Up to this point we have seen the Global Rail Network from several angles: as a work of engineering, as an economic system, and as an institution of governance. But perhaps its most important face is something that fits into no map and no table: that this network becomes, in practice, a model — a living and working example of the world that could be.
Mankind has always spoken of ideals: justice, equality, mutual respect, care for the earth. But these ideals have generally remained in the form of declarations and speeches, and have seldom put on the garment of action.
The difference of this network is that it sets the ideal not upon paper but in steel and concrete and in the daily conduct of millions of human beings. And something that people see with their own eyes and experience in their own bodies is far more powerful than any declaration.
A model for standard and quality
The first aspect of this model is technical. A network built to the highest world standards — in safety, in technology, in maintenance, in exactness of timing — becomes itself a measure by which others take their measurements.
A country in whose soil a part of this network is built inevitably becomes familiar with that standard; its engineers learn it, its industry brings itself into accord with it, and gradually that same measure finds its way into the other parts of that country’s infrastructure as well.
This is a well-known phenomenon: quality, like perfume, spreads. Where people have once experienced a first-rate service, they no longer content themselves with less, and they demand the same from the other parts of their lives too. This network, without compelling anyone, raises the level of what nations expect and awakens their creativity.
A model for wellbeing and dignity
The second aspect is human. In this network the elderly and the child and the person of limited capacity travel with the same dignity as the wealthy and the able-bodied. Health and medical care are as serious a matter at the remotest station as in the capitals. The traveller in difficulty is not left alone, and no one receives a lesser service by reason of his poverty or his nationality. And it is this very equality that leads to the integrated growth of nations and countries, all together.
Here too, experience is more effective than any sermon. One who has once travelled in such a space and seen what equal respect looks like carries it away with him to his city and his neighbourhood and his home. And nations that see such a thing to be practicable ask themselves: why should it not be so in our own society?
That question is itself the beginning of transformation. And it is from just here that nations learn the way of planning and of industrialisation — not by mere imitation, but by the road of the awakened human conscience and of divine wisdom.
A model for respect between cultures
The third aspect may be the most delicate of all. Nowhere else in the world are so many human beings from so many cultures set side by side, daily and in a shared space.
Stations whose architecture reflects the identity of their own land, foods that bring the flavour of each region to the table, information available in several languages, and travellers who have learned to respect one another’s customs — all of these together are a living exercise in coexistence.
The world of today is full of people who know “the other” only from behind news reports and prejudice. This network draws that other out from behind the screen and seats him in the next chair. And few things bring down walls so well as this simple, human meeting.
A model for respect towards the earth
The fourth aspect is our relation with nature. A network that works with the cleanest technologies, draws upon the energy of sun and wind, whose bridges do not close the way to wildlife, and whose route keeps clear of sensitive habitats, shows that progress and care for the earth are not necessarily in conflict.
This message, in a century in which mankind faces the consequences of his own carelessness, carries a double importance. Every part of this network that is built with respect for nature is a practical answer to the question of whether one can build greatly without destroying.
A model for just governance
And the fifth aspect may be the most lasting of all. If the Global Rail Consortium works properly — with the principle of one country, one vote, with complete transparency, with the impartial arbitration of disputes, and with the just division of profit — then it becomes a living laboratory which shows the world that the common and just administration of a global capital is possible.
And this will have a consequence reaching beyond the railway. If nations see that such cooperation works in one field, the question arises why the same could not be done in other fields — in water, in energy, in global health, in the environment. In this way the network becomes a model for a new manner of global cooperation.
The civilisation it brings with it
If we set all these aspects side by side, something greater than their sum appears: not merely a network, but a culture. A small but living civilisation, flowing along thousands of kilometres, from which everyone who enters it carries something away.
And perhaps this is an answer to one of mankind’s oldest difficulties. We have always known how we ought to live — the religions and the philosophers and our own conscience have shown the way for centuries. What we have lacked is not knowing, but seeing: a real example to prove that these ideals are practicable and that they work in the real world too. Man is transformed by an example more than he is persuaded by an argument.
The Global Rail Network can be that example. Not a paradise without fault — for nothing built by man is without fault — but a corner of the earth in which justice and respect and dignity are not a slogan but the daily practice.
And if such a thing is possible in a network, why should it not be possible in a city? And if in a city, why not in a country? And if in a country, why should it not be possible upon the whole earth?
This is perhaps the most ambitious hope of this book: that we should build a road which does not merely move trains, but shows humanity how it might be better.