A world linked by rail network

China's ambitious plans to link all major cities in the world via a high speed rail network would not only make travel cheaper for the common man but also will aid in boosting commerce and trade between nations. Just imagine if one has to go to London from Delhi, the normal way is to fly and this would take about 24hrs and would cost around Rs 20000 for a one way trip. Now with this new high speed rail link in place the rate would drastically come down but of course the travel would take slightly longer. But the advantage being the traveller would get to see the scenic beauty all along and that too for a cheaper rate.

This ambitious plan if materializes would make the world a global village and would bring people from different regions together. There are a number of obstacles for this plan to succeed viz

1. Nations from different continents need to give their approval for this project and must make a thorough feasibility study.
2. How does one solve the problem of VISA? for example the traveller from Delhi to London would naturally pass through some major European cities like Paris, Berlin, Islamabad etc. Should he get the VISA for all these nations or only for the destination nation? If the VISA is only for the destination nation then what would happen if gets down in between?
3. How to prevent terrorists from taking undue advantage of this? Trains can be stopped, hijacked and rail networks sabotaged. How can countries prevent unlawful infiltration?
4. What about the stations? Would only the national capitals be linked or other major cities also in the international rail network line?
5. How would the maintenance of the rail network be done? Should an international body be formed or should individual nations maintain the network coming under their territory? If individual nations are going to maintain the infrastructure on their soil then the developing countries would come under pressure to maintain strict quality standards on par with developed nations. This would mean financial aid needs to be given for developing countries.

Linking nations between Europe and Asia is quite possible because these two continents are connected by land. What happens to nations in North America, South America and Oceana? There would be a need to build gigantic rail bridges over the mighty Atlantic and Pacific oceans. This would call for skillful engineering to put the infrastructure in place and which can withstand the vagaries of nature. Critics might object to this idea of linking continents via rail when air travel is available. They would deem this idea as irrational and a major disaster.

The good part of this ambitious project is the travel industry would get a major boom. If the national capitals are linked through this high speed rail network then the tourism in that country can be boosted by a 'hub & spoke model'. The capital of a particular nation would serve as the centre and tourists can travel to any other part of the nation by the available modes of transport within that country.

This project would seriously make the airline industry to rethink their business plans. A common middle class man would prefer spending less money and wouldn't mind spending a day more to reach his intended destination rather than shelling out more money for the same distance of travel. This of course doesn't hold true for the elite class of people for whom time is money.

The business plan behind this high speed rail network would be to make international travel cheaper for the each and every citizen in the world and also promote commerce between nations.

If all nations can pool in their resources and plan this project to the minutest detail, the high speed rail network would become a reality. For the time being China alone has come out boldly and has agreed to spend on the infrastructure in exchange for energy resources.