Chapter 144
The difficulty in Franz's eyes was no problem at all to people of this era.
In terms of construction costs, the greatest difference among these four standards was no more than 1.2%. In other words, railway construction costs were not the main factor in the decision.
Come to think of it, railway gauges in this era were generally quite broad. The Russians' first railway had a gauge of 1829 mm. It was only later, when bureaucrats wanted to line their pockets, that they followed an American engineer's recommendation and changed it to 1524 mm.
How much could be saved by narrowing it from six feet to five?
The budget saved 3%. Of course, given the habits of Tsarist Russian bureaucrats, not much of that money would ultimately be saved.
Standard gauge was what the British had marketed to the whole world. Beginning in 1846, John Bull enacted laws that made the 1435 mm system the standard gauge in Britain itself and throughout its colonies.
However, India soon became an exception. Standard gauge could not meet its transport needs, and the British were practical people—if it did not work, they made it wider. Thus, most Indian railways used the 1676 mm standard, while plenty of other haphazard gauges existed as well.
After nearly a century of British effort, the 1435 mm system only became the international standard gauge in the mid-twentieth century. John Bull's original purpose had been to promote Britain's technological system.
Whether it was also meant to limit the freight capacity of continental countries was impossible to know. In any case, Franz did not believe John Bull would be so kindhearted.
With mid-nineteenth-century technology, broad-gauge railways had greater freight capacity than narrow-gauge railways, and were far safer and faster as well. This was completely different from the