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Finland announces migration of its rail network to international gauge

(yle.fi)
461 points axelfontaine | 2 comments | 20 May 25 07:40 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source
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blueflow ◴[20 May 25 08:56 UTC] No.44039357[source]▶
Get a look on the track topology on openrailwaymap:

https://www.openrailwaymap.org/?style=gauge&lat=62.774837258...

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reddalo ◴[20 May 25 09:01 UTC] No.44039396[source]▶
That's very interesting. I wonder why Spain is different than the rest of Europe, given it's connected by land.

It makes more sense for islands such as Ireland to retain their old gauge.

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1. cladopa ◴[20 May 25 09:46 UTC] No.44039677[source]▶
The reason is quite obvious if you know Spain's History.

Given that France invaded Spain in 1807, the military made it necessary to have a different gauge from France. Not only that, the train by the coast was also forbidden in some places as a naval bombardment could disrupt communications in case of war.

Spain has lots of mountains with a large plateau over 700 meters high and the coast is usually way lower so it makes sense to transport things by the coast.

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2. m4rtink ◴[20 May 25 11:16 UTC] No.44040201[source]▶
The Hisatsu line[1] in Japan was built through pretty insane terrain to make it protected from coastal attacks after the Russo-Japanese war.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hisatsu_Line