Before anything else, let me say plainly what this book is and what it is not — so that no misunderstanding may remain between you and me.
This book is not an engineering feasibility study. I make no such claim.
What I set down in these pages is a thought that has been with me for years: a rail network which would join six continents and one hundred and ninety-five countries together. I have tried to present it as fully as lay within my power — its intellectual foundations, its technical principles, its financial model and its manner of administration.
The figures you will see — costs, distances, times — are approximate estimates which I have drawn from the experience of real projects around the world. The final figure for any section will become clear only after the engineering studies for that section.
And where I speak of the future, I speak of a possible future, not of a certain one. These are visions, not prophecies.
What, then, is this book? It is an invitation to you. I have brought this road as far as here; the weighing of it and the building of it are the work of railway engineers, of economists, of geologists, of lawyers and of environmental specialists. It is not the work of one man.
If, after reading this book, you come to the conclusion that this question is worth the asking — then I have arrived at what I wanted.