UberNoob

the article states that this is mainly for cargo
which makes good economical sense

we've been needing a form of transport that is almost as cheap as sea shipping but much faster
with a mature rail network here in North America, this is a good plan, provided the russians dont sneak snukes up our ...

LexFather

Pretty cool to me

Lil4X

. . . and that's the point. We have a mature rail network in the US, but it was designed and built in the 1920s and has had no significant system-wide improvement since. Roadbeds are in miserable condition, crossties are still made of wood out on the vast majority of transcontinental lines, rails are mostly the short, bolted variety, all of which hold speeds down to about what we currently allow on our highways.

Add to that our really miserable trestles and bridges, tunnels and signalling systems that haven't appreciably changed in the last sixty years, and you have a disaster in the making. We are a first-world nation with a third-world rail system.

A Bering Sea tunnel is ludicrous given what it connects with on either end. Russia has the Trans-Siberian railway that links the nation East to West, but for the most part, it is still one set of rails that was laid down during Stalin's era. Still, it is marginally better than nothing.

Alaska has nothing. Well, except for the tourist's Alaska Railroad that runs only from Fairbanks to Anchorage - and that largely avoids winter season travel. Canadian Pacific runs a pretty decent railroad - if you live along it's southern road that is similar if more scenic than US transcontinental lines.

So even if the Bering Sea Chunnel were built, it would be a road to nowhere. Upgrading our national rail transportation system to 21st Century standards, building a real Alaskan railroad, and linking the two through Canada would make the cost of the Russian proposed tunnel shrink into insignificance.

It's going to take a lot more than a hare-brained make-work project to get our rail system back on the track. Maybe in the waning days of the current administration they can partner with their brother socialists over on the Siberian side to make this work. Stalin was famous for his five-year plans . . . and other than some pretty spiffy subway stations in Moscow, it didn't do much for a Russian transportation that still looks like something out of Dr. Zhivago.

mmarshall

As I understand it, Lil, unless they have extended a branch northeastward, the Trans-Siberian Railway turns and runs down the Pacific coast, ending at Vladivostok....which is a long way from the Eastern tip of Siberia, across from Alaska.

UberNoob

wouldnt the CN and CP take most of the shipment to the east coast prior to going down south if it is to go through canada anyways?

i agree with you that our rail network is outdated but at least this is better than waiting 3 weeks for shipments from Asia or russia

and i suppose they want to build a few pipelines near the tunnel as well?

JessePS

That would be quite possible. Pipeline into Russia / China could work, which would be interesting to see. One thing I would rather have them build a bridge than a tunnel.