In 1960, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia Pacific (ESCAP) initiated the Trans-Asian Railway project to establish a 114,000-kilometer rail network between Asia and Europe. It did not happen. The scheme came up again in 2006, when 22 Asian governments signed a deal to cooperate on the rail link. That agreement finally went into effect in June last year after China ratified it. But China is the only country which can push it through because of the money involved. Monsters and Critics reports that one physical constraint to China’s railroad ambitions in Southeast Asia is the different gauges. China uses the standard 1.435-meter gauge, whereas all of Southeast Asia uses a 1-meter gauge. Switching from one gauge to another would take a huge investment.