Newfoundland tunnel
NEWFOUNDLAND & Labrador Premier Danny Williams has announced a C$352000 study into the feasibility of a rail tunnel linking the island and the Canadian mainland.
Replacing a seasonal ferry service, electric shuttle trains would carry road vehicles through the immersed tube tunnel across the Strait of Belle Isle between Green Point in Newfoundland and Pointe Armour in Labrador. It has been estimated that building the 17 km tunnel below the 90m deep strait would take 12 years and cost C$1·5bn.
Earlier proposals for bridges were rejected because of the risk of damage from icebergs, and a previous attempt at building a tunnel to house power transmission cables was abandoned in 1975.
Criticising the decision to spend money on the study, Nova Scotia MP Peter Stoffer said the tunnel ’won’t happen for a very, very long time’.
Dieter
CAPTION: Derailment of a Railway Systems of Zambia freight train near Kapiri Mposhi on January 29 left Lusaka-bound passengers stranded atNdola. Many passengers had spent their money on tickets and could not afford alternative transport, with the result that they had to spend a number of nights at the station, untilservices could resume. Stranded Phineas Sikasukwe later complained to the Times of Zambia that the station’s sanitary facilities were ’inadequate’
