Future
Further standardisation of rail gauges seems likely, as individual countries seek to build inter-operable national networks, and international organisations seek to build macro-regional and continental networks. National projects include the Australian and Indian efforts mentioned above to create a uniform gauge in their national networks. The European Union has set out to develop inter-operable freight and passenger rail networks across the EU area, and is seeking to standardise track gauge, signalling and electrical power systems. EU funds have been dedicated to assist Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia in the construction of some key railway lines (Rail Baltica) in the standard gauge instead of their 1,520 mm (4 ft 11 5⁄6 in) gauge, and to assist Spain and Portugal in the construction of high-speed rail lines to connect Iberian cities to one another and to the French high-speed lines. The EU has developed plans for improved freight rail links between Spain, Portugal, and the rest of Europe. The problem within the EU is not only rail gauge but also loading gauge, especially for the United Kingdom, which has standard rail gauge, but generally one of the smallest loading gauges in the world (relative to rail gauge).
Read more about this topic: Track Gauge
Famous quotes containing the word future:
“He who never sacrificed a present to a future good or a personal to a general one can speak of happiness only as the blind do of colors.”
—Olympia Brown (1835–1900)
“It is marvelous indeed to watch on television the rings of Saturn close; and to speculate on what we may yet find at galaxy’s edge. But in the process, we have lost the human element; not to mention the high hope of those quaint days when flight would create “one world.” Instead of one world, we have “star wars,” and a future in which dumb dented human toys will drift mindlessly about the cosmos long after our small planet’s dead.”
—Gore Vidal (b. 1925)
“It lives less in the present
Than in the future always,
And less in both together
Than in the past.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)