It's becoming clear that railways are coming back into fashion so to speak , EV's are not the answer and even the motor industry is trying hard to develop hydrogen powered vehicles, or alternative biofuels for internal combustion engines, but as cars get more expensive, like the crazy prices for the upcoming Renault 4 and 5 , both are designed to resemble the originals, but they are over £20,000 that's a lot of expensive for a small car at a time when money is tight for everyone , further the climate IS changing either a natural cycle of the earth or also our own affects on the earth , France , and. Now Spain and one other EU nation are banning short haul flights where there is a suitable high speed rail alternative, as no matter how good the new crop of regional jets that can also perform. Long haul flights, like the A220, and eve. The Embraer E2 195's , both of which are much larger than the original 737's .
They are very fuel efficient and less damaging to the environment, but by the time you've gone through security and reached your airport gate plus the requirement to be at an airport at least two hours before the flight , means a train can actually be quicker and aside from London city , trains take you direct to a city , town or village you want to go to .so I think this idea for the tunnels is probably a good one , on the fearo islands, their airport was extended, its runway made longer to accept larger Airbus aircraft , boeing 737's abd the Embraer ejets .
However the airport itself was built on an island and before you had to take a ferry that made it a very long trip . The tunnels they built , have reduced ferry use , apart from some services that remain popular, but with the airport also having a large new terminal, and is offering a lot of choice of routes , until the road tunnel opened it didn't help the airport grow as it has until the tunnels were built .
The idea for tunnels to link the channel Islands , will be great , as recently air France and a new startup airline , ha e started flights to brest airport and other Northern french airports from the UK for example , but Brest airport is not very well placed and you then need to take a train if you want to go to Paris , also the only way to get to the channel Islands is ferry or plane .
The channel tunnel has definitely helped matters , and proved that such tunnels can help be an alternative for flights , a d also allows travel into central London from Amsterdam , Paris and other EU nations .
So I don't see why it's. A bad idea for a new rail tunnel to the channel islands, although one would hope they have a tunnel between each island , to make this worth while . It would be even better if it were possible to have a tunnel from the islands to the UK rail network.
Of course there is the matter of what types of trains you'd see, I can't imagine Eurostar length trains , perhaps. More like the Hitachi units, which at a top speed of 140mph are plenty fast enough, the class 395's are the commuter version of the class 800 series . Indeed the class 810 is closer in design to the 395's .
I say this as the channel islands are relatively small , and would need trains to suit.
It would also reduce the use of diesel ferries that pollute the atmosphere.
The only thing that seems to be something that isn't being very clear is the cost of these projects , as it's not just a tunnel needed but suitable rolling stock as I have said .
It only makes more sense of they can tunnel to the south coast and link to the rest of the rail network in the UK .
So a great idea in principle but there is a lot that's been left out eg rolling stock , the locations and costs of new stations , and also damaging the beauty of the islands ( just look at the scars on the landscape as they build the pointless HS2 project .
It will need serious money from the EU and UK
So it remains to be seen if this project will come to pass .
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