Every great building was once only a picture in someone’s mind. The difference between that picture and the building that finally rises is one thing: the road map. A dream without a plan stays where it is; and a plan without a dream never begins.
Up to this point I have drawn the dream and measured its dimensions. Now I must ask: where does it begin, and how does it go forward?
But before that, two encouragements.
The first encouragement: what was once called “impossible”
Those who think such a scheme too ambitious would do well to remember that the tunnel beneath the English Channel — the very one which today seems ordinary — was first proposed in the year 1802 by a French engineer, and took close to two centuries to be built. The Suez Canal, the Panama Canal and the transcontinental railways were likewise once called “impossible”.
Not one of these was born and completed within a single generation; yet all of them, in the end, were built. The only thing they all had at the beginning was someone who wrote it down, and others who took it seriously.
The second encouragement: this logic is being carried out this very day
But the second encouragement is nearer still: regional examples of this idea are being built at this very moment.
In our own neighbourhood, the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) runs from Kashgar in western China to the port of Gwadar in southern Pakistan — a complex of road and railway and port and energy and industrial zones, parts of which have been built and brought into operation.
And an example nearer still to the idea of this book: the Trans-Afghan Railway project, which seeks to bring Central Asia by way of Afghanistan to Pakistan and the southern ports. Part of this line — the route from Termez to Mazar-i-Sharif — has already been built and is working, and the aim is that this connection should continue from Mazar-i-Sharif to Peshawar.
But here I must make a fundamental distinction clear, so that no one confuses these three with one another.
An economic corridor is a link between two or several neighbouring countries, with the aim of regional trade. An international rail network is a connection between several countries which stitches their national lines together. But a global rail network is something beyond both: the vision of a continuous network which at last gathers all the continents and all the countries of the world into a single body.
So these regional projects are not the rivals of this plan; on the contrary, they are the living witness that this logic works. What is being built today upon a regional scale sets only one question before us: can this same logic be raised from the regional level to the global one?
This book says: yes, it can.
The first step: from thought to a global conversation
The first stage is neither concrete nor steel; it is conversation. The idea must find its way from the mind of one person into public discussion, be examined, be criticised and be brought to maturity. Books are written, conferences are held, universities and research institutes weigh it, and the media carry it to the ears of the people. At this stage the aim is not agreement but awareness — for no nation joins something of which it knows nothing.
And it is at this very stage that the first testing occurs: does this idea hold up against the criticism of experts? If it does, it goes forward of itself; and if it is weak at any point, that is where it is corrected. A plan that comes out of the crucible of criticism with its head high is far sturdier than a plan nobody has thought about.
The second step: feasibility studies
Once the idea is taken seriously, it is the turn of science. Teams of engineers, geologists, economists and environmental specialists must examine the routes point by point: where is the ground firm and where unstable? Which water crossing is more practicable by which method? What is the real cost of each section and what its return? What is the environmental effect of each route and how can it be reduced?
The result of this stage will replace all the conceptual estimates of this book. What I have said up to this point was a general picture of the dimensions of the work; what emerges from these studies is the real and executable plan. And this is the greatest service that the scientific community of the world can render to this scheme.
The third step: the birth of the Consortium
With the scientific studies in hand, it is time for the legal and administrative structure of the work to take shape. The interested countries come together, draw up the founding treaty, and the Global Rail Consortium — with the organs described in the part on governance — is formally established.
The important point is that it is not necessary for all one hundred and ninety-five countries to be present from the first day. No great world institution has begun in such a way. It is enough that a group of countries — those who understand sooner and decide sooner — should form the first nucleus. The others, when they see the profit of the work with their own eyes, will join of themselves. History has shown that nations join far sooner a work whose result they can see than a work of which they have only heard the promise.
The fourth step: the first corridors
And now the spade strikes the ground. But not everywhere. The work begins with a few “initial corridors” — sections which have three characteristics: they are technically relatively easier, economically quick to yield a return, and politically less troubled. Routes which join cooperating neighbouring countries and can be brought into operation within a few years.
The importance of this stage is psychological more than technical. The first corridor becomes a living example which shows the world that this scheme is practicable — that the trains really do run, that the revenue really does come, and that people really do benefit. No argument persuades others so well as one successful example. And from that very first corridor a revenue is born which helps to finance the steps that follow.
The fifth step: the arteries and the great crossings
With the ripening of experience and growing confidence, the turn of the greater works arrives: the completion of the three main arteries, and those four feats of engineering which stitch the continents together — the Bering, Gibraltar, Bab al-Mandab and Hormuz. These are the hardest and costliest parts of the project, and it is natural that they should be undertaken in the middle of the road rather than at its beginning; at a time when capital is more readily available, technology more mature, and trust among the nations more firmly established.
The sixth step: down to the last country
And finally, the branch lines: those thirty-three branches which carry the arteries to each individual country and to the remotest regions. This stage is the very place where the promise of “one hundred and ninety-five countries” is fulfilled entirely, and the network passes from being a great road to being an all-embracing net. A work which may continue until the end of this century.
The lesson of time: a work for several generations
One must be honest: this project will not be finished within the lifetime of one generation. The complete road, from the first study to the last branch, stretches over decades. But this is not a weakness of the plan; it is the nature of every great work. Those who laid the foundations of the great cathedrals and the great mosques knew that they would not see the end of the work; but they laid the foundations, because they knew for whom they were building.
And the beauty of phased execution is that no generation is obliged to take up the whole burden and wait for the whole reward. Each generation builds a part, gathers the fruit of that same part, and hands on the unfinished building — more flourishing than it received it — to the next. This is the very chain of civilisation: each link upon the shoulder of the link before it.
Everyone has a place upon this road
And perhaps the most important point is that this work is not the work of governments and engineers alone. Upon this road there is a place for everyone.
Governments and policymakers can bring the plan forward in international assemblies and join the first nucleus. Engineers and scientists can weigh it, correct it and draw its real plans. Investors and financial institutions can design and test the instruments of just financing. The media and men of the pen can carry the idea to the ears of the people. And ordinary people — who are in the end the true owners of this network — can speak of it, ask their representatives to give it thought, and believe that such a thing is possible. For no great scheme has ever gone forward without the support of public opinion.
Beginning matters more than waiting
At the end of this road map, one principle must be remembered: never are all the conditions ready at one and the same time. If we wait for the world to grow calm, for all the countries to agree, for the technology to be perfected and for the capital to be gathered entire, we shall never begin. Great works have always begun in imperfect conditions, and have themselves made the conditions along the way.
What is needed today is neither an enormous capital nor a global consensus; only a serious conversation. That a few people, in a few places upon the earth, should lay this plan upon the table and ask: “Why not?” From this simple question a road is born which will one day stitch the continents together.