy of the forum agreement that you can read before you join, and tell you very much more about how we operate. We are an independent forum, provided and run by customers of Great Western Railway, for customers of Great Western Railway and we welcome railway professionals as members too, in either a personal or official capacity. Views expressed in posts are not necessarily the views of the operators of the forum.

As well as posting messages onto existing threads, and starting new subjects, members can communicate with each other through personal messages if they wish. And once members have made a certain number of posts, they will automatically be admitted to the "frequent posters club", where subjects not-for-public-domain are discussed; anything from the occasional rant to meetups we may be having ...

 
Pages: [1]
  Print  
 
Jump to:  

Powered by MySQL Powered by PHP Powered by SMF 1.1.2 | SMF © 2006-2007, Simple Machines LLC Valid XHTML 1.0! Valid CSS!
This forum is provided by customers of Great Western Railway (formerly First Great Western), and the views expressed are those of the individual posters concerned. Visit www.gwr.com for the official Great Western Railway website. Please contact the administrators of this site if you feel that the content provided by one of our posters contravenes our posting rules (email link to report). Forum hosted by Well House Consultants

Jump to top of pageJump to Forum Home Page