In the previous chapter we saw where the train goes from and to. Now I ask: this train — how does it itself work?
Today there exist several different technologies for the movement of a train, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. Let us come to know them all, one by one and fairly.
1. The classical and freight railway
The oldest and the most widespread technology is the one everybody knows: a train with steel wheels running upon two parallel rails. The distance between these two rails has, in most countries of the world, a common standard: 1,435 millimetres, known as the standard gauge.
Its greatest advantage is simplicity, cheapness, and hundreds of years of experience. For the carrying of heavy freight it still has no rival at all. But by reason of the friction of wheel upon rail its speed is limited, and it stands in need of continual repair.
2. The high-speed train (HSR)
This is the more advanced generation of the same technology: again a wheel upon a rail, but with an aerodynamic design that reaches speeds of 300 to 350 kilometres an hour.
Its most important advantage is compatibility with existing lines: a high-speed train can run both upon dedicated lines and upon ordinary rails. It is this very compatibility which allows the network to be joined to existing lines and to expand gradually, without everything having to be built from nothing. (The speed record for this kind of train upon rails is 574.8 kilometres an hour, set by France in the year 2007.)
3. The maglev (the magnetically levitated train)
The maglev has no wheels at all. By the force of magnetism it floats a few centimetres above its track, without any contact with it.
The Shanghai maglev has been running for years at a speed of 431 kilometres an hour. And in the laboratory the frontiers shift every year: in 2025, upon a short experimental track in Hubei province, China reached first 650, then 700, and finally 800 kilometres an hour. But it must be noted that these are trials with light laboratory vehicles, not with a complete passenger train; the fastest passenger maglev built to this day is designed for 600 kilometres an hour.
Its advantages: far lower maintenance costs, resistance to wind and snow and earthquake, and a low risk of derailment. But it has two great weaknesses: it is very expensive — taking into account the track itself, the stations, the ancillary installations and the technology employed, the cost of each kilometre may vary from fifty to two hundred and fifty million dollars — and it is not compatible with ordinary rail; that is, an entirely new infrastructure must be built for the whole route.
4. The hyperloop (a capsule in a vacuum tube)
A capsule which moves within a tube almost devoid of air, and which, in preliminary estimates, has been said to be capable of exceeding a thousand kilometres an hour. This idea was put forward in the year 2013.
But here one must be honest: the hyperloop is not yet a proven technology. The best-capitalised company in this field closed down at the end of 2023, having reached in its only manned trial a speed of 172 kilometres an hour. China in 2024 reached 623 kilometres without a passenger, and China and America are still at work. It is unlikely that we shall have a genuine commercial route before the years 2035 to 2040.
The hyperloop, then, must be regarded as a horizon in the future, not as an option that can be counted upon today.
5. Middle and hybrid ways
European engineers are in pursuit of systems derived from the maglev which, with a little alteration, would run upon those same existing rails — an attempt to blend the advantage of magnetic levitation with the compatibility of the classical rail. Perhaps the best answer is precisely this intelligent combination, and not any one technology by itself.
Which technology for which land?
No single technology today is fit for every purpose. Upon level plains, the maglev or the technologies of the future shine. In mountainous country, the proven high-speed train together with tunnelling answers better. In the tropical forests, elevated bridges reduce the harm to nature. In the frozen regions, a special infrastructure is used to overcome the freezing. And for the carrying of heavy freight, the advanced classical rail remains the pillar of the work.
And one open question, which I lay before the engineers: is it possible to design a track and trains that would work well in all of these conditions?
The central problem: the diversity of standards and the absence of unity
Today the leading countries each go forward with their own standard and their own technology and compete with one another, but among them there exists no unity and no common international standard. The gauge in Russia is 1,520 and in Spain 1,668 millimetres; the signalling systems are incompatible; and the maglev does not run upon ordinary rail.
The result is plain: if the standard changes halfway along the road, the train stops. This scattered rivalry, in place of unified cooperation, is the greatest obstacle standing in the way of a true global network. We must bring common world standards into being.
Our proposal: from rivalry to common counsel
We do not impose one technology upon everybody, but we insist upon one principle: a common and obligatory base standard for the whole network, so that the train is nowhere left stranded halfway.
Upon the foundation of that single standard, two harmonised layers can be built: a powerful layer for the carrying of heavy freight, and a high-speed layer for passengers — provided that they are designed to be compatible with one another. And this standard must be turned towards the future, with an eye upon the hundred years to come.
I ask all countries to take common counsel instead of competing, and to bring their old systems gradually up to date. We are not the rivals of the existing lines; we have come to bring provision to deprived regions and forgotten lands, and to bind them all together. The development and provisioning of deprived lands is one of the great aims of this network.
The brain of the network: automation, signalling and safety
Today the technology of self-driving trains has come to maturity. Engineers measure the levels of automation from zero to four: from wholly manual driving to the train that is entirely automatic and without any attendant. Today level four has become the default standard of many new metro systems — from Honolulu in America to the first automatic metro of Africa in Cairo.
Automatic protective layers, such as the ETCS system, continually watch over speed and distance; and unified signalling systems take the place of dozens of incompatible old systems.
For a global network, cyber protection and physical security are likewise vital. (We shall see the detail of safety in the next chapter, and of maintenance in the final chapter.)
And let me say one thing plainly: these systems are not the rivals of human labour; rather they give it considerable help in keeping the situation under control.
A final assurance
My work in this book is not the imposing of a choice, but the making clear of a principle — a single standard, compatible and turned towards the future — and the assurance that the final decision will be taken by an assembly of the best engineers, inventors and railway specialists of the world; men who, with an eye upon the hundred years to come, will choose the most dependable and the most reasonable combination without waste of capital. This system will be so designed that it remains efficient for the hundred years to come. God willing.
But all these technologies come to their greatest test at one point: there, where the continents are parted from one another by the sea. How can one pass beneath the Bering Strait? That is the subject of the next chapter.