Further details of the proposed high-speed railway to link Moscow and Beijing through Siberia have been unveiled. The 20.5billion rouble project will see a new 400km/h line running between the capital cities in a venture that would eclipse the iconic Trans-Siberian Railway in just 33 hours. During the Krasnoyarsk Economic Forum last week, it was revealed that two potential options for the routing of the track are being considered. Alexander Misharin, the First Vice-President of Russian Railways, said talks were taking place about going through either Kazakhstan or across the Altai region. „There are two ways: through Kazakhstan, and our colleagues there are already planning that, and the second option through Barnaul and Novosibirsk, and through the Altai. The difference in the routes is 290km.”, Misharin said.
A third option is to take the Eurasian rail link through Mongolia, allowing it to stop at Krasnoyarsk. But the current focus is on the first part of the route between Moscow and Kazan. The project was announced back in October 2014 and both sides began to work on ways to bring it to fruition. Later this month Russian authorities will announce a competition to design the first section of the route to Kazan.
The total cost of the ambitious project is 20.5billion roubles, with six billion roubles being allocated this year alone.
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