Not sure if it directly helps here, but multi gaage railway cars are a thing. Iirc on some European lines, the trains switch their gauge.
Not sure if it directly helps here, but multi gaage railway cars are a thing. Iirc on some European lines, the trains switch their gauge.
Yeah some overnight trains can adjust their gauge on the France/Spain border.
On the China/Mongolia border on the other hand they disassemble the train, lift the train cars up one by one (with passengers inside), switch out the boogies and then reassemble. 3 hour process, you can fully sleep through it and not notice.
For day trains as well, more often within Spain than on the border with France.
If it’s taking 3 hours on a passenger train, a 5-10 minute transfer seems vastly more efficient.
Yes, but most people can't sleep through a train transfer
On a night train such as the Transsib that takes several days to get from A to B anyway, being able to sleep through it and not needing to lug your stuff around is usually considered more important.
(Although in some cases you are woken up for border formalities.)