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BBC: Rail tunnel between Siberia & Alaska...

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SS4

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Interesting concept although I can see the terrain being very poor for maintaining a railway.
 

Yew

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Would the guage change cause problems
 

flymo

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I was thinking about the time zone date change. Leave Russia on a Monday afternoon, arrive Alaska Monday morning. Imagine coming back the other way, depending on departure times it would be possible to leave Alaska on a Monday and arrive Russia on Wednesday....What the heck happened to Tuesday??:D

As much as I would love to see this tunnel happen I doubt it will in my lifetime. Fantastic if it did though.
 

HSTEd

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Somehow I think the LGV grade lines neccesary to support such a connection would be more impressive than the crossing itself, especially with the amount of time it has taken to make significant progress on the BAM and other such projects.
 

brad465

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I was thinking about the time zone date change. Leave Russia on a Monday afternoon, arrive Alaska Monday morning. Imagine coming back the other way, depending on departure times it would be possible to leave Alaska on a Monday and arrive Russia on Wednesday....What the heck happened to Tuesday??:D

As much as I would love to see this tunnel happen I doubt it will in my lifetime. Fantastic if it did though.

Well, that's gonna cut down on your holiday time in Siberia if you went there. ;)
 

Gathursty

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A Y-P return from Wigan North Western to New York Grand Central via Paris and Moscow if you please and I'll take a cycle reservation too!

Awesome!!! Please let this happen :D
 

Holly

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The problem with a scheme like that is not so much the tunnel costs as the railways needed each side.

Huge volumes of container freight enormous distances costs roughly 2.5 cents per tonne-mile by (Canada-Alaska) rail and perhaps half a cent by (Pacific) ocean. Moving people intercontinental distances takes hours by jetliner, or days by rail. A train would have to be 100 miles long to carry as many containers as a large ship.

This leaves you with trying to sell to markets for freight where speed matters more than price; and to people who are not in a hurry. Usually the converse is in demand.

The problem for rail is that the ocean needs no expensive maintenance, unlike the permanent way. And no-one owns the ocean, it is free to all-comers.
 

jopsuk

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Who's going to organise a whip-round to help finance this project ?


http://www.interbering.com/

I love the map including through lines through both Koreas to Japan, and from south Japan to China.

Might as well persuade the russkies to make their main network Standard Guade whilst they're at it... how far south through the Americas can you get before you reach the end of a line? Is there cross-border into Mexico at all?
 

SwindonPkwy

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If XC got the franchise they would probably run under the wires as far as Kamchatka! Somebody should talk to the Russians about bi-mode!!
 

Nigel Gresley

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So for London-Berlin-Moscow-Peking-Chicago-New York, we're looking for a bi-mode trainset with automatic gauge changing axles.

How many different pantos would it need ?
How much diesel fuel ?
Should it tilt as well ?
Max speed 300Km/Hr ?
 

HSTEd

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Well the Trans Siberian is entirely electrified and its reasonable to assuem that the rest of the route would be for a variety of reasons, especially if the crossing is a tunnel.

At which point you simply want some knockoff of a Talgo or perhaps an AGV if the gauge changing equipment can be made to fit, or perhaps just build the route at Standard Gauge.
 

Holly

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What would make sense, instead of this crazy Siberia-Alaska scheme, would be a tunnel under the Darién Gap.

Basically a rail tunnel to convey laden HGVs between North and South America based on Chunnel technology. I'm not sure if this would be the first rail tunnel under a jungle (rather than a mountain or body of water).
 

brianthegiant

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or perhaps just build the route at Standard Gauge.
That approach might sell to Spain, where they're in a minority in Europe on Gauge, but Russia isn't Spain. Theres virually a whole sub-continent laid in Russian Gauge. If anything the Russians would like to extend the Russian Gauge netowrk further beyond their borders. Even recently the Russians were making noises about funding a new link from Russia to Austria in Russian Gauge.

Is there any precedent for gauge changing axles on high speed stock? (obviously there's be a speed restriction at transition point...)
 

Nym

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Just thought of a silly way it could be done, park the two guages next to eachother and slide the body from one to another, on rollers, and lock them into place with eachother, like containers.
 

HSTEd

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Is there any precedent for gauge changing axles on high speed stock? (obviously there's be a speed restriction at transition point...)

Talgo built high speed capable (well 250kph) trains that can apparently run through the gauge changer at 20mph and are apparently working on 300kph, which would probably be the minimum required for services on said route.
 
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