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Hey, geogrphy peeps, so I got another little topic for you guys to pontificate.
I recently came across this image by Chris Gray from West Yorkshire, depicting his vision for a global metro system.
It looks amazing, it has hundreds of different
stations on 20 different lines, each reaching a different region of the planet - and it kind of got my gears spinning. First of all I
Love trains. I love metro systems. They totally beat traffic. You know at first glance this picture
You know it looks kind of fun yet a little far-fetched considering that a lot of the lines traverse what seems like impossible
boundaries and the entire Pacific Ocean
But what if. What would it take to make this a reality? Well first of all this map misses a few countries.
Especially in oceania and the Caribbean and it doesn't go to antarctica, but that's okay.
We can make that happen later. First of all there's a few things you have
to consider. If we were to literally connect every single continent on the planet it would take a lot of time energy and resources
to an extent that the world has never seen before
also
It might be wise to make a lot of these trains hyper loops as to cut down the travel time with long
distances which would also allow more people to travel. Now the first thing you would have to consider would be
diplomacy and permission on which areas to build. If we were to connect North and South America,
it's unlikely that panama would open up the darién gap due to the indigenous tribes that refused to build on their land
so we might have to build over the ocean into
Colombia. That one section of land if it would just open up! Also keep in mind that unless if some kind of miracle
Agreement was made it is most likely that people going to armenia would only be allowed to board a North-South train Line going through
Georgia and Iran Due to the closed-off borders between turkey and Azerbaijan. Maybe North Korea would allow a train going in through either China
or Vladivostok in Russia
But I highly doubt there would be a simple
Stopover between them and Seoul South Korea that means that if Chinese people want to visit South Korea
they would either have to build a really long sea crossing line from the shandong peninsula to incheon or they would have to take a
line through Taiwan and the yeah
Yama and Okinawa Prefecture island up to Kyushu and then across to
Busan and you get a lot of strange scenarios like that all over. I mean there's that weird strange thing between Algeria and Morocco
Ukraine and Russia Iraq and Uzbekistan are just a nightmare and unless you have the right Visa
Belarus would probably just kick you out which brings us to the next part
I really like the tactic that this guy had for transatlantic oceanic lines for North America
He connected Canada to greenland to Iceland to scotland utilizing maximum land crossings at the shortest distance
But with South America for some reason he decided to connect Belém brazil with Conakry guinea
I don't know exactly why he chose those cities for me a more reasonable route might be for Stella - maybe Dakar senegal or if
You want minimal distance maybe in that tall - Freetown Sierra leone with a quick stopover in Ela Fernando?
De Noronha off the coast to cross the pacific
Of course Hawaii would have to be like the main central hub and then from there
You could go to either kid or bus or the marshall Islands or hey? Why not both? It's our imaginations
We can do whatever we want. No rules up here. Yeah now if this map did go to antarctica
I would suggest extending the purple America Line to Tierra Del Fuego
Somehow traversing the Impossible Patagonia Glaciers and somehow without dying during the construction process reaching King George Island and from there
It's just a bunch of quick island hops until you hit gram land on the antarctic Peninsula and just be mindful building the train on
Solid ground and not an unstable ice shelf and there you go now the big question what are all of the factors
Elements and variables that would have to go into the mix to make this become a reality well the answer is
Insanity now one thing we can consider to alleviate some of the cost is using some of the train lines
We already have so that we don't have to build a new one now
I counted and it seems like with the exception of some train lines in North America
Europe Russia China, India and Australia most of these lines actually don't exist. So let's assume
We're funding maybe about 75% of all these train lines
That's still a lot each line might cost differently based off of the terrain or ease of transport for material
it would be a lot easier to transport materials over the flat plains of Russia rather than the middle of the ocean by
Fiji also
Are you passing through a row area or through a city because it costs more to build underneath the city then you have to consider?
The Labor Force how many people are well equipped with the proper training to construct such a project how long would it take to invest?
In the training of people who aren't also you have to consider the hiring of people to mine the raw?
Materials to bring to the factories to shape and mold into the train tracks and the trains themselves
And how many people would it take and then you have to consider wages people in different countries get paid different wages and the oceanic
Lines especially ones crossing the Pacific would probably cost the most they would probably have to be hyperloop due to the incredibly long
Distances and they would have to be very strong and solid due to the fact that you know it's the Pacific Ocean there's cyclones
There's crazy things happening all the time
They gotta be
Solid oh and also consider that a transoceanic train has never been done before which by the way if you didn't know there actually are
Some hyperloop companies out there like hyperloop one or trans Pod that are in the alpha Stages of capital fundraising and researching
It's so cool. Look it up
I did the math and factoring absolutely everything I could possibly think of into this whole equation I came around a number somewhere around either
65 to 94
Trillion dollars although it could be a lot more based off of so many factors that I missed out on in the end
We live in a time in which air travel is the preferred method of long distance Journeys however
Is that really the best way and is it the most efficient is it possible that ground?
Transportation and hyperloop technology could bring us into a brand new era of unimaginable global possibility. What do you think it?
What do you think about a global metro system?
What destinations would you like to see being built I personally think a West Coast, California
La to the Polynesian Islands train line would be the coolest thing ever and with that being said I have three very important announcements
You're going to want to listen to at least one of them the first thing that the great courses plus contacted us
And they want to sponsor geography now again wahoo for those of you that don't know the great courses plus is a website with over
7,000 online courses from all across the academic spectrum taught by highly accredited
Professors and professionals many ivy league trains they have classes and so many different things like science weightlifting chess art
There's a really cool course called inventions that change the world by professor w bernard Carlsen I recommend it right now
They are offering a free one-month trial
Or if you really like it you can even sign up and join for a plan at really good rates
All you have to do is go to this website here the great courses plus comm slash geography
Or you can click on the link in my description. Thanks great courses plus you guys are always there for me
You guys rock my next announcement
Is that the heritage trip is?
Completely funded and ready to go and happen in October with me and my mom thanks to Patreon Patrons
I was able to buy the flight tickets and have a side budget for other things like trains and food you made it happen
So thank you so much patreon patrons and finally my last
Announcement as you know august is upon us which means the school year will soon begin for all students which means
I want to visit your school earlier this year
I got to visit the cool kids at Centennial High School in Corona, California
And now it's time to see more after the heritage trip in October
I want to have a geography bee at your school as of right now
I can only travel in North America as I'll be using my own money to fund the travel cost for me Brandon and ken it's
A little outside of my budget to travel outside of the continent
So maybe in the future of geography now gets bigger
But right now I can only travel within North America and for sure
I have to visit at least one place in Canada
I promise you kentucky's that
I would visit before this year is over because I got to celebrate with your 150th anniversary
I will be holding a contest and whichever schools win. I will visit details will come next week, so stay tuned in the meantime
Thank you for watching this video. I hope you got something out of it subscribe if you want and a stay cool stay tuned