Area 1520

by Michael Frewston

  TRACKING THE GAUGES

  - GAUGING THE TRACKS

  The Story of the World’s Railway Gauges, Yesterday and Today

  Part 4 – ‘Area 1520’

  By

  Michael Frewston

  © Copyright Frewston Books Online 2016

  ‘AREA 1520’:

  RUSSIAN FEDERATION:

  ARMENIA, AZERBAIJAN, GEORGIA:

  MOLDOVA:

  UKRAINE:

  BELARUS:

  LITHUANIA, LATVIA, ESTONIA:

  KYRGYZSTAN, TAJIKISTAN:

  TURKMENISTAN, UZBEKISTAN:

  MONGOLIA:

  KAZAKHSTAN:

  AFGHANISTAN:

  TRANS-ASIAN RAILWAY:

  THE ‘GREAT SILK ROAD’:

  ON TO PART 5…

  ‘AREA 1520’

  Our round-the-world odyssey now takes us to what is by far the largest area geographically in the world, although it is an area that until relatively recently was closed to the casual visitor from the West. It is home to the second largest route distance of a particular railway gauge in the world – 1520 mm. There are a total of seventeen countries with this gauge in this part of the world, and they are part of what is known as ‘Area 1520’ (also sometimes known as ‘1520 Area’ – I have chosen to stick to the former moniker for this book).

  These seventeen ‘Area 1520’ countries that actually use 1520 mm gauge comprise (in alphabetical order): Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Mongolia, Russian Federation, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan.

  ‘Area 1520’ is more than a simple label. It is a formal organisation that exists to advance the use of this gauge throughout the world – something it is quietly achieving, and in ways that may, or may not, be less than benign, as we have already seen when we looked at Poland, and as we may see elsewhere shortly. In fact, ‘Area 1520’ has ‘co-opted’ an additional ten countries into its sphere of influence – Bulgaria, Czech Republic, China, Korea, Iran, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Hungary and Vietnam. These ten countries (except for Vietnam) are 1435 mm Standard gauge countries – a gauge at odds with the 1520 mm gauge used in the seventeen countries I listed in the previous paragraph – yet they are fully-fledged members of ‘Area 1520’.

  The total route distance in ‘Area 1520’ is somewhere in the region of 227 000 km – maybe even more, as a lot of new 1520 mm gauge lines are currently under construction (and quite possibly already in service), or certainly well advanced in the planning stages.

  The gauge of the railways in almost all these countries used to be 1524 mm. However, in May 1970 (some say earlier, in the 1960s), the USSR (as it then was) adjusted it to 1520 mm, in order, it is said, to simplify calculations. I am not sure adjusting a whole continent’s railways by just 4 mm in order to simplify calculations makes a huge amount of sense – but then why not? Cheap pocket calculators only began to exist in 1970, and definitely not in the USSR! Certainly this would have been a logical argument for using the simpler measurement.

  Regardless, almost all (there is a Standard gauge exception, as we shall see later) of the other countries using this Russian gauge followed suit (except of course Finland, which, free from the yoke of Russian rule and not part of ‘Area 1520’, remained with 1524 mm – see Scandinavia in Part 2). As we have seen, the 4 mm gauge difference is really not an issue as regards the ability of trains to travel on either gauge.

  The ‘Area 1520’ website contains much of what may be considered to be classical old Soviet-style propaganda, such as the following extract explaining both a bit of the history and the future hopes of ‘Area 1520’:

  “It was not by chance that the gauge of 1524 mm was selected. Having scrutinized the lessons learnt by Europe and North America, Russian engineers were the first in the world to develop a comprehensive approach to specify technical requirements for railways, including the gauge and the admissible slope, depending on the terrain, anticipated cargo turnover and the power of locomotives available.

  “A single gauge is the technical and technological backbone of the whole railway network in the CIS and Baltic states, which dictates the need for a profound integration of our transport and logistical systems with the main objective being to raise the competitiveness of transport infrastructures of all parties to “Area 1520” partnership in the global market. The difficulty of missions, “Area 1520” has to face, is pre-determined by the high level of rivalry on the part of the 1435 mm railways in Europe, China, South East Asia and America, as well as on the part of the maritime routes from the Asia Pacific region to Europe through the Suez Canal.”

