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You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/oct/17/no-light-at-the-end-of-an-ireland-scotland-rail-tunnel
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| No light at the end of an Ireland-Scotland rail tunnel No light at the end of an Ireland-Scotland rail tunnel | |
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| It may be, as John Barstow says (Britain and Ireland face border bother, Letters, 17 October), that there is a “prima facie case for a rail tunnel between Larne and Stranraer”, but it is almost certainly never going to be built. As a result of an inexplicable clause in the 1845 Gauge Act, the railways in Britain run on a 4’8.5” gauge, those in Ireland, both north and south, on a 5’3” gauge. Given that the economic case could be made, provision of gauge change equipment – as between France and Spain – may be a possibility; but delays necessitated by such conversion would restrict the usefulness of the tunnel and be a hindrance to achieving a viable return on the huge investment such a tunnel would demand.Les SummersKidlington, Oxfordshire | It may be, as John Barstow says (Britain and Ireland face border bother, Letters, 17 October), that there is a “prima facie case for a rail tunnel between Larne and Stranraer”, but it is almost certainly never going to be built. As a result of an inexplicable clause in the 1845 Gauge Act, the railways in Britain run on a 4’8.5” gauge, those in Ireland, both north and south, on a 5’3” gauge. Given that the economic case could be made, provision of gauge change equipment – as between France and Spain – may be a possibility; but delays necessitated by such conversion would restrict the usefulness of the tunnel and be a hindrance to achieving a viable return on the huge investment such a tunnel would demand.Les SummersKidlington, Oxfordshire |
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