[Tracking the Gauges, Gauging the Tracks 06] • South-East Asia and Australasia

Our journey on the world’s railway gauges now takes us through the remainder of Asia and on to Australia and New Zealand. Much of South-East Asia is still committed to narrow gauge – but will China, as we have seen elsewhere in Asia, continue to fund, and even build, Standard gauge tracks in these countries almost on its doorstep? Australia is a different proposition altogether. The country is famous for the multiplicity of its railway gauges – a situation that goes to the very heart of Australia’s character, a character that shaped how this big and wonderful country developed. The country is still wrestling with this gauge situation – but could Australia have become what it is today any other way? Join me in our travels in what is so far the biggest chapter in this seven part series.