Now that the Marmaray Tunnel was inaugurated and various other major railway projects, such as Baku – Tbilisi – Kars or the North-South Corridor, have postponed their inauguration, while others, such as Rail Baltica, have not even been initiated, it seems interesting to focus on other broad interest projects. The potential connection between Russia and the US, through a railway tunnel under the Bering Strait, is extremely interesting for the railway sector thanks to highly technological challenges that the construction of such a project implies.
Russian officials have backed the idea of building a rail tunnel linking Russia and the US.
The tunnel could run under the Bering Strait for 105 km, twice the length of the UK-France Channel Tunnel. The tunnel itself has been estimated to cost USD 20 Billion and to take 10-15 years to build. But an additional 4,000 km of new track would be needed to link it to Russia’s rail network, plus another 2,000 km to connect to existing services on the US side.
According to the declarations of Russian Railways President, Vladimir Yakunin, there is a project for the construction of a tunnel under the Bearing Strait to develop a railway link between Russia and North America. The decision for the initiation of such a project could be made before 2017. The construction of the tunnel has been estimated at over USD 100 Billion.
Compared to the interwar period, when the idea of building a tunnel under the Bering Strait was mentioned for the first time, now we have the technology. Based on reliable examples, such as the Tunnel Channel and the recently inaugurated Marmaray railway tunnel, under the Bosporus Strait, why wouldn’t be possible to have a rail connection in the freezing north as well?
If completed, the tunnel would connect Russia’s Far East with Alaska, linking Russia and America for the first time ever.
Aside from the technological issue, costs have also been a serious obstacle so far. However, the continuous development of the Russian economy in the past years has once again brought to the attention of Kremlin the tunnel under the Bering Strait. Russian President Vladimir Putin has expressed his support towards the project and has also promised to spend an annual USD 17 Billion on infrastructure modernisation and construction works.
The development of a line to Kamceatka and of a railway connection under the Bering Strait to Alaska would be useful in the organisation of transport between North America and Asian countries via Russia, suggested RZD President, Vladimir Yakunin. The schedule of such a project will depend on the “general condition of the economy” and on the transport policies of the US, Canada and Russia.
In 2013, the Russian side will make a significant step towards the Bering Strait by launching a 809-km railway line to Yakutsk, the capital of Sakha Republic (part of the Russian Federation), a region extremely rich in minerals and which exceeds the surface of Argentina.
Construction of the Berkakit-Tommot-Yakutsk section of the Amur-Yakutsk Mainline (AYAM) is nearing an end following the completion of the line’s eastern terminus station, Nizhny Bestyakh.
Optimistic forecasts predict that the route would pay for itself within ten years. The possible payoff for this project is great. With a rail connection between the two continents, goods could be transported more efficiently than by air. Freight from China (also interested in the project) could ea-sily be routed by train rather than sea shipments and Russia could ship its gas and oil to North America much easier.
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