Orbital flights. Teleportation. Underground maglev. Portal. This is not a question about which of those will make it possible.

The question is, will it be possible to go from having your feet on the ground anywhere in the mainland United Kingdom to having your feet on the ground anywhere on the Australian mainland in under 5 hours, using a method available to a member of the general public, before the first day of 2033?

Errata:

• I will resolve before 2033 if I am happy that whatever service is performing this transport has run reliably for more than six months on a somewhat regular basis. e.g. I would resolve YES if this was a weekly or fortnightly service. I would wait for at least a year if this was running less frequently.

• Public transport meaning:

  • available to normal members of the British or Australian public

  • does not require membership of a specific club or organisation

  • does not require training outside of something similar to a pre-flight briefing on a 2023 aeroplane flight

  • can exclude e.g. people who are at risk for specific reasons such as pregnancy, being on a no-fly list or similar.

  • Priced at a level that a member of the general public could reasonably expect to use it, e.g. not higher than three months median salary in the UK or Australia.

    • This criteria is meant to exclude billionaires toys, if the actual price turned out to be 3.1x median salary then I would still resolve YES, if it was an order of magnitude higher then I would resolve NO.