"Even at using costs of the propsed high speed rail in California ($80M/mile), nyc-london would cost $280 billion."

Which is roughly 1 / 14th the cost of the Iraq war. Not bad if you think about it.

You think that's not too bad?

2006 revenues: $2440 billion

2012 revenues: $2660 billion

2006 spending: $2660 billion

2012 spending: $3790 billion

2013 spending: $3803 billion (Obama's proposed budget)

[Source: Wikipedia.]

Just think - we could do three or four megaprojects a year with a 2006-esque budget elsewhere plus those kinds of budget deficits.

Of course, as anyone in California is painfully aware, the high-speed rail project is a complete joke :) you'd need to trust that this one would do better.

Also, as an economics aside: In the private sector, a $280 billion project should hope to earn in the neighborhood of $11 billion a year in profit/savings in order to cover the cost of capital. This is, of course, after equipment maintenance, fuel/power, deprecation, labor, etc.

It begs of a cost-study, I mean, I'd gladly pay 4x the current cost of an economy flight from NYC->London if I could take a train of equal comfort that only took an hour or two.

Of the $80M/mile - $70M is to buy the land and pay off objectors, $9M is security and fencing for the work site and $1M is to build the actual track.

The nice thing about a transatlantic tunnel is that crustecaeans can be bought off cheaply

> The nice thing about a transatlantic tunnel is that crustecaeans can be bought off cheaply

The various environmental organizations aren't going to be bought off cheaply.

This tech is far better for the environment than the air travel it would displace.

Since when did reason matter to these groups let alone trying to please all them at once.

Plus any operation at this scale will require all the security if not more of a normal one. It is just too big not to be a target for someone.

That's true, but it would be a while until this form of transport would be expansive enough to displace any significant amount of air travel. Don't get me wrong though.. im all for this development!

They may be louder than rich people in cities, but I doubt it would be more expensive.

If you get the sierra club complaining publicly about the tunnel, you instantly have about half of the politicians in the country in favor of it.

That's the advantage of a deep sea tunnel - it's tricky for even the most committed tree-hugger to do so 3km down!