Unicorns and dodos

Select Committee chairman pours scorn on proposals for a rail tunnel between Scotland and Northern Ireland.

THE Chairman of the Northern Ireland Select Committee has poured scorn on proposals for a rail tunnel between Scotland and Northern Ireland.

“The trains could be pulled by an inexhaustible herd of unicorns overseen by stern, officious dodos,” Conservative MP Simon Hoare posted on Twitter.

“A PushmePullYou could be the senior guard and Puff the Magic Dragon the inspector.

Let’s concentrate on making the protocol work and put the hallucinogenics down.”

Hoare was responding to reports that appeared in the national media over the weekend of February 14/15, which had featured quotes from the High Speed Rail Group’s submission (actually released on January 5) to a UK connectivity review.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced on October 4 last year that Network Rail Chairman Sir Peter Hendy CBE would lead the review, looking at ways to improve connections across the UK as well as creating new ones.

These included reviewing air links within the UK, a fixed link between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and reviewing Wales’ rail network to improve journey times ( RAIL 916).

In the HSRG’s submission, board member Jim Steer had said: “There is an urgent need for both new and improved transport links between the four nations of the United Kingdom, which have been systematically neglected for too long.

“Cross-border travel markets for rail were growing strongly over the period to 2019. Travel generates economic value, but the opportunity for further economic stimulus from this source will be lost if transport network capacity constraints are not addressed.

“Building on the transformative impact of HS2, HSRG is calling for these cross-border rail links to be addressed as a matter of urgency, safeguarding the strength of the whole of the UK economy in the years ahead.”

A year ago, Steer examined the plausibility of a fixed link between Scotland and Northern Ireland ( RAIL 898).

He noted the problem of Beaufort’s Dyke - a trench 30 miles long, two miles wide and up to 1,000ft deep, which would affect the depth of any tunnelled designs.

Additionally, this area of the

Irish Sea was the site of major munitions dumping after the First and Second World Wars.

Similarly, the HSRG submission highlighted the need for improved connectivity to Stranraer, where it’s expected that a tunnel would be built. Issues with gauge are also highlighted (the UK uses standard gauge, the Irish use 5ft 3ins).

A Department for Transport spokesman told RAIL on February 16: “We have asked Sir Peter Hendy to make recommendations on how to improve transport connectivity between Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and England. His recommendations will be published in due course.”

See Wolmar, pages 48-49.