Lu PingAn and Miss Li Na returned on a special train. More precisely, they had hitched a passenger carriage onto a freight train as a temporary addition.
Lu PingAn had never liked trains in this era. He found these so-called express trains, which ran at thirty to eighty kilometers per hour, deeply irritating. But barring the unexpected, such trains were destined to become the backbone of the age.
The other side of two divergent worldlines was that certain technologies would inevitably develop in different directions. This stemmed from subtle differences in physical laws, but more importantly, from fundamentally different "needs."
In a peaceful world striving for development, high-speed rail was undoubtedly vital infrastructure for driving the economy.
But in the current world, capacity and stability were the foremost demands. High speeds instead made all manner of serious accidents more likely, while the annual maintenance costs for several major railway trunk lines alone were astronomical.
Having even a single rail line was already impressive. The main expense was not construction, but security maintenance along the route. Large numbers of garrisons had to be built all the way along it, and enough high-tier combatants had to be hired to ensure safety.
What if the trains were slow and their capacity insufficient? This world had come up with a creative answer.
"Traffic has been pretty frequent lately. Did we place more orders over there?"
"Mm. Metal ore is one part of it. I heard the National Defense Committee bought a whole lot of contraband, much of it ancient taboo weaponry that can still be used."
The trains on both sides roared past. The first time Lu PingAn had seen an eight-track railway, he had been rather stunned. But upon reflection, it seemed to be an inevitable path for this world's development.
Compared with