Add one or two zeros to those numbers and you are onto something.
The problem here is that trains are expensive and big and reasonably complicated - the differences the change of the wheels makes isn't much compared to the rest of the cost.
And changing all rails in your country most of the times is prohibitively expensive. The cost savings would probably never reach the initial cost of the change.
nokangarooinaustria t1_iymfqg0 wrote
Reply to comment by InfernalCorg in TIL that the southern United States converted all 11,500+ miles of its railroads from broad gauge (5 ft/1.524 m) to nearly-standard gauge (4 ft 9 in/1.448 m) in just 36 hours, starting on May 31, 1886 by 1859
Add one or two zeros to those numbers and you are onto something.
The problem here is that trains are expensive and big and reasonably complicated - the differences the change of the wheels makes isn't much compared to the rest of the cost.
And changing all rails in your country most of the times is prohibitively expensive. The cost savings would probably never reach the initial cost of the change.