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461 points axelfontaine | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0s | source
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thih9 ◴[] No.44039085[source]
> will cost billions of euros, affect more than 9,200 km of track, and take decades

How is a change like this going to be implemented? E.g. are they going to mainly update some tracks everywhere (and have two systems running in parallel), or all tracks in selected areas (and have passengers change), or something else?

Was there a comparable large scale rail infrastructure change in some other country?

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hapidjus ◴[] No.44039129[source]
I think you can ”upgrade” the tracks to use three rails so you can handle both track widths. Also there are trains with adjustabe axle widths.
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Sharlin ◴[] No.44039209[source]
You’d need four rails, a 9 cm separation isn’t enough to fit two side by side. This solution has been ruled out as technically infeasible (I don’t even want to think about what the switches would look like…)

Adjustable-gauge rolling stock has also been ruled out as incompatible with the Finnish climate.

The most (only?) feasible way to do it is to “simply” build entirely new standard-gauge track next to existing track (and then possibly start upgrading the latter too at some point in the future).

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vincnetas ◴[] No.44039411[source]
This reminded me about a joke.

When engineers asked should we do the rails same width like in europe or wider, the answer they got from tzar was "Нахуй шире"

literal translation "wider by length of dick, but meaning "why the fuck we need wider"

- В Европе ширина колеи 1435 миллиметров. Нам делать так же или шире? - Нахуй шире, - ответил император.

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1. alexey-salmin ◴[] No.44041652[source]
Sounds like a variation on the "Tsar's finger" anecdote

https://bigthink.com/strange-maps/580-the-legend-of-the-tsar...