...AND RECONSIDERING THE CHUNNEL

Britain and France have now asked for new proposals and will decide in January whether to go ahead, promising to grant permission, provided (sign of the times!) that it is privately funded. Both governments, abandoning the threadworn strategy of squandering billions of taxpayers' money, are eager to embark on a big, job-creating program that will not cost them anything.

Among several proposals only two are given a chance. The "Brunnel," a combination bridge and tunnel linking two man-made islands, was described in more detail some years ago [AtE Apr 82]; less ambitious and economically probably more sensible is a tunnel for trains only, including auto-trains onto which motorists would drive their cars.

But as usual, such decisions are not made on the advice of engineers and accountants, let alone left to entrepreneurs in a free market. The decision will be strongly influenced by vested interests, such as the Ports of Dover and Calais, the ferry services, and above all the unions, which are always tied to the old and obsolescent technologies. In England, billboards with the slogan "The black hole that will put Britain in the red" show the tunnel with rats feasting on garbage, as a column of giant trucks passes by. With a nice touch of nationalism, the last truck bears the owner's sign Pere et fils and its exhaust blows a big cloud with the message "There is something about the Channel Tunnel that smells. And it isn't garlic."

Nor will investors' money be raised easily. The governments of both countries now in power promise not to loot, nationalize or otherwise interfere, and they may be trusted to keep meticulously to the rules that the government maketh, changeth, and taketh away. (And if you think that only the devious Europeans break their word, remember how Carter tore up the Non-Proliferation Treaty and how Reagan spat on the treaty with Taiwan.)

There is plenty more in the field of importation, but room only for two more items. Urban Transit: The private challenge to public transportation ed. by C.A. Lave ($13.60 from LGC, 1018 Garden St., Santa Barbara, CA 93101), is a very interesting book, though it deals with the economic and administrative, not with the technological, aspects of the subject.

And here is a little scoreboard gleaned from official statistics by J. Semmens in the WSJ (6/6/85). Between 1975 and 1983, the cost of a passenger-mile of travel, adjusted for inflation, changed as follows. For the producers in the semi-capitalist sector: commercial aviation, down 19%; automobile driving, down 19%. For the income redistributors in the semi-socialist sector: Public transit, up 13%; Amtrak, up 19%.