Quote:
Originally Posted by tintinium
Japan built the Seikan Tunnel, which is both deeper and longer than the Chunnel. The Tunnel, at its deepest point is 240m underwater.
It connects the Main island to the Island of Hokkaido. Hokkaido is similar to Vancouver Island, in that it's not really that urban. However, 5,000,000 people live on the island. For Japan, the tunnel is questionable now... as air flight has become cheap and fast... but the tunnel was finished about 25 years ago.
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They are building the Shinkansen (bullet train) to Hokkaido now. The first phase is going to terminate at Hakodate first and it is going to use the Seikan Tunnel. I think eventually it will take a maximum of 5 hours to reach Sapporo by train ffrom Tokyo (which is maybe 1 hour more than the COMBINED time of flying, getting to the airport, waiting etc.)
Interestingly enough, you can visit the Seikan Tunnel as there are 2 underground stations inside. I have been there before
You can see them here where I have posted them:
http://ngaie.blogspot.com/2006/07/in...tunnel-in.html