An underground tunnel worth 149 billion can connect Europe with Africa

An underwater tunnel more than 27 kilometers long could connect Europe’s high-speed railway with North Africa’s as early as 2030, the Independent reported.

A high-speed train would pass through the tunnel under the Strait of Gibraltar, which would connect the existing railways in Madrid, Spain, with Casablanca, Morocco. The Al Boraq route there, which connects Casablanca to Tangier, was launched in 2018 and trains run at speeds of up to 200 kilometers per hour.

While air connections between cities on two continents take an average of one hour and fifty minutes, the journey by train is estimated at five and a half hours. The project is currently in the planning stage and the ambitious opening date has been chosen so that the tunnel will be operational before the 2030 FIFA World Cup, which will be hosted by Spain, Portugal and Morocco.

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The official costs for the implementation of the megalomaniac project have not been published, but the estimated amount is around 148,978,395,000 crowns. Last year, the Spanish government already confirmed funding from the EU for a study of this type of connection between Europe and Africa worth more than 57 million crowns.

It has been talked about for 40 years

The Spanish Minister of Transport Raquel Sánchez Jiménez said about the project last year: “We will give an impetus to the study of a project of maximum geostrategic importance for our countries and for the relations between Europe and Africa.” She added that the project that would connect the two continents in this way was first discussed already 40 years ago.

However, studies conducted by both countries revealed several difficulties. The Strait of Gibraltar reaches a depth of up to 900 meters and regular seismic activity on the geological fault between the Azores and Gibraltar must also be expected.

If the construction is successful, it is estimated that almost 13 million passengers a year could pass through the tunnel and it could simultaneously transport up to 13 million tons of cargo between the two continents.