  High-sounding, and some would even say provocative, words indeed! One could even be forgiven if you got the impression that ‘Area 1520’ is about to persuade the entire world to abandon Standard gauge in favour of 1520 mm gauge. In particular, if one reads further on this website, much emphasis is given to the ‘greater stability and improved running’ and all the other factors that supposedly come with the wider gauge, as if these attributes were impossible with anything less. We know that this is not really true.

  I have already shown (see Gauges and the Railways’ Quest for Speed, in Part 1) that 1435 mm Standard gauge, in terms of practical speeds in every day service, can already achieve virtually all that is required of a railway, and then some. And can an increase of a mere 85 mm in gauge really make that much of a difference in the load-carrying abilities of a railway, as ‘Area 1520’ suggests in its blurb? We have seen in southern Africa (in Part 3) that a track gauge of just 1067 mm did not inhibit what was one of the longest and heaviest trains in history from making its journey.

  I do believe though that ‘Area 1520’ has a mandate to spread the reach of its gauge as far and as wide as possible, though whether this is for purely practical and economic reasons, or whether there is a political aspect to this, I don’t know. This organisation has already built a freight-only line of 1520 mm gauge through Poland almost to the border with the Czech Republic (see Poland, in Part 2), as well as into Slovakia (under an agreement entered into with Russia in 2010). And it has plans to continue extending these lines, and add a number of branches to them, through Austria and into Italy and Southern Germany.

  This to me begs the question – is this something that the people of Austria, Italy and Germany actually want? We have seen in Britain huge protests against proposals to build the second 300 km/h High Speed line, in this case to the north. This would be a British-built line, albeit on a new alignment (which of course is the reason behind the protests), carrying British passenger trains, in Britain, for the direct benefit of British passengers.

  The argument for these proposed 1520 mm gauge lines in Western Europe states that it would eliminate the trans-shipment of freight (or bogie-changing where such facilities exist) at the current borders between 1435 mm and 1520 mm tracks. But surely, if such freight is to continue its journey by rail, this is merely shifting the movement of cargo from 1520 mm gauge trains to 1435 mm gauge trains to another location?

  Yet the continuation of these 1520 mm freight-only lines into Austria, Italy and Germany would take them, of necessity, also on brand new alignments, through some of the world’s most beautiful scenery – but for what, or for whose, benefit?

  These lines and their branches (not to mention others that are being talked about) would be financed and built, not by these three Western European countries themselves, but by ‘Area 1520’ interests, and merely to transport, not human passengers, but containers and other freight originating in China and elsewhere. There would appear to be no DIRECT benefit to the citizens of Austria, Italy or Germany, and certainly not to their citizens as passengers, on such new freight-only lines.

  So wh
y would Austria, Italy and Germany permit such undertakings, if indeed they even agree with them? What is the REAL agenda behind the proposed construction of these lines? These are I believe intriguing questions that deserve answers. It’s interesting to note that, while ‘Area 1520’ has plans to spread its gauge as far and as wide as possible, there are – at present – very few 1435 mm Standard gauge lines built within its borders, in spite of the far more widespread usage, on a world-wide basis, of this gauge.

  That looks however as if it might be about to change, at least to a small but significant degree. The interfacing between 1520 mm and 1435 mm gauge in various parts of the world is becoming ever more prominent as plans advance for through traffic by rail from the far east to Europe via ‘Area 1520’, instead of by ship. Some of these plans not only involve building 1520 mm lines well into Western Europe, as noted above, but also involve spreading the reach of 1435 mm Standard gauge lines well into Area 1520 territory – even as Area 1520 is doing the reverse!

  The European Union (EU) has made plans for a 1435 mm link known as Rail Baltica. As its name suggests, it runs through the Baltic states of Lithuania and Latvia, originating in Suwalki in Poland, and terminating at Tallinn in Estonia. Being sponsored by the EU, it naturally is intended to be to Standard gauge. Will it go ahead?

  Lithuania wants it (and has even started building it – but to 4-rail dual 1435/1520 mm gauge – with the help of EU money). Estonia also wants it, but doesn’t yet have any money for it. Latvia is not so sure – opinions are very split between various political factions within that country. Some want the direct EU links, while others would prefer to electrify parts of the 1520 mm gauge network first. And even if Latvia did consent to the building of Rail Baltica through its territory, it would much rather it be to purely 1520 mm gauge.

  But the EU is firmly behind Rail Baltica, whether it ends up being 1435 or 1520 mm gauge (or both). It is planned to be one of ten lines known as the Trans European Network – TEN-T. And Rail Baltica, hopefully to 1435 mm gauge, but likely a mixture of 1435 and 1520 mm gauge, and stretching from Helsinki in the north to Venice in the south, passing through Tallinn, Riga, Kaunas, Warsaw, Bratislava, Vienna and Bologna on the way, is a very key part of TEN-T. Although planned as 1435 mm gauge, it does look though as if it may have to end up at best as dual gauge in Finland and Area 1520 countries, and possibly even as 1520 mm gauge only in some areas, a prospect that the EU has already conceded. Nonetheless, the first sections of Rail Baltica recognise both gauges. That from the Polish border to Mockai and Šeštokai has been built to four-rail dual gauge, while the 93 km between Šeštokai and Kaunas now consists of parallel 1435 and 1520 mm gauge tracks.

  Other sections of Rail Baltica are planned, or are being constructed, also as parallel 1435 and 1520 mm gauge tracks.

  The biggest threat however to Area 1520’s ‘hegemony’ in the exclusive use of 1520 mm broad gauge within its territories will likely come, not from the West, but from the Far East. China has a huge program under way of 1435 mm gauge high speed lines (up to a continuous 350 km/h and beyond in normal service), based so far on European technology, but with increasing amounts of Chinese input. That country has proposed such a high speed railway all the way from Beijing to Western Europe!

  We’ve already seen a German ICE train in St Pancras station after having travelled through the Channel Tunnel (see Part 2) – perhaps the day will come when we will see a Chinese CRH380A sharing the same platforms. Certainly from a technical aspect (1435 mm gauge, UIC loading gauge, 25 kV at 50 Hz OHC electricity supply, in-cab signalling), it is quite feasible.

  One of the proposed routes takes this 350 km/h line through Russia. And apparently Russia has agreed, at least in principle, to this major encroachment of Standard gauge tracks within its borders. Whether the line, some 8000 km long in total and with a journey time of over 30 hours, ever gets built, or even makes any economic sense, is another matter, and this will be covered in more detail in Part 5. It remains to be seen what Area 1520, as an organisation, thinks of this proposal.

  There are other rail lines that may end up as 1435 mm gauge, especially in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries to the south of the Russian federation. As we shall see later in this Part, these countries are right in the middle of some important proposed rail lines that are planned to carry freight trains from China and other eastern Asian countries to the West – and these lines could be any one of a number of gauges, including Standard gauge.

  It remains to be seen therefore how far 1435 mm gauge spreads into Area 1520 – and just what the Russian Federation – the key player in Area 1520 – plans to do in regards to its efforts to date at encroaching ever further into 1435 mm gauge territory, especially in the light of the proposed Chinese high speed line mentioned above.

  In the meantime, the problem of breaks of gauge at the various borders with 1435 mm countries remains. As noted earlier (see Gauge Changes and Breaks of Gauge, in Part 1), there are an increasing number of locations in the world where automatic gauge-changing facilities are being installed.

  Two of those locations are at the border with Poland, on the line between Cracow and Kiev, and between Brest and Belarus. Passenger trains with SUW2000 variable-gauge bogies are now running on these two lines, resulting in a claimed time saving of 2-1/2 hours at each border. There are even more lines on which trains using these variable gauge bogies will be seen.

  Unlike with bogies that can be easily changed, such sophisticated variable gauge bogies can incorporate advanced suspension, stability and braking systems, as can be seen in the picture below. This allows them to travel at far higher speeds than, say, the coaches used between Russia and China on the Trans-Siberian express, and thereby nullify the primary reasons for spreading the use of two or more different gauges in a particular country or territory – in terms of bogies, one size can fit all.

  Will the use of advanced variable gauge wheel-sets and bogies on both passenger and freight vehicles therefore serve to stem the reach of 1520 mm gauge tracks into 1435 mm territory? Possibly, though only time will tell.

  RUSSIAN FEDERATION

  I am starting out in ‘Area 1520’ with the Russian Federation (and what previously was by far the largest part of the old USSR), for three primary reasons: (a) it is still the largest country in ‘Area 1520’; (b) it originally set the standards that currently are embodied in ‘Area 1520’; and (c) it has always ‘called the shots’ in terms of its rule over almost all of the countries in ‘Area 1520’, and continues to do so for many of them today.

  Russia’s gauge started out as 1524 mm, or exactly 5 ft 0 in – very much an Imperial measurement in what today is a very metric country. To understand the reasons for Russia to be using Imperial measurements (before it adopted the metric system in 1924, two years after the creation of the USSR), we have to go back to when Russia was ruled under Peter the Great.

  In the 18th century, Peter had a great interest in measurements, especially for someone in such a high position. He re-aligned Russia’s measurement system in accordance with that in existence in Britain at the time, including creating the дюйм (diuym, or inch) and the фут (fut, or foot).

  When imperial Russia wanted to build its first railways, in 1842, P. Melnikov, Russia’s first railway engineer and Minister of Communications, knew it needed outside help, as the country had lagged far behind the rapidly industrialising countries of Western Europe and America. Melnikov had already visited the USA, and had met up with pre-eminent American railway engineer, George Washington Whistler.

  Melnikov then enlisted the services of Whistler, who as a result visited Russia to help out. Also enlisted to help, for reasons unknown (perhaps to test Whistler’s knowledge?), were various German and Austrian railway experts.

  The European experts recommended the use of 1500 mm gauge – but, we have to ask, why 1500 mm? While this is a nice round metric number, there appeared to be no compelling reason to use it. There was no other instance of
a 1500 mm gauge railway anywhere else in the world. It varied very little (just 65 mm) from the 1435 mm Stephenson gauge that was already coming into widespread use in Europe in the 1840s. So there must have been another reason behind the use of a different, and indeed a unique, gauge.

  Legend has it that Russia wanted to make sure that no aggressor could run their trains over its tracks should it be invaded. This may possibly be true (and certainly Russia was invaded more than once in later years, so a threat may always have been a possibility). But was the foreign invasion fear at that time actually real, or just one of those historical ‘urban myths’?

  Certainly the use of 1500 mm gauge would have achieved the goal of stopping the use of Russia’s railways by the trains of foreign invaders, from wherever they may come, otherwise there would have been no need to consider it (instead of 1435 mm gauge), with all the attendant disadvantages of sourcing rolling stock that such an odd gauge entails, especially when you have little industrial capability of your own (as was the case in Russia at that time). So the foreign invasion fear may just have a ring of truth to it.

  However it was Whistler, not the European experts, who Melnikov eventually listened to. And Whistler had already been building railways in the USA to the 5 ft 0 in (1524 mm) gauge, a gauge that he insisted was superior to the narrower gauges used on other railways in the USA at that time. It was therefore quite natural that Melnikov, in taking Whistler’s advice, should also build Russia’s railways to the same gauge – 5 фут 0 дюйм.

  Ironically, the very first railway built in Russia actually didn’t use this gauge. A short railway owned by the Russian royal family was built in Russia from St Petersburg to Tsarskoye Selo, to 1829 mm (6 ft) gauge. But it was built as a curiosity as much as anything, and did not have any bearing on subsequent railway development in Russia.