Why do most countries use different railway gauges?

Around 60% of the world uses the standard 1,435mm gauge today while the other 40% uses either a narrow or a broad gauge. Why does this difference in railway gauges exist? Wouldn’t it be simpler if we all used the same gauge? You need to learn some historical facts about railway tracks before getting answers to these questions.

#railwaygauge #traintracks

[frankesparza]

At 3:45 it is backwards, Russia had and still has a wider rail gauge than Germany, Russia's track gauge is 1, 520 mm and Germany has 1, 435 mm

[georgejones]

I love it. “60% use this. The others are either wider or narrower.”

[olivercuenca]

Another fun reason why standard gauge got popular is that for a substantial period in the 19th century, if you wanted locos and rolling stock, Britain was pretty much your only place to go because they were the only people with a developed manufacturing base for it. And Britain used standard gauge, so it was cheaper and easier to just plan for that.

[WheelOfThought]

In India IR(Indian Railway) uses 3 different rail gauges. For the most cases IR uses broad gauges it's 1675 mm(1.6mtr) and if I'm not wrong it runs the fastest, heaviest and longest trains in the country and covers almost 90% of the railway network.
For the less winder Standard gauges it is basically used for Rapid Urban Transit systems or what we locally call *Metro Trains*. India currently has 14 operational Metros in 14 cities and approximately 26 city metros are under-construction and also some of the existing are increasing its length. As you have mentioned it's
1. Cheaper
2. has less weight to carry on board
3. and the trade off is faster speed in an urban setting.
As for the narrow gauges it's around 700mm in India and its very few tbh. They mostly are mountain railways and listen under UNESCO World Heritage. They are 1. Simla 2. Darjeeling 3. Nilgiri mountain Railways and yes they are slow as those are in tourist destinations and hilly resorts. But IR is planning on to change the tracks
Anyway India is heading toward 100% electrification by 2023 and honestly surprisingly
enough this will be finished in time. 🤧

I loved the video. 🙏 NAMASTEY.

[luisdestefano]

You are mistaken. Russia has a broader, not narrower gauge than Germany. 1, 435 mm in Europe v 1, 520 mm in Russia.

[ObviousSchism]

Judging by the comments, there seem to be a lot of inaccuracies in this video

[hughdanaher]

Shouldn't the title be "Why do most countries use the same rail gauge?" 60% is a bigger number of something than 40% of something. Just asking for a friend.

[arbabcreations]

In Bangladesh, its mainly broad guage (5 ft 6 in) and metre gauge (3 ft 3 in) together in a single one, also known as dual gauge. Broad gauge helps to carry more passengers and payload while maintaining connectivity with neighboring India which is almost solely a broad gauge network now. Metre gauge are comparatively older ones which are still to be replaced by dual gauge or converted to broad gauge within 2030 or so.

[Eddy]

1:49 - His name was Richard Trevithick, not Robert.

[srichard]

Japan has 4 gauges.
22, 301 km (13, 857 mi) of 1, 067 mm (3 ft 6 in) (narrow gauge), of which 15, 222 kilometres (9, 459 mi) are electrified. Used mainly for general passenger and freight lines.
4, 251 km (2, 641 mi) of 1, 435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) (standard gauge), all electrified. Used mainly for high-speed lines (Bullet trains), subway lines, and some suburban lines.
96 km (60 mi) of 1, 372 mm (4 ft 6 in), all electrified. Used mainly for Keiō Line branches and regional tram systems. (See 1372 mm gauge railways in Japan).
48 km (30 mi) of 762 mm (2 ft 6 in), all electrified, mostly regional. (from Wiki).

[anarghyasumanth]

India uses broad gauge (1676mm). Smaller gauge lines do exist, but they are obsolete and being converted to the standard broad gauge.

[AustNRail]

Australia still has 3 different gauges in mainline use. Victoria has broad gauge at 5’3”, New South Wales has Standard gauge 4’8.5”, Queensland narrow gauge 3’6” and South Australia for a time had all three.

[heronimousbrapson]

The reason for the broader (5 foot gauge) in Russia was because the imperial government in the 19th century employed an American engineer, George Whistler (father of the painter James McNeill Whistler) to design their rail network. He was most familiar with the construction of 5 foot gauge track, a very common gauge used in the US at the time.

[Delgen]

The American south did not covert gauges until after the end of the civil war, and then it was done, if I remember right in one day (24 hours), the History Guy has an video on that.

[TotalOpel]

The UK doesn’t use “standard gauge” — only Britain does! Northern Ireland runs on Irish Gauge.

The Railway Regulation (Gauge) Act was enacted by the United Kingdom Parliament in 1846. It mandated the track gauge of 1, 435 mm to be the standard for Great Britain and 1, 600 mm to be the standard for Ireland including Northern Ireland.

[Hoidienvietnam]

*Because when the original systems in each country were built, a different gauge was chosen, and then that choice became the local "de facto" standard and was perpetuated as a matter of course.*

[ddiesel]

Russia's broader track gauges is nOT by accident or coincidence..
It was Tsar Nicholas I who insisted that the Russian Empire used a different track gauge than other countries. and they reason is to prevent an invading force from using Russia's tracks to transport their supplies and weapons into the country.

It prove to be a wise decision during WW2

[astridvallati]

Russia adopted 5 foot, following an American engineer's advice; at the time 1860s, Imperial Russia was on an Inch based measurement system. So 60 inches was an easily measured gauge.
5 ft was also the gauge of most of the Confederate States, and the change to Standard was done by Northern troops as they destroyed the Confederate system and rebuilt new lines in standard gauge for their own strategic purposes. After the Civil war, standard gauge was decreed the national standard, and 3 ft gauge limited to the mountain and forestry secondary lines.

[alfrredd]

The Iberian gauge was also made different from France to avoid an invasion through the Pyrenees.

[mrrolandlawrence]

stevenson said after that if he was doing it again he would add a couple of inches to the gauge!