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Finland announces migration of its rail network to international gauge

(yle.fi)
461 points axelfontaine | 3 comments | 20 May 25 07:40 UTC | HN request time: 0.717s | source
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vesinisa ◴[20 May 25 08:26 UTC] No.44039149[source]▶
Here's a much better article from the Finnish public broadcaster giving more context: https://yle.fi/a/74-20161606

My comments:

The important thing to note that at this point it's just a political posturing and an announcement of intent. They haven't shown any concrete technical plan how this would actually be executed.

> "Of course, we are very pragmatic and realistic, we cannot do this in five years. Planning will continue until the end of the decade, and maybe in 2032 we can start construction."

Once they have the cost estimates and effects on existing rail traffic studied, I bet construction will never start.

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cladopa ◴[20 May 25 09:34 UTC] No.44039611[source]▶
>Once they have the cost estimates and effects on existing rail traffic studied, I bet construction will never start.

It is not that hard. Countries like Spain have already two different gauges and have the necessary technology in the trains to change between different systems.

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varsketiz ◴[20 May 25 09:50 UTC] No.44039699[source]▶
One of the main goals of this is to not have the russian gauge available in case russians attack, so that logistics deeper into Finland cant happen easily with the same train, so backwards compatability is not desired.
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dotancohen ◴[20 May 25 10:03 UTC] No.44039786[source]▶
But if the Spanish can muster dual gauge trains, what's to prevent the Russians from doing the same? Or is the Finnish gauge a state secret?
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theshrike79 ◴[20 May 25 10:09 UTC] No.44039817[source]▶
The difference between Finnish and Russian gauge is 4mm

IIRC the diff to European standard is closer to 10cm, still doable but a hurdle compared to just driving a trainload of troops to the middle of Helsinki it's a bit harder

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dotancohen ◴[20 May 25 10:18 UTC] No.44039863[source]▶

  > The difference between Finnish and Russian gauge is 4mm
What is the acceptable tolerance? It doesn't sound like a huge engineering effort to design a boogie compatible with both without requiring switching.
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CapitalistCartr ◴[20 May 25 10:51 UTC] No.44040037{3}[source]▶
Train tracks are normally not precise to within 4mm anyway, and wheels are wide enough to tolerate that.
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1. iggldiggl ◴[20 May 25 12:59 UTC] No.44041068[source]▶
> Train tracks are normally not precise to within 4mm anyway

Yes they are. Of course practical tolerances including allowances for wear and there are large enough that things can be made to work, but in terms of nominal construction tolerances for example, 4 mm can easily eat up all your construction tolerances or even exceed them.

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2. sidewndr46 ◴[20 May 25 14:54 UTC] No.44042334[source]▶
I obviously don't have a in depth knowledge of Finnish rail, but have you ever looked at rail in the US? I can show you tracks with completely missing ties. Tracks that move vertically by a foot when the train goes over them. Tracks that visually snake all over the place. The difference is made by slowing down the train. Derailment at 3 mph rarely matters. The biggest risk is the conductor doesn't know it happened & continues to drag the car along the tracks
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3. iggldiggl ◴[20 May 25 15:36 UTC] No.44042801[source]▶
Sure, but even in the US that infrastructure state is usually only found on minor branch lines (shortlines), not on the main lines.