Railway Internationalization Patterns

The material discussed in this book provides an insight into two paradigms of internationalization that were expressed in the interwar years. The first paradigm involved constructing transnational railway arteries by reconfiguring the existing railway infrastructure and constructing new complementary lines. This paradigm also drew on technical developments, such as electrification and the construction of sub-marine tunnels. Construction of new lines did take place in the interwar years, but mainly within the nation state. As the chapter two indicates, proposals for establishing new international railway arteries were put forward during periods of international crisis. It was in these years that engineers and politicians put forward grandiose ideas for restructuring the railway infrastructure in Europe. This reveals that individuals looked at railways, transportation and infrastructures more generally as a means through which a new political order would be established. Those plans led to the establishment of the Simplon Orient Express, which provided a connection from western and central Europe to the East, avoiding territories of the central empires throughout the interwar years. Such projects could be seen as the voice of engineers proposing how to escape from international crisis, or as a criticism of the de-centralized and nationally focused way in which railway networks had developed till then. The words of Geo Gerald in his opening speech of the inter parliamentary union of December 1918 are characteristic of these ideas. In this he noted that