Why several separate “lines” within a single network?
The Global Rail Network is in truth one interconnected body; its routes meet one another at numerous points and together form a single unbroken net. Even so, it is sensible to define this network in the form of several separate “lines” with distinct names. For if the whole of this vast network had only one name, a traveller in the middle of his journey would not know exactly where upon it he stood, nor how to describe his own route.
The best example of this practice is the urban metro. The metro of a city is in fact a single network, yet it is divided into several lines with different names or colours. The traveller says easily that he is taking the blue line and will continue his way at such-and-such a station on the red line. It is this very simplicity that makes a journey clear. The Global Rail Network follows the same logic: one network, but with lines each of which has a name of its own.
The logic by which the routes were chosen
Upon what basis have these lines been drawn? The routes have been chosen according to several clear principles — principles which all serve one spirit: justice.
The first principle is passage through the middle of the continents. The main routes, so far as is possible, pass through the heart of a continent rather than along one of its edges. If a line runs along one edge, the people of the opposite edge will be at a far greater distance from it; but when the line passes through the middle, the distance of access is made as nearly equal as possible for all the people around it. Beyond this, the peoples of the continental margins still have access to maritime transport; so it is just that we should carry the railway into the heart of the landmass, to the very place which until now has been deprived of every road.
The second principle is the connection of the greatest possible number of countries. The more countries a route joins together, the closer it has come to the chief aim of the project — the binding together of the nations.
The third principle is shortness and directness. We strive to keep the route as straight and as short as possible. A shorter route means lower cost, less pressure upon the land, and a swifter journey.
The fourth principle is accord with the natural form of the earth. So far as possible we pass over level ground, and we go past cities rather than through the middle of them, so that urban life is not disrupted while the stations remain within reach of the cities.
And the fifth principle is the avoidance of duplication. In some regions good railway lines already exist; in such places there is no need to lay a new route parallel to them. The standard of this network is a standard turned towards the future, but our aim is not competition with existing lines. We have not come to take the place of the roads of the past; we have come to bring provision to those regions which have no access at all.
And above all these principles there governs one fundamental principle upon which I wish to lay emphasis: we never prefer one people over another. The justice-centred spirit of this project must be preserved strong and untouched. The names of the countries and cities which appear in the description of the routes are there only so that the reader may picture the route to himself; in their choosing there is no attachment and no special privilege whatever at work. Other technical considerations — geology, the risk of earthquake, and environmental questions — will likewise be added to this design by the hands of specialists.
The three main arteries
The first is the Pacific Rim line. This line curves like a great bow around the Pacific Ocean and begins in the south of South America, rises through the middle of the Americas, reaches the Bering Strait from Alaska, sets foot in eastern Asia and Russia, and by way of China and South-East Asia and Indonesia arrives at last in Australia. This line establishes, for the first time in history, a land connection between the three continents of America, Asia and Australia.
The second is the Atlantic and Indian Arc line. This line begins in eastern Russia, passes through the heart of Europe, reaches Africa at the Strait of Gibraltar, crosses from west to east Africa, and sets foot upon the Arabian Peninsula by way of the Strait of Bab al-Mandab. Here the route passes logically through Arabia and returns by way of the Persian Gulf coast and the Strait of Hormuz to Iran and thence back into Asia. Along this route, those lands which lie at the meeting place of continents become, by reason of their geographical situation, natural junctions of connection.
And the third is the Africa–Asia Spine line; a north–south corridor which begins in southern Africa, rises through the heart of Africa and Egypt, passes through the Middle East and Iran and reaches Central Asia and Russia. This line intersects the other two arteries at several points and makes the network more closely interwoven.
The fourth route and the ever-open door of the network
But these three lines are not the end of the matter. The Global Rail Network is not a closed and unalterable plan; its door is always open. A fourth route — and even further routes — may in the future be added to the network at the proposal or the request of member countries and administrators. This flexibility is deliberate and a matter of principle: a project which is to belong to the whole of humanity cannot be a plan laid down once and for all and imposed from above.
The branch lines: down to the last country
If the three main arteries are the great vessels of this body, the branch lines are its capillaries. Some thirty-three branch lines have the duty of carrying those arteries to each individual country and to the remotest regions. The philosophy of these lines is simple: no country must be left out. It is these branch lines which turn the promise of 195 countries from a slogan into a reality.
Why this design is a “network” and not several lines
These lines cross one another at many points, and it is these very crossings that make the network resilient. If a route is closed for any reason, there is always another way of getting through. This is precisely what the world of today, with its dependence upon a few narrow maritime chokepoints, is deprived of. The Global Rail Network is built from its foundations upon alternative routes; just like a web, in which the breaking of a single thread does not bring the whole fabric apart.
A few natural questions from the reader
At this point several questions may spark in your mind. What happens if a country does not wish to join the network? What if a route must unavoidably pass through a region of high tension? Who decides when there is a disagreement over a route?
The full answer to these I shall give in the part on governance, but the principle of the matter is clear: nothing is imposed. Many of these decisions will be taken later, in the sessions of the international Consortium, by vote and with regard to the public interest. What I set out here is only the initial thought and the conceptual plan, not the final verdict.
The wisdom that lies hidden in the geography of the earth
And at the last, a point which is perhaps the most remarkable part of this design.
When I first thought upon how greatly the world stands in need of such a network, and then went to the map of the earth, I saw something that made my heart tremble: it is as though God had prepared beforehand every condition necessary for this plan.
The continents, at precisely certain corners, have been created so close to one another that only a narrow strait divides them — the Bering between Asia and America, Gibraltar between Europe and Africa, Bab al-Mandab between Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, and Hormuz between Arabia and Iran. Were these straits not there, a land connection of the continents would appear impossible; but they are there, exactly where they ought to be — as though the earth had been made ready from the very beginning for the joining together of the servants of God.
This design is, in truth, not the invention of a route of our own choosing; it is the discovery of a road which creation itself has laid before our feet. We only read what has been written in the form of the earth. And perhaps it is this that gives me hope: that this road is a road which was meant to be opened.
My hope is that one day, in a world consortium, the nations will come to an understanding over this plan and will see their own interest not in war and sanction but in cooperation. And this is the precious message of this project: that we must return to the earth and open a road among ourselves — because there is no road of escape, and our home is this one single earth which God created only one of, for all of us.