There are short trains because of the long ones.
The Philippine National Railways' 160-meter-long trains with eight cars are the longest in the country. Its Japanese-built trains make its counterpart from the Light Rail Transit 1 built in Mexico and Spain shorter by 54 meters.
The longest train in the world was a BHP freighter that transported iron ore in Australia, according to Wikipedia. That single train with 682 wagons was 7.3 kilometers long.
For the longest passenger train, the previous record-holder was the National Belgian Railway Company. The 70-coach train was 1.72 kilometers long and ran from Ghent to Ostend, Belgium on 27 April 1991 to raise funds for cancer patients.
Rhaetian Railway surpassed that record a week ago when its 4,550-seat Alpine Cruise toured 150 passengers to the famous Swiss Alps in eastern Switzerland's Graubunden canton as part of the national celebration of the 175th anniversary of the European country's railways.
The Alpine Cruise took the spectacular, spiralling Albula/Bernina route, listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site, covering nearly 25 kilometers from Preda to Alvaneu in less than 45 minutes, Agence France-Presse reported.
It passed through 22 helical tunnels and crossed 48 bridges, including the majestic Landwasser Viaduct, towering 65 meters over the ravine below, according to AFP.
The train was so long that aerial footage from Swiss media showed the train's nose "exiting one tunnel as carriages further back were sliding through others," AFP reported.
RhB chief Renato Fasciati added that seven drivers and 21 technicians were onboard to safely operate the train, "accelerating and breaking" at the same time on the cue of the first driver.
Although the 25 train sets of the Alpine Cruise are connected, it will be challenging for passengers to walk end-to-end. It will certainly take them a considerable time to walk 1.9 kilometers through 100 coaches, from the first car to the last one.
WJG WITH AFP @tribunephl_wjg
