International Railroad Discussion > Rail Buckle on China's belt and road

The NY Times journeys to Horgos, a speck of a town on the Kazakh and China border. The railway at the heart of Belt and Rail changes gauge there.

If the railroad between the Chinese coast and Danube becomes a reality, this little town will become much busier.

The author mentions the switch from China's gauge to Russian narrow gauge. I suspect he meant to say broad gauge.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/01/29/magazine/china-globalization-kazakhstan.html

Posted from Android

To the Russians, 4 feet 8.5 inches is narrow gauge!

Lackawanna484 Wrote:
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> If the railroad between the Chinese coast and
> Danube becomes a reality, this little town will
> become much busier.

I've read into some biased narratives (pro AND anti China), filtered it somewhat, and have come to my own conclusions on the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which is off topic at the moment.

I'm not surprised by the technical "hiccups" at the Kazakhstan border. Look further west at the most favorable terrain to the Danube, and the buck must stop at a more powerful country before this propaganda initiative becomes reality. Suddenly, CA HSR seems viable in comparison!