Something I never expected, worth sharing. I wonder if they’ll have an exit for Yamal?
From Slashdot, news that leads me to think that someday I’ll be able to put my car on the train in Alaska and drive it off in Russia like they do with the Eurotunnel.
In what could easily be one of the boldest infrastructure developments ever announced, the Russian Government has given the go-ahead to build a transcontinental railway linking Siberia with North America.
The massive undertaking would traverse the Bering Strait with the world’s longest tunnel – a project twice the length of the Chunnel between England and France. The project aims to feed North America with raw goods from the Siberian interior and beyond, but it could also provide a key link to developing a robust renewable energy transmission corridor that feeds wind and tidal power across vast distances while linking a railway network across 3/4 of the Northern Hemisphere.
Yes, let’s build an underground tunnel right across the top of the ring of fire. Still, it would be kind of neat to drive from New England to Old(e) England.
When you finally get to the UK, you’ll finally be able to enjoy the blessings of Red routes, Low emission zones, Box junctions, Traffic Light Cameras, Speed Cameras, Bus Lanes, Parking Machines that don’t give change or additional time, Traffic wardens, Congestion charging, an average traffic speed in London of about 8mph, and some of the highest fuel prices on the planet!
So make sure you enjoy the journey!
You all underestimate Obama’s high speed rail initiative and need for stimulus spending as Rx for a weak economy cause by Bush.
Army trains. We actually can say no to this. They can’t cross the date line without our approval
Middle of nowhere economics. Doesn’t anyone want to make a profit these day?
So McGregor & Boorman can now completely ride “The Long Way Round”.
Ric Werme says:
August 24, 2011 at 7:23 am
Don K says:
August 24, 2011 at 6:20 am
Ric Werme says:
August 24, 2011 at 4:42 am
Alternate thought 1) Is this a good idea so close to tectonic plate boundary?
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Surprisingly perhaps, the Bering Strait is many hundreds of kilometers from a plate boundary. The strait, both sides, and a significant chunk of NE Asia are on the North American Plate.
Note to self: New Englanders shouldn’t assume they remember Pacific coast geography well enough to skip checking the map. Following the Aleutian Islands doesn’t get you to the Bering strait….
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I generally try to be civil, but I’ll make an exception in your case. If you have reading comprehension problems — as you appear to — you should probably make it a practice not to be snotty.
I did look at a map. You should try reading my post a few times. It even tells you where to find the right map to look at. Let me repeat THE BERING STRAIT IS NOWHERE NEAR THE PLATE BOUNDARY. Is there some way to make that clearer?
Walter Schneider,
Your Wikipedia numbers (accessible in 2 seconds, no sweat and no real knowledge required) are areas of political units. Geographically, however, Siberia extends into vast regions of Kazakhstan, Mongolia, and Northeastern China.
In any case, my point remains true: Siberian distances are too large, Siberian terrain is to difficult, and Russian infrastructure in general is too weak, for Russia to undertake such a project in the nearest future.
What is your point? Was there any?
http://www.youtube.com/user/SibirskyExtreme#p/a/u/0/te2YvVwuDiQ
These guys have done it on bikes
It’s for shipping Alberta bitumen to China via railroad.
But that’s where you’re wrong! They’re counting on the entire region warming up and becoming like Hawaiian beach front property. Maybe they’ll spend some of that stimulus money on building fancy resort hotels in Port Clarence? The taxpayers will make a killing!
Don K says:
August 24, 2011 at 12:17 pm
I wrote (I’m the New Englander referred to as “self”):
Don K wrote (hey, are you in New Englad too? I forget.)
I was trying to agree with you and be cute about. Doesn’t seem to have worked. I even looked at a map to see why I was wrong.
Let me try a different tack.
You’re right – the Bering strait is far north of the plate boundary, the Aleutian Islands, and the volcanoes. I was wrong. Thanks for “straitening” me out! Damn. Still can’t get cute out of my system.
Who encourages these people?! The only worthy recycles of crackpots are Monte Python re-issues.
Its more likely to lead to Alaska resources going direct to China However rail in parts of the world with big snow drifts is not a cheap way to do things. I think we will have to wait for vacuum magnetic levitation technologies to mature. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vactrain Finding the capital to do anything like this is a challenge. The freemarket would and could do it with 100 year private bonds but they have been non-viable since gold currency died. Inflation rates need to be at zero for such bonds to work. Both the tunnelling technology and the air supply technology exists but not the money. The people that build these tunnels like living in high density regions. The money may be good in Alaska but what do you spend it on? The cost should be double because the remote rail-lines feeding it are high maintenance. Shipping will be cheaper for decades to come.
Robertvdl posted some good material on NAWPA and Lyndon Larouche’s peculiar brand of technocratic socialism which doesn’t attempt to solve the calculation problem, no form of socialism can as Ludwig Von Mises proved in the second decade of the 20th century. If you want to water the deserts a better and cheaper program would be to add direct pump from the pacific to the Utah basin and two other units on the Mexican coast in two places with nuclear powered desalination in all three places.
There is also a way to ship fresh water by sea almost any where to a dry coast or city using bladders of water towed by nuclear powered tugs.
http://img.nauticexpo.com/images_ne/photo-m2/floating-oil-storage-tank-towable-199714.jpg
or
http://www.seapro.org/orig/images/unitor1000.gif
Direct desalination or nuclear tugs would both be cheaper in terms of money, land, energy and environmental impact. Also think of all the people and fauna displaced by such a project in both the flooded mountains and deserts.
The Russians obviously want Alaska back!
in the runup to the alaskan pipeline the alaskans themselves wanted a standard guage railroad line to haul the oil in “tank trains” because the other trains on the line would cut the costs of shipment of other goods drastically and help the alaskan economy.
unfortunately the greenies (under another name at the time) killed it.
C