SFT + bazillions =

My son works at the airport and may be able to get me discounted tickets such that I go to visit my brother in Valencia in May. Traveling this way would have me taking cross-Pond flights, there and back, and with the latest IPCC report just out, I am of the mind that perhaps I shouldn't go given the amount of GHGs that I would incur for this non-essential travel.

It got me to thinking, it's too bad there isn't an electric (powered by renewable energy) train that crosses The Pond.

So then I thought further about it, and then some more.

I think it is obvious that putting a tunnel along the bottom of the Atlantic ocean from New York to Paris would be an insurmountable challenge as the depth of the ocean along that passage presents the most serious of obstacles. Putting a tunnel beneath the ocean is equally inhospitable as an idea. Doing a submerged floating tunnel (SFT) on the other hand, may be doable, though for that distance it may not be practical or safe. Picking Lisbon instead of Paris for the European side as it is right on the coast at about the same latitude as New York puts the distance at just over 5400km.

So what about using the geography of the northern part of the North Atlantic?

As there is already Via Rail service to Quebec City, I would propose we start there with a high speed rail across land, along the north shore of the St. Lawrence river to a town on the Labrador coast like Davis Inlet. To do this we'd need Federal approval, Quebec, Newfound & Labrador approval, plus First Nations approval for any of the indigenous territory crossed. Through most of this land I would propose the tracks are channel buried so as to leave the surface clear for wildlife passage along the vast majority of it. At spots in the land where it would have to surface, for example, to cross a valley, or perhaps a few stretches where it surfaces due to the landscape, have it enclosed so that neither wildlife nor weather could affect it. Use advanced plexi-glass to allow light through and to allow passengers to have a view outside.

Given enough bazillions, at Davis Inlet there'd be a branch that heads north to Iqaluit to connect a handful of indigenous villages along the way. However, the primary trunk link through Davis Inlet would enter an SFT that leads to Greenland. This would be about 1000km of SFT. I envision using recycled plastic to form a continuous outer ring cylinder that becomes the SFT that is of a certain thickness, perhaps a few cms; and it is lined on the inside with a steel cylinder. By having a machine that continually adds more length to this cylinder, or SFT, it means there would be no seams along the entire length which would help maintain its integrity. I am not certain what caliber of plastic would be best suited to continuous submerging in salt water; but I am sure there are some materials scientists out there who could help find the best material to use for this purpose. 

And then finally there would be enough ballast weight added to assist it in being submerged around 50m below sea level. SFTs of this length couldn't only be anchored at the two ends, various points across the length would need to be anchored to the ocean floor. The structure of this would undoubtedly be steel cables, but to protect ocean life from hurting themselves, it would be embedded in a much larger diameter material of some sort.

Along the southern tip of Greenland the tracks would run on land; and perhaps we'd have to tunnel through a little bit of ice to get to the other side. With the way climate change is going, that ice would be gone soon anyhow, if it isn't gone already. What having this land portion does also is allow for an emergency stop so that if there are any problems in the SFTs on either side of Greenland, the rail cars can speed forwards to Greenland or backwards to it. Obviously we would need Greenland's approval to build the train tracks there and put the station there.

Next another SFT would go from Greenland to Iceland. Probably in this case a second SFT making machine like the first at Davis Inlet would be installed at Iceland as Greenland wouldn't have the infrastructure to supply the building materials for the SFT. So as an SFT is going to Greenland from Canada, another one is going to Greenland from Iceland. Of course, we'd need Iceland's approval for this, and the tracks would have to cross some portion of Iceland with obviously a stop there. In the same way that Greenland was an emergency location, so too would Iceland be. It is about 1100km from the east side of Greenland to the west side of Iceland.

From Iceland there'd be a third SFT machine building the SFT to the Faroe Islands. This distance is about 580km from a south eastern part of Iceland to the Faroe Islands. Clearly the Faroe Islands would need to approve this plan.

And finally from Thurso in Scotland a fourth SFT machine would create the SFT that leads from there to the Faroe Islands, about 430km. Clearly Scotland would need to approve this plan. Also, it is possible that the existing rail link from Thurso down to points further south would need to be upgraded.

My thinking for economy is to have a unique gauge of train for this; that we'd have our own passenger and freight size and so at Quebec City and at Thurso there would have to be embark/disembark, but all of the interim stations would be on this gauge. Have the rail cars narrower then what is more common to allow for the SFT to have a smaller diameter while still allowing bi-directional travel, thus requiring less material and costing less. Across much of Europe electric trains are powered by catenary lines, I am not certain if this would be the best technology for the bulk of this system which would be in SFTs.

I can envision some trains are simple: direct Quebec City to Thurso for people who want to get to mainland of one side to mainland of the other, so these would simply zip through all of the interim land spots mentioned above. Others could be a Thurso-Greenland-QC, or Thurso-Faroe-Iceland-QC or any such combinations, or all stops. This would simply require sidings at some of the stations to allow for a train to be stopped there while another shoots by. 

I could also envision this being a train that runs every half hour, for example, or every twenty minutes, with perhaps two breaks per day where there are gaps long enough to allow freight to be passed through in a long gap between the last passenger train heading East, for example and the next passenger one.

For the trains that are direct QC-Thurso, offer some specialized rail cars that have sleep berths in them as I can imagine travelling this long circuitous route would take considerable time. At about 4500km as the total distance along that route from QC-Thurso, at an average speed of 300kph, would take 15 hours.

I am not certain if maglev would work in an SFT if the SFT is swaying any amount in its submerged state, but if there is a way to do this, and if there is a way to reduce the air pressure inside the SFTs throughout the system; not to the vacuum proposed by Hyperloop, but definitely lowered to decrease air resistance, it is possible we could get the trains to travel 600kph which would cut the QC-Thurso travel time in half to 7.5 hours.

I can envision this, since it is a closed system, to be centrally controlled and so mostly automated; this would reduce the labour costs making the whole system a little less expensive operationally. With frequent and reliable service I would want to have very inexpensive tickets so that it becomes a more likely choice for people to make instead of taking aircraft to cross The Pond. Like with other long distance train travel, there could be two classes of travel for people who would pay for comfort and sleep berths while a deep discount would simply be a comfortable seat and wifi.

For freight I am imaging containers that are just wide enough to hold what is considered a standard north American pallet, which is 48x40 inches, and tall enough for a six foot load. In this way it would be easy for forklift operators to load and unload the rail cars at any of the stations.

For delivery to places in the north, like for lumber supplies for building more housing, more specific freight rail cars can be built that allow for 4x8 sheets of plywood or gyproc, rows upon rows of 2x4, 2x6, 2x8, 2x10, 2x12 at various lengths and so on.

I guess the big question is what is the capital cost to do something like this and what would be the operational cost as well as the operational revenue - how long would it take (or would it ever) to pay back investors for the cost of the whole system? Perhaps these SFT making machines could be leased or sold at great value for other SFT projects elsewhere in the world once they are finished the work they do, much like TBMs are moved from place to place to do their work.

I do believe there is enough plastic waste in the world to use only plastic waste to make the outer surface of the SFTs, but what is the cost of getting it ground into the small pellets that make it feedstock, and to get those pellets from all around the world to these SFT making machine sites. What about the inner liner steel - how is that made and from where - perhaps the plastic outer surface is one continuous piece, but there are quarter-circle factory-built steel cylinder pieces built at high speed and then shipped to the SFT making machine sites which are mechanically fitted into place as the plastic outer sleeve is being produced.

There is still more I can write about this as I always have more ideas than what I have energy to write, but I am getting sleepy now, so this will have to do.