An article in the CNN.com site (http://www.cnn.com/2011/11/29/world/asia/afghanistan-military-railroad/index.html?hpt=hp_c1) describes a route for supplies of toiler paper, bottled water and socks to Afghanistan from the North.  One of these routes involves shipping to Riga in Latvia, moving on trains across Russia, crossing deserts in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan and entering into Afghanistan 10 days later.  This route serves as an alternative to the uncertain supply routes involving travel 1,000 miles by land from the port of Karachi (in Pakistan) to Afghanistan.  Given that a lot of logistics is outsourced to private contractors, how should the cost of establishing rail routes be recovered by the military ? Given the need to maintain tracks to be operational, do these fixed train routes provide a more or less secure delivery system ? To maintain negotiating power with countries through which these routes pass, how many different independent routes do you think should be developed ?