> This cannot mean the longest trip by train in terms of time or in terms of total length of track covered – we could put in dozens of interim stops to make a trip as long as possible<p>I think the longest shortest path between two cities would make more sens than the geodesic distance
Presumably the only way that this record could be significantly improved upon would be if Malaysia was connected to Indonesia (perhaps via the proposed Malacca Strait Bridge[0]) and then extended further if Sumatra and Java were connected (via the proposed Sunda Strait Bridge[1]). Beyond that, a rail connection from Asia to New Guinea or Australia is a lot harder to imagine.<p>[0] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malacca_Strait_Bridge" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malacca_Strait_Bridge</a><p>[1] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunda_Strait_Bridge" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunda_Strait_Bridge</a>
When you maximize for geodesic distance, why would you go over Sweden and Finland? There are more direct ways to connect e.g. Frankfurt to Moscow, while leaving all the other things the same, so having the same geodesic distance.<p><i>Edit</i>: Ah, I missed that: Ways around borders closed to passenger trains due to COVID and political tensions in Europe
COVID cuy the rope for many things barely tethered, such as international rail travel, so I'm not confident that we will see trains such as Paris-Moscow and Moscow-Beijing back as regular service.