[dheera]

Chile would be an ideal country to have a high speed rail link going down the whole country. You'd need effectively just 1 rail line to connect everything, the country is inherently 1-dimensional.

Weirdly enough, there aren't even roads connecting the southernmost part of Chile to the north without taking a detour through Argentina, though I guess nature might appreciate the largely untouched conservation zone that separates Patagonia from the north.

[Phrodo_00]

> Weirdly enough, there aren't even roads connecting the southernmost part of Chile to the north without taking a detour through Argentina,

Not that weird. The country pretty much becomes an archipelago + ice field south of Coyhaique.

[flobosg]

My comment from a few months ago (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40857263):

> In the 2000s the Chilean state railway company was involved in a huge corruption scandal as well as bad administrative practices. It’s been slowly recovering, but rail services in Chile still leave a lot to be desired.

[Phrodo_00]

There's this, and also, trucker unions put a lot of pressure against rail.

[bruckie]

1-dimensional? I think you forgot the Z dimension. Its mountains are world famous.

[ethbr1]

Parent means that for most of the populated part of Chile, the primary question is how far north/south (not also east/west).