No light at the end of an Ireland-Scotland rail tunnel | Letters
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 Summers
Kidlington, Oxfordshire
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Source: Guardian Transport
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