Talk:Rail transport in Mongolia

Trains: By country series High‑importance

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new freight route

I removed the sentence about a new freight route because it did not seem very significant. This is just a new connection on previously-existing tracks, although some of them were upgraded in 2010. In particular, the Tavantolgoi part is extremely strange. Tavantolgoi does not yet have rail access, and given the political problems with other rail projects in the country, I doubt it will have one soon. The current plan seems to build a 400km(!) line to Sainshand, which in any event will take several years yet.

I wonder why they even mention Tavantolgoi in the article. It sounds as if the journalists did not listen carefully or were mislead. Yaan (talk) 11:40, 3 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I might disagree with you on "significance" - a few different sources reported on the new route, and it's not as though the article is already "too full". :-)

However, thanks for clarifying what's actually happening on the ground. That's very helpful. Different sources say different things... bobrayner (talk) 14:29, 3 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The problem is not so much one of different sources, but of rapidly changing plans. I.e. some time ago they thought that they'd put 200+ million dollar american foreign aid into their railroad, then the Russians said 'no'. Also not long ago there were quite concrete plans to build a railroad from some southern coalmines directly into China, then some slightly paranoid domestic discussion set in ('if we use the same gauge as China, we will endanger our national security', 'they will employ only Chinese railway workers because Mongolian railway workers cannot understand standard gauge'*) and the responsible company apparently has changed plans. We have an aspiring Mongolian railway engineer in the family, so I try to follow this stuff a bit.

I agree that the article could be expanded, however.

*the second 'quote' is a paraphrase of some boss of the railway worker's union, of all people who should now better.

Yaan (talk) 13:29, 5 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]