Have you ever been stuck on a seven-hour transatlantic flight and wondered, “There has to be a faster way”? You’re not alone. For decades, dreamers, engineers, and sci-fi writers have imagined a world where hopping across the ocean would take less time than your morning commute.

The fantasy of near-instant travel between continents isn’t just about saving time—it’s about reshaping how we see the world. Imagine making it from NYC to London in under an hour. Suddenly, dinner meetings in London followed by breakfast in Manhattan become realistic. Families, businesses, and cultures could connect like never before.

Why do people cling so tightly to this idea? It taps into something deep in human nature: our hunger to break barriers, move faster, and shrink the world around us. While supersonic jets were once seen as the future, thinkers are now exploring something even bolder—a tunnel under the Atlantic.

Photo: unsplash.com/@enginakyurt

Let’s break it down. A transatlantic tunnel would be a physical passage, likely for ultra-high-speed trains, stretching roughly 3,400 miles (about 5,500 kilometers) from New York City to London. Unlike airplanes soaring over the ocean, this tunnel would cut under (or through) the sea itself.

It’s not an entirely new idea. In the 19th and 20th centuries, visionaries sketched out ideas for tunnels between continents, but the technology and resources weren’t there. Thanks to modern engineering, advanced materials, and computer modeling, we can start imagining how it might work.

Twenty trillion dollars is so significant that it’s hard to wrap your head around. For context, the GDP of the United States in 2024 was roughly $28 trillion. So, you’re talking about a project that costs nearly as much as the annual output of the world’s largest economy.

Photo: unsplash.com/@cobblepot

From 7 Hours to 54 Minutes

Currently, a commercial flight between NYC and London takes about seven hours, depending on weather and air traffic. The proposed transatlantic tunnel would slash that down to just under an hour.

To achieve that, vehicles inside the tunnel must reach mind-blowing speeds of 5,000 miles per hour. That’s roughly 10 times faster than the fastest commercial planes today and more than six times the speed of sound.

The Channel Tunnel, often called the “Chunnel,” connects England and France through a 31-mile (50 km) underwater passage. Completed in 1994, it remains one of the most remarkable engineering feats of modern times.

It’s not just a hole in the ground; it contains three separate tunnels—two for trains and one for maintenance. It handles about 20 million passengers and 1.6 million trucks annually, reducing the trip between London and Paris to just over two hours.

Photo: unsplash.com/@framesbyfin

Picture this: a business executive in New York could attend a morning meeting in London, have lunch with colleagues, and be back home in time for dinner. That’s not just convenient; it’s revolutionary. The transatlantic tunnel could make same-day international business trips routine, not rare.

The possibilities for tourism are even more mind-blowing. Imagine weekend trips to Europe becoming as easy as hopping on an Amtrak from NYC to Washington, D.C. Tourists could explore London, Paris, or Berlin without dedicating an entire vacation week. This would massively boost tourism industries on both sides of the Atlantic, filling hotels, restaurants, and cultural venues.

Environmental and Economic Impact

One surprising benefit? The potential environmental edge. Supersonic jets and long-haul flights burn massive amounts of fossil fuels, contributing heavily to global carbon emissions. A high-speed electric tunnel train powered by renewable energy could dramatically slash the per-passenger carbon footprint.

Economically, the tunnel could become a lifeline for transatlantic trade, opening faster routes for goods, services, and supply chains. Cargo that now takes days by air or ship could cross in hours. Think of the boost this could give industries like pharmaceuticals, fresh produce, or time-sensitive deliveries.

Let’s temper expectations here. Even the most optimistic futurists admit we’re looking at many decades—possibly a century—before a transatlantic tunnel becomes a reality. The timeline depends on technological breakthroughs, political alignment, economic drivers, and public will.

For comparison, the Channel Tunnel took about 200 years from the first proposal to the actual opening. Given that the Atlantic tunnel is over 100 times longer, we might not see it open until the late 2100s or beyond.