The BBC quotes an unnamed “senior” Treasury official boasting that they have “killed off” what he called “the stupid tunnel” that has been proposed to link Scotland and Northern Ireland. If there is any substance in the BBC story, the government should require the Treasury to revive the project by looking at less conventional ways of financing its construction.
The tunnel would reduce the cost and the difficulties of transport of people and goods between Northern Ireland and mainland UK. It would create a symbolic land link between the two, as well an enabling freight to be shipped between the two by road or rail without the need for it to be loaded and unloaded from ships. But it would do more than that.
It would also provide a land link between Northern Ireland and the European Union via the Channel Tunnel. Goods could flow directly by land between Northern Ireland and the EU, facilitating both imports and exports, and expanding trade between the two. Even more than that, it would provide a land link between the Irish Republic and its EU partners. Instead of trade between the two relying on shipping, as at present, freight could be sent up through Northern Ireland, through the new tunnel to mainland Britain, and then down to the Channel Tunnel and across to Continental Europe. Exporters and importers would willingly pay the tolls for both tunnels to gain the speed, convenience and lower costs of a land voyage for their goods.
Facilities would be needed at both ends of the new tunnel, and new communities would spring up on both sides to service the traffic that would flow through it in both directions. These new towns should operate as Freeports, relieving them of many of the costs and regulations that burden businesses outside their boundaries. With these advantages, both of the new towns connected by the tunnel would see massive economic growth. Indeed, they would be boom towns, creating jobs and businesses in parts of the UK that could benefit greatly from such a stimulus.
The new towns and the Freeports would be a means of financing the tunnel’s construction, given the wealth and the revenue they will generate. Japan financed much of its rail construction out of the added value created by its newly-constructed links, and the new tunnel linking Scotland and Northern Ireland could take a leaf out of the same book, using future wealth to fund the costs of construction.
The new tunnel would do more than generate growth and wealth, however. It would also symbolize a closer United Kingdom, one linked physically as well as politically. It would knit us together more closely. Indeed, the suggestion has been made that it might be called the “Unity” tunnel. It would also declare to a new generation that this country can still accomplish great things.
The economic arguments coincide with the political and symbolic ones, and tell us that the tunnel should be built.