From New York to London and vice versa by train through a transatlantic tunnel: how much it can actually be considered reliable this project idea that is being talked about a lot? If the Bridge over the Strait today it seems like a realization for many futuristically advanced and at the same time a challenge to the technological and physical limits of current technologies, therefore such design thinking cannot help but seem more than bizarre. Indeed, it is! At least due to the current construction technologies available and the technical knowledge known regarding tunnels and excavations. However, technology is making giant strides in the creation of increasingly complex and daring works, which it brings ever closer an idea as absurd as the one just mentioned may seem. Nonetheless, to date there is no trace of a concrete possibility of implementing such a project. Let’s try in this article to clarify the news circulating online in this sense.
The design idea for the tunnel between London and New York: how it would work and what the difficulties are
In essence, the project idea would be to create an infrastructural work that guarantees a connection between America and Europewithout using any ship or plane as a means of transport. In this condition, the construction of a tunnel and various possible routes relevant to the cause are making progress. Among these, the two most popular are:
- A route that takes advantage of the presence of several stretches on dry landcrossing, from New York, Canada, Greenland, Iceland and Scotland, then ending up in England and therefore arriving at its destination, London. The development of the route, in this case, is roughly approximately 6300 km and it is the longest alternative.
- A second route that instead cross the Atlantic Ocean for a very long stretch, therefore ending up in England almost directly (though still passing through Canada and Ireland). In this case, the overall development of the route is approximately 5800 km, with an extension into the sea such as to also cross areas with a water head depth of approximately 4 km.

In both cases, in addition to the distance itself to be bridged, the greatest challenge is undoubtedly dictated by the construction of an infrastructural work at these great depthschallenging to the extreme the limits of known construction techniques and engineering.
In the realization of the work, there would be no shortage of important engineering challenges: we certainly start from problems relating to the types of land on which to carry out excavations at significant depthsbut other problems are certainly to be found in the need – where required by the project conditions – to implement suspended submerged tunnelsor what we have already partly heard referred to as the Archimedes Bridge (technology and design scheme already proposed also for the construction of the Bridge over the Strait of Messina, as a valid alternative to the construction of the more popular single-span Suspension Bridge). Last, but not least, is the problem of crossing the Mid-Atlantic Ridgean underwater mountain range that is also site of major seismic activity and eruptions.
Tunnel under the Atlantic Ocean: the news returns
Although historically the first assumptions of the idea date back to the end of the 19th century, covered in the novel An Express of the Future Of Michel Verne (son of Jules Verne), the comeback of this news is mainly dictated by the following factors:
- The clear interest of the Boring Companya company that builds Elon Musk’s tunnels, which sees itself as strongly convinced in the development of the project proposal and in the realization of the work.
- The increasingly pushed development of technologies and control of underground excavation operationsas well as the use of highly performing machines, such as the famous moles (or TBM), also used in tunnel projects here in Italy nowadays. Obviously, for such a complex challenge, totally different TBMs from those in circulation today will be needed (which, in this case, would be too slow to dig the tunnel in a reasonable time), but these tools will certainly be the ancestors of the most performing drilling tools of the future.
- The possibility of developing means of travel that, in particular conditions and using new technologies, are capable of achieving travel speed of over 1000 km/hwhich would therefore allow the crossing of the future tunnel in a time of approximately 5 hours (therefore comparable to air transport). We are talking specifically about Hyperloop systems.
How much truth is there in the project today?
From this point of view, today we only talk about ideas in a largely crude way. There are obviously no projects (even embryonic or feasibility) or calculations that would somehow make the idea solid and convincing enough. Therefore, for now, it remains a utopian thought which however has reason to be taken into consideration, if only for the fact that it puts into practice healthy technical and technological growth objectives that prepare man to reach and overcome new challengeswith himself and with the nature that surrounds him!
