Not sure if it directly helps here, but multi gaage railway cars are a thing. Iirc on some European lines, the trains switch their gauge.

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dheera 5 hours ago | parent [-]

Yeah some overnight trains can adjust their gauge on the France/Spain border.

On the China/Mongolia border on the other hand they disassemble the train, lift the train cars up one by one (with passengers inside), switch out the boogies and then reassemble. 3 hour process, you can fully sleep through it and not notice.

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gpvos an hour ago | parent | next [-]

For day trains as well, more often within Spain than on the border with France.

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lostlogin 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

If it’s taking 3 hours on a passenger train, a 5-10 minute transfer seems vastly more efficient.

	▲	taschmex an hour ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Yes, but most people can't sleep through a train transfer
	▲	gpvos an hour ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		On a night train such as the Transsib that takes several days to get from A to B anyway, being able to sleep through it and not needing to lug your stuff around is usually considered more important. (Although in some cases you are woken up for border formalities.)