The most northern yard in the North American rail system is Hay River, NT. on the Canadian Natioinal. Most Southernly somewhere south of the Mexico City area(?). While looking for some other information, I found this Wikipedia site:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FERISTSA
It is a plan for a railroad to ink the North American Rail Network to Countries in Central America, via Panama.
FTL:"…FERISTSA is the name of a proposed 1,600-mile (2,575.0 km) USD $3 billion standard gauge privately-owned commercial railroad going from the Panama Canal Railway Company through the entire length of Central America, linking with Mexico’s rail system at the Guatemala border, and thus to the United States of America and Canada.
…This network would
After reading the entry in question, it sounds like another situation of lots of talk and very little action (or money).
The railroad tunnel from Alaska to Siberia connected to North America’s rail network, or the Panama Canal connected to North America’s rail network, which comes first?
Probably the TGV lines from Paris and London to New York.
“…The future looks bright
On that train all graphite and glitter
Undersea by rail
Ninety minutes from new york to paris
Well by seventy-six well be a.o.k…”
http://www.lyricsfreak.com/s/steely+dan/i+g+y_20130155.html
Maybe by the time this train from Paris pulls into Penn Station, the tracks will be built to Panama.
As far as the future looking bright, the fact that major rail projects are being contemplated and some even built are a big change in the last 50 years.
You have a good point. Looking back on the history of previously proposed rail ventures may 1 in 3 went somewhere. If that holds true then maybe some of the ideas bandied about will come to be built. That of course is dependent on money and the proposal is actually able to show a positive cash flow when completed. Politics may make some negative cash flow proposals be built.