The Oil Drum

I have to disagree. Possible ways to save oil by other transport methods are totally on-topic here. As the "About Us" page say:

This real and tangible crisis of supply and demand is now inevitable. Whether the coming crisis arrives in six months or in four years, whether the crisis arrives in a slow, secular fashion or as a cataclysmic "shock," our purpose is the same: we are here to raise awareness of the reality of the current problem and to attempt to address the real issues that are often hidden by political pandering.

We are here to talk about ideas. We're all learning here about ourselves and from each other. No perspective will be punished as long as evidence and logic are present. We want to bring brain power to bear on all of these issues; we may not come up with a solution...but we can at least say we tried.

What can be expected to happen as this crisis develops and unfolds? Stick around, because that's the kind of stuff that we're going to talk about.

"It will/won't work" is a legitimate debate (I'm pretty sceptical about this much tunneling myself). But "it's off topic" is clearly incorrect.

Thanks for the support.  Actually we also do, on occasion, transgress into talking about wind and solar, and likely will on occasion talk about pulverized coal, and coalbed methane.  The intent is to point out that the world is not totally ignoring the need to find alternate solutions, even some that might, at first glance, appear unlikely.

Since the intent is to provide information, you can make up your own minds, but be aware that work has been done on concrete liners that will provide the necessary vacuum seal; underground is remarkably free from earthquake damage (ask the coal miners who did not know that there was an earthquake until they came to the surface and found that the city of Tongchan had been destroyed); and one of the nice things about the underground is that once you have established a condition - whether vaccum or as a cold storage plant - it takes very little energy to maintain the condition.  We will see how the Swissmetro goes, but perhaps in 10 years or so, I suspect that one or two of our readers may owe me a beer! (In the meantime shhhhhh!)