Yeah

@jon I think I have a modest solution. Just fly across the gaps.

No, not passenger aircraft. That involves disembarking. Airlift the trains.

@jon even ignoring the technical reasons not to cross the Irish sea twice, there are topological reasons not to make a loop line, aren't there? Like, we could currently have a loop Glasgow → Edinburgh → London → Manchester → Glasgow, but we don't, we have two separate lines.

@jon @thecommongreen

If a train has enough speed then it doesn't need to be airlifted. Snowmobiles can also go across open water when fast enough!

@jon Ireland hasn't even completed its own national train system yet.

North of Sligo there's just wilderness.

@jon What about spokes to Douglas?

@jon the gauge sizes aren’t even the same between the two islands.

@mrzarquon Track? Why not lay a Maglev while you are at it!

@jon So two tunnels longer than the channel, to connect to a island with 1/12 of the population of France alone?

@jon But think of the time savings of not having to reverse direction of the trains! Too bad Newcastle- Edinburgh goes via Belfast if it goes clockwise

@jon His website features a headline story of him saying "RIBA won't survive another generation" (unless I get elected, I think).

There's an Irish song with lyrics "Thank God we're surrounded by water".

As the Irish say, instead of "would you ever FO" - - We're grand.

Meanwhile, FYI only (not rail related), there's some nice new drone footage on YouTube of the Cork to Ringaskiddy (https://m28.ie/) motorway in progress.

Cork Harbour: largest in Europe, getting better connected.

@jon designed by the same architect of the tunnel from Geneva to Grand Sasso

Also this stupid thing reminds me of a 2021 1st April joke I made... laughing at Boris Johnson

But it is not 1st April!

@jon I think we need to add a new level to the bullshit meter of “whatever drugs you’re on, I don’t want them”

@jon I like how they don't even consider that railways should connect with other railways. But my favourite detail might be the render showing the viewing platform for the scenic coastline, with the massive concrete viaduct placed exactly at eye level to block as much of the view as possible.

@jon "Neom-informed Loop"

@jon Oh, and "it'll be cheaper than HS2 if we build a viaduct all the way" sounds a lot like "maglev will be cheaper if we put it in a vacuum tube"

@jon TIL there was a long history of tunnel projets between Ireland and Great Britain https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proposed_British_Isles_fixed_sea_link_connections#Proposed_fixed_sea_links_between_Great_Britain_and_Ireland

(… and a 2018 idea by boris johnson of a **bridge** betwean France and Great Britain)

@_nb Yes I am aware. I even made an April Fools joke about it!

@jon Is it more practical (to build, if not to use) if the trains are half the height of a person and the whole thing's made of Lego? Because that's what his pretty pictures seem to show.