<story><title>Railway lines once connected the Middle East</title><url>https://www.economist.com/christmas-specials/2021/12/18/railway-lines-once-connected-the-middle-east</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>rendall</author><text>This article made me think about how the presence of trains indicate peace. Trains are so vulnerable to attack. Their existence depends on everyone with access to the tracks to trust and agree with their purpose. I suspect if we&amp;#x27;re mourning these trains, we also mourn the loss of peace and stability in the region.&lt;p&gt;As an aside, TIL that there are actually &lt;i&gt;two&lt;/i&gt; Tripolis, one in Libya and the other in Lebanon.&lt;p&gt;I have heard references to an ancient, historical &lt;i&gt;Tripoli&lt;/i&gt; for years, even in the lyrics of &lt;i&gt;Onward, Christian Soldier&lt;/i&gt;. I only knew about the Libyan city and thought the article was mistaken when it referred to &amp;quot;Tripoli, Beirut and Haifa&amp;quot; together as Levantine ports, but &amp;quot;The last train left Tripoli for Beirut at the start of Lebanon’s civil war in 1975&amp;quot; tipped me off that my geography was off, since a train from Libya to Lebanon would not have been possible after Israel closed her borders.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>ajuc</author><text>&amp;gt; This article made me think about how the presence of trains indicate peace. Trains are so vulnerable to attack. Their existence depends on everyone with access to the tracks to trust and agree with their purpose. I suspect if we&amp;#x27;re mourning these trains, we also mourn the loss of peace and stability in the region.&lt;p&gt;Trains can also indicate war :) They are crucial for logistics, and were especially so before WW2. My country uses European gauge rails despite starting with Russian gauge rails because during WW1 Germany occupied big parts of it and switched the gauge to incorporate it in their WW1 supply train.&lt;p&gt;BTW you could deduce if some country wanted to invade the other or defend itself by looking at the rails and roads they invest in - if the lines go along the border they are more likely to defend, if the lines go perpendicular to the border - they are more likely to attack.</text></comment>
<story><title>Railway lines once connected the Middle East</title><url>https://www.economist.com/christmas-specials/2021/12/18/railway-lines-once-connected-the-middle-east</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>rendall</author><text>This article made me think about how the presence of trains indicate peace. Trains are so vulnerable to attack. Their existence depends on everyone with access to the tracks to trust and agree with their purpose. I suspect if we&amp;#x27;re mourning these trains, we also mourn the loss of peace and stability in the region.&lt;p&gt;As an aside, TIL that there are actually &lt;i&gt;two&lt;/i&gt; Tripolis, one in Libya and the other in Lebanon.&lt;p&gt;I have heard references to an ancient, historical &lt;i&gt;Tripoli&lt;/i&gt; for years, even in the lyrics of &lt;i&gt;Onward, Christian Soldier&lt;/i&gt;. I only knew about the Libyan city and thought the article was mistaken when it referred to &amp;quot;Tripoli, Beirut and Haifa&amp;quot; together as Levantine ports, but &amp;quot;The last train left Tripoli for Beirut at the start of Lebanon’s civil war in 1975&amp;quot; tipped me off that my geography was off, since a train from Libya to Lebanon would not have been possible after Israel closed her borders.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>nmridul</author><text>The trains between India and Pakistan also runs regular during peacetime and gets suspended on first indication of conflict.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.m.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Samjhauta_Express&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.m.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Samjhauta_Express&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>