How about a tunnel to Hawaii? - Trains Magazine
Here's the catch: in the real world you can't ignore nasty financial details like the up-front investment cost. For example, following your reasoning one could argue that nuclear power is cheaper than conventional coal power because the operating costs are less, if we simply assume that we ignore the costs of the power plants. No project gets anywhere on Wall Street without an all-in cost analysis. The people who put up the money for projects expect a return on their investment.
A Rough Estimate
Ignoring engineering details like the incredible depth of such a tunnel, the resultant pressure and leaks, and what would be done if it were to flood, let's base a very optimistic cost estimate on the Seikan Tunnel, which runs between Honshu and Hokkaido, Japan. That cost $12.4 billion in 2007 dollars for 33 miles, or $0.38 billion/mile. From San Francisco to Honolulu it's 2393 miles. That would be $909 billion dollars. Let's say we finance by selling bonds and our potential investors are very charitable and expect a 6% return. To service a debt of $909 billion would cost $54 billion per year. The investors being somewhat leery at such a mountain of debt would probably demand a sinking fund, say over 30 years, that would add another $30.3 billion/year. $80.3 billion/year. The Honolulu - Tokyo segment would add 3850 miles or $1.46 trillion; $88 billion/year interest. That's a lot of American coal and corn going west and Chinese toys and Toyotas going east, and, oh yeah, Hawaiian pineapples going both ways. So far we've ignored the maintenance costs. Keeping ahead of leaks at such depths would be rather expensive. I'm not certain what could be done about ventilation. I think the operating costs of the tunnel would greatly exceed the equivalent surface shipping.
BTW, in the 70's I was a tiny cog at one of the investment banks that raised the financing for the Alaska pipeline. IIRC that was about $6 billion, and at that time that was thought to be huge, way more than anything done previously.
In another thread it's argued that a railroad can't compete with tankers between Alaska and the mainland U.S. for carrying bulk goods such as oil, and that's entirely on the surface without extensive tunneling.
Where is that joke of several years ago that appeared in this SIG where a genie builds a highway to Hawaii?
