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Me, in southern Portugal: you seen that Spain and Morocco are contemplating a rail tunnel?

@Zoë O'Connell, also in southern Portugal: But they won’t build a rail line to here? WHY EVEN IS SPAIN?

Me: That would be HARD, Zoe. They’d have to build a rail line over at least THREE KILOMETRES of line across land nobody lives on and construct a bridge of about TWO HUNDRED METRES.

So difficult.

timeout.com/news/there-could-b…


There could be an underwater tunnel linking Europe and Africa by 2030

Eurostar, you have competition
Liv Kelly (Time Out)
@Zoë O'Connell

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in reply to Sarah Brown

Sarah Brown
Sarah Brown
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@Zoë O'Connell My mistake. 25 km of empty land alongside a motorway.

SO HARD

a map, showing the Portuguese rail network (which ends at the border) and the Spanish one (which turns away from the border 25km away from it)
@Zoë O'Connell
in reply to Sarah Brown

Jon Worth
Jon Worth
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well there used to be a railway line all the way to Ayamonte. But the Huelva - Ayamonte section got torn up in the 1980s…
in reply to Jon Worth

Sarah Brown
Sarah Brown
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@Jon Worth Also there’s the Guadiana in the way which is hundreds of centimetres deep.
@Jon Worth
in reply to Sarah Brown

Jon Worth
Jon Worth
• •
the EU funds the ferry across it. That’s damned slow. But does take bikes. What are you complaining about? 🤔
Unknown parent

Sarah Brown
Sarah Brown
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@João Tiago Rebelo @Zoë O'Connell That explains a lot about the state of the road surface on the A49.
@Zoë O'Connell @João Tiago Rebelo
Unknown parent

Sarah Brown
Sarah Brown
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@João Tiago Rebelo @Zoë O'Connell Also, were a bridge to be constructed, it would face the insurmountable engineering challenge of water that is thousands upon thousands of millimetres deep.

So there’s that.

@Zoë O'Connell @João Tiago Rebelo
in reply to Sarah Brown

Sion [main]
Sion [main]
• •
What gauge do you have there? (I know this is one of the reasons why trans-Pyrenean connections are problematic)
in reply to Sarah Brown

Richard Gadsden
Richard Gadsden
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Spanish railways were originally built to six (Castilian) feet. Portuguese ones to five (Portuguese) feet. These are, however, only 8mm different - Portugal being 1664mm, Spain 1672mm.

When the two networks joined up (1880s), they agreed a compromise "Iberian" gauge of 1668mm, and gradually all track was switch to that, which was officially completed in 1955.

So yeah, they already fixed *that* problem 70 years go.

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