Road Trip! Russia approves tunnel to Alaska under Bering Strait
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The elephant in the room isn't being addressed . . . why on earth would anyone want to travel from one godforsaken part of the planet to another? Alaska to SIBERIA? I can see chunnel train passengers huddled around a fire in Nome waiting for their Amtrak connection to New York . . . We have a solution for high-speed direct connections between Moscow and NYC . . . we call it an "airplane". Aeroflot will take you today from NYC to Moscow for $635 one way. In Soviet Russia we build big tunnel to compete with our puny airline.
At least the proponents of the project are being rational, considering it as a freight service - which is about the only way such a mega-expensive tunnel could be economically justified - but the payoff would be so far in the future as to be eclipsed by space elevators and teleportation. Then, why would we want to connect Russian, Canadian, and US arctic wind farms? Again, someone hasn't landed their balloon yet.
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At least the proponents of the project are being rational, considering it as a freight service - which is about the only way such a mega-expensive tunnel could be economically justified - but the payoff would be so far in the future as to be eclipsed by space elevators and teleportation. Then, why would we want to connect Russian, Canadian, and US arctic wind farms? Again, someone hasn't landed their balloon yet.
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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 ...
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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.
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Originally Posted by Lil