Summary
Highlights
The video introduces the surprising concept of a serious proposal to run hover trains across the English Channel, defining a hover train as an intermediate technology between hovercraft and maglev trains, using an air cushion and linear induction motor.
Sir Christopher Cockerell, inventor of the hovercraft, championed the hover train concept, seeing it as superior to the proposed Channel Tunnel. He confidently predicted hovercraft would eliminate the need for a tunnel, highlighting their speed, ability to travel on land or sea, low infrastructure requirements, and estimated low cost.
Despite initial enthusiasm, hovercraft proved to be inefficient, noisy, vulnerable to rough weather, hard to steer, not as fast as planes, and lacked the carrying capacity of trains, ultimately leading to the withdrawal of cross-channel hovercraft services.
In the late 1960s, political will for the Channel Tunnel was present but lacked commitment. Against this backdrop, Cockerell advocated against the tunnel, predicting its failure and proposing a future bridge adaptable for hover trains, which he believed offered a 1-hour journey between London and Paris.
At the time of Cockerell's proposal, a full-size hover train hadn't been built. A test vehicle later achieved 104 mph, but government funding was abruptly cut. The hover train concept was caught between the existing conventional trains and the more promising, emerging maglev technology.
The Channel Tunnel's competition ultimately led to the demise of cross-channel hovercraft. The video also touches on other proposals for cross-channel bridges, including a recent one from Boris Johnson, and the arguments against such expensive and logistically challenging constructions.