Railway Talks l Leagio-Yosai Summit
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Mouri-Kudo Stood at her office examining the various levels of paper work for her that was given to her by the various ministries within her cabinet. They were all about the needs and logislistics of a railway network that would connect Leagio to Yosia. To be more particular, this rail network would connect the capital of Tullion in Leagio to Tokyo in Yosai. Although, she wished that she was not a position to make such negoiations with Yosai at the moment for a idea with the ongoing tensions, but the problem was that the Commonwealth needs this in the situation of a conflict between Yosai and Spain; Such a conflict would be an economic nightmare for Leagio at the moment. Although, in the previous session there was promises and beginings for more trade with Yosaian goods, there were concerns that Leagio would need more trade still in the future. Leagio will be in a better economic position with those raw materials but it needs to be official.
She started to think of the Leagioan side of this rail network that would connect Leagio to Yosai. Luckily, she would have the Minister of Public Works - Shinji Ikari with her on the matter as this discussion involved transportation and labor that focused on his sector of the government. Especially as she would be meeting from Yosai, the CEO of the Yosai National Rail - Ryoji Ishida., who she heard had arrived and was on their way to the Executive Mansion.
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Ryoji Ishida CEO of Yosai National Rail was driven via a government car. He was and old stately man of 76. Wearing contemporary business attire and always had a smile on his face. He stepped out of the car and made his way out to the front of the Executive Mansion
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As Ishida, he was directed to the Office of the President, where Mouri-Kudo was waiting for him with Leagioan Minister of Public Works-Shinji Ikari.
"Mr. Ishida, Welcome to Leagio. Thank you for coming for the purpose of this discussion on a Railway between Tullion and Tokyo. This is Minister of Public Works, Shinji Ikari. He will be attending this meeting with us as Leagio does not have a single railway company that hold a majority of the rail routes and control. So in this situation, he will be representing them all in these talks. In addition, he will be here as the construction of rails that is subsidized falls under his area of expertise within the government of Leagio. I will go able and let him begin his presentation." Mouri-Kudo said after shaking his hand and Minister Ikari doing the same thing.
"So, the thing that we must lay out about Leagio, Mr. Ishida, we have a dual gauge rail system that of 4 5/6 ft and 3 1/2 ft. The 3 1/2 is in the Eastern Territories of the Commonwealth, but they do have the ability to field 4 5/6ft rail vehicles due to work that was made since 2020." Minister Ikari explained.
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"Ah yes Mr Ikari, thank you for having me. our rail system operates under the the national railway standard is the 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in) narrow gauge track. Dual gauge is used where the Shinkansen (bullet train) lines join the main network that connects all major Yosainese cities. The issue would be convergence and converting the rail lines. I mean we both don't expect to change all of our railways system. At least not all at once. Would your people want to connect just from Tullion to Tokyo or do you want to be connected to other major cities? "
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"After much debate with many of the Rail Companies of Leagio and members of Senate that would be willing to ratify the treaty. it was decided to ensure a better way of bringing better economic prosperity that the route connects to some major cities on the way to the capitals of our nations. Our route will go west and then north straight to the border. The two routes that we are looking at in Leagio both provide good economic benefits and ease of construction at the moment. This map is of the two routes with introduction of a New State in the Commonwealth after an on-going constitutional convention." Minister Ikari explained.
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The seasoned businessman looked over her plans and looked at it pensively for a few seconds. "Well Minister Ikari this will be a massive project. and changing the railway format is going to take time. I mean Yosai does plan to fund this with tax payer funds. However I'm just afraid that if this project outlives both nations governments, if a new government gets elected in either nation and they both shift policy this will delay the project or even worse scrap it. Connecting a railway line to all major cities might take way too long and bee too expensive. What I think we should do is probably just have lines connecting to 2 or three major cities of either of our nations and then the citizens can get to wherever they need to from there. Again thats just a suggestion. What do you think Minister?"
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"In terms of the concern of Leagioan commitment, I do have confirmation from many of the Political Parties in Leagio that they support the idea of the rail-line. especially parties that have representation with the states that the line would go through. Some of those parties cannot afford to sideline the issue and, no pun intended, de-rail it. They need this rail line to gain more seats this election season in December. So in terms of that issue, you do not have much to be concerned about from the Leagioan side." Mouri-Kudo explained.
"Focusing on the complexity of the rail-line construction, that is why we gave to two routes to choose from as we can determine which one will be best for the construction in terms of cost and time but also provide strong prosperity to our nations. But if we want to stick to a line through Leagio that has only at most three cities then the Blue one will be the most obvious choice." Minister Ikari explained looking over the route in question.
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Mr Ishida looked pensivley at the map. "Well I can pick Tokyo being a top spot. We can also go further north through the Fujiko Mountains and the two other major cities being Yokohama and Osaka respectively, they are the 3 major populated cities in the country and are trade and tourist hubs in their own right, from those 3 cities they have extensive railway lines throughout the country. It will basically just be a matter of building just a large verticale curviture along the east coast of the mountains. Now usually these projects are to an extent subsidized by the Yosainese government then we cover the rest. How would funding for this project look like on your end? Is it mostly tax funded or is there another type of mechanism?" He politely asked Minister Ikari.
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"It will have a subside from the Leagioan Government, the state governments that the line goes through will have the option to provide their subside as well. The amount from the state governments will vary but I have talked to all the Minister-Governors for Muale, Condris, and Tullion, they will for sure provide some funding to it. The amount from each one will vary of course." Mouri-Kudo answered.
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The businessman then smiled in agreement "Fair enough Madame President. Before we conclude and sign an agreement so that I have a good things to report back to Tokyo is there further questions you have for me President Mouri-Kudo?"
