B'ham to Madrid

Here's a hypothetical exercise: What would it require to ship a load (or carry passengers) from Birmingham, Alabama to Madrid, Spain entirely by rail assuming the connection of the Bering Strait (bridge or undersea tunnel)? (On the US end, substitute New York City or New Orleans if you like.)

Of the many routings possible, it would almost definitely use the trans-Siberian Railway and would involve a break of guage at the Alaska/Russia border with a new line from the Bering Strait to Vladviostok.

What does this have to do with HSR in particular…?

steamal wrote:Here's a hypothetical exercise: What would it require to ship a load (or carry passengers) from Birmingham, Alabama to Madrid, Spain entirely by rail assuming the connection of the Bering Strait (bridge or undersea tunnel)? (On the US end, substitute New York City or New Orleans if you like.)

Vladivostok to the Broad gauge terminal in Poland.

During the Communist period the Soviet Union built broad gauge spurs into Poland and Slovakia. I sometimes think the Broad gauge could be extended westward for sending goods via the Trans-Siberian.

If you read the threads in the worldwide section you will see there are alternative routes being planned. There is not yet a standard gauge alternative to the Trans-Siberian, but one is getting closer. Links from Iran towards China may make this possible.
Poland through Germany to France to the Spanish border. Change of gauge at Irun/Hendaye.

It is possible that eventually Spain and Portugal may change their gauge to standard. A TGV line connecting Paris and Barcelona is certainly being planned. That will be standard gauge. The existing high speed line in Spain is standard gauge.

It is possible that eventually Spain and Portugal may change their gauge to standard

Sure, when Ireland changes theirs…

And again, how is the original post related to high speed rail?

Irish Chieftain wrote:

It is possible that eventually Spain and Portugal may change their gauge to standard

Sure, when Ireland changes theirs…

And again, how is the original post related to high speed rail?

This thread ought to be transferred to Worldwide.

Irish Chieftain wrote:

It is possible that eventually Spain and Portugal may change their gauge to standard

Sure, when Ireland changes theirs…

Ireland does not have a land border with a standard gauge country. There might be advantages to having a standard gauge rail ferry to either Dublin or Belfast but rail freight is nearly dead in the whole island (none in NI except for a few trains to a terminal in the south of the city.)

Spain has two connections with France, and potentially two more. There would be considerable advantage to building more standard gauge lines.

rail freight is nearly dead in the whole island (of Ireland)

That's a very sore point with me, because it's an artifice of dirty politics. Just because a fertilizer plant closes, Iarnród Éireann has to reduce all freight ops by 40 percent?? Meanwhile, more tractor-trailers (they call them "heavy goods vehicles", HGV for short, nickname "supertrucks") keep clogging up the road arteries in just about every locality, and keep hitting railway bridges, and basically make life hell in every city and town. There are so many old rights of way simply laying fallow, but the ministry (?) of transportation doesn't exercise the will to reopen them. (Incidentally, IE has a trucking division called "Roadliner", descended from the former Great Northern Railway trucking division acquired by CIE back in the early 50s—anyone see a conflict of interest there?)

Try and get Russia to convert to standard gauge, despite bordering the whole eastern half of the European continent. More than land connections are a factor. And besides, if plans ever come to fruition, Ireland could certainly be connected to Britain via a rail tunnel (there have been several plans for that throughout the decades)…

Australia has done well to link all its capital cities with standard Qauge . taken years but they won't regret the money spent .

Irish Chieftain wrote:
Try and get Russia to convert to standard gauge, despite bordering the whole eastern half of the European continent. More than land connections are a factor. And besides, if plans ever come to fruition, Ireland could certainly be connected to Britain via a rail tunnel (there have been several plans for that throughout the decades)…

Absolutely no point. The Russian Loading Gauge is much larger than any other country's (to carry tanks). It would be better to build Broad gauge lines further west, into Germany. The Polish terminal should be extended to Berlin. In fact a tunnel at the behring strait should be broad gauge and the break of gauge occur at the border of Alaska and Canada.