The return of rail
Source: Le Monde diplomatique – English edition
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In the mid-19th century, the spread of the railways radically changed the relationship between humans, time and space. Within just a few decades, Europe, North America, Russia and India were covered in train tracks, and rail reduced travel times between booming cities by ten. With an almost absolute monopoly on land travel, it accompanied and symbolised the meteoric expansion of capitalism during the industrial revolution. To this day, rail lines structure the development and transformation of many regions of the world.
The railway played a crucial role during the American civil war, then in the conflicts and revolutions of the 20th century. A nerve network that depends on large-scale and complex collective organising, it became the site of social and political battles. It faced competition from cars and trucks, while neoliberal ideologues worked to undermine and dismantle it. In the 1960s and 1970s, under threat from the car and the airplane, train travel regained strength with the invention of high speed rail. This technological acceleration recast time and space once again, while also monopolising investment and leaving behind a significant portion of the population.
Today, governments prioritise road and air travel, despite how much these contribute to global warming. Yet the climate challenges of the 21st century give renewed legitimacy to a mode of transport that is reliably safe, fast and energy-efficient; once again rail seems like the ideal way to move goods and people.
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• Élisa Perrigueur, ‘Race to unblock export bottleneck in Ukraine’
• Julian Mischi and Valérie Solano, ‘The great train robbery’
• Élisa Perrigueur, ‘Greek railways, unfit for the 21st century’
Taking Sides is a series of ebooks published by Le Monde diplomatique. In each ebook, we are releasing the most significant articles from our English-language archive since 1996, on a topic that merits your attention.
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