A global network is exactly as strong as its weakest link. If at one point the gauge of the rail changes, or the control system is incompatible, the whole network falls apart. For this reason standardisation — which at first glance seems a dry subject — is in truth the invisible backbone of the entire project.
The common language of iron: a unified standard
For trains to pass from one continent to another, every part of the route must speak one common language.
First, the gauge of the track; that is, the distance between the two rails. The world already has one dominant standard: 1,435 millimetres, known as the standard gauge, whose origin goes back to George Stephenson in the nineteenth century. But it is not so everywhere: this same figure is 1,668 millimetres in Spain and 1,520 in Russia, and it is this very difference that stops trains at the frontiers. The global network must rest upon one common base gauge, or else make use, in the differing regions, of adjustable wheelsets and dual-gauge track.
Second, the signalling and control system. The successful example is the European ERTMS system with its ETCS control core, which took the place of dozens of incompatible national systems with a single standard.
Third, the compatibility of power and of dimensions. Bodies such as the International Union of Railways (UIC) and the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) have for years been carrying this very work forward.
So this task is neither unprecedented nor impossible; it needs only a global will and a forward-looking standard for the Consortium to approve.
Safety against the wrath of nature
A global network must endure every face of nature. In regions prone to earthquake, the bridges and tunnels are built with earthquake-resistant technology — structures which, instead of breaking, absorb the movement of the ground. Against flood and storm, the routes are designed above the level of danger. In the frozen lands and in the desert, the equipment is hardened. And thousands of intelligent sensors continually watch the condition of rail and bridge and tunnel, so that danger is identified before an accident occurs.
The brain of safety: control and backup systems
Railway safety rests more than upon anything else on automatic protective systems; these systems do not permit two trains to come closer to one another than the safe limit, and in case of danger they bring a train to a halt. The principle of the double track and the backup route likewise guarantees that if one section stops, the network is not paralysed. It is by reason of these very layers that the railway has been, and still is, one of the safest ways of travelling.
Protecting the brain of the network: cyber and physical security
A network guided by computers has a digital brain which must be strongly protected. Cyber security matters just as much as the soundness of the bridges. Alongside it, the physical security of the stations and tunnels and installations must likewise be guaranteed, so that this vast body remains safe against both technical failure and the hand of the ill-wisher.
The safety of structures and passenger spaces
Safety is not confined to the rail and the train. Bridges and tunnels must be safe against fire, and the stations and passenger halls against crowding and emergency conditions — with emergency exits, ventilation and fire suppression, and a design that makes the safe evacuation of a crowd possible. (We shall see the complete design of the stations in the next chapter, and the maintenance of the structures in the final chapter.)
Environmental standards: respect for the earth
A network in the service of humanity’s future cannot do harm to the earth. In forests and sensitive habitats, elevated bridges allow wildlife to move freely beneath the line; in the design of the route, protected areas are avoided; and since the railway is by its very nature one of the cleanest means of transport, this network will itself be a great step in the reduction of global pollution.
A final assurance
Standardisation and safety both serve the end that this network should remain unified, dependable and enduring. The decision upon the details will be taken, on the basis of studies, by the specialists of the Consortium and under the supervision and verification of independent safety bodies, with an eye upon the highest world criteria and upon the hundred years to come.
The world already knows how to build a safe and unified railway; all that remains is to put this knowledge to work upon a global scale.
But the network is, in the end, built for people. What will travelling upon this network be like for an ordinary passenger? That is the subject of the next chapter.