Railroad Forums 

  • Closing a gap

  • Discussion about railroad topics everywhere outside of Canada and the United States.
Discussion about railroad topics everywhere outside of Canada and the United States.

Moderators: Komachi, David Benton

 #44332  by Sir Ray
 
For some reason I had thought Pakistan had been connected to Europe via rail in the past, perhaps by a very circuitious route:
Trans Siberean to Chinese rail, to Myamar/Burma to India (and thence Pakistan). Not saying this route is still usable, but I thought it once existed.

 #44348  by george matthews
 
Sir Ray wrote:For some reason I had thought Pakistan had been connected to Europe via rail in the past, perhaps by a very circuitious route:
Trans Sibirean to Chinese rail, to Myamar/Burma to India (and thence Pakistan). Not saying this route is still usable, but I thought it once existed.
No. South Asia is a rail island. There are no connections out. There wasn't even a link to Burma, formerly ruled by the British, and no connection from Burma to Thailand. The Japanese tried to build a connection (Bridge on the River Kwai).

 #44419  by David Benton
 
It will be interesting to see how much through intermodal traffic this route gets . From south east asia containers could be shipped to a eastern indian port , then railed from there to Europe . However id hate to think of the paperwork required to get such a operation going through these countries .

 #44458  by george matthews
 
David Benton wrote:It will be interesting to see how much through intermodal traffic this route gets . From south east asia containers could be shipped to a eastern indian port , then railed from there to Europe . However id hate to think of the paperwork required to get such a operation going through these countries .
It might make an alternative to the Trans-Siberean or sea travel. But quite possibly a lot of investment might be needed in the connecting routes, for example, the Pakistan line to the frontier would need rebuilding (this may already be in progress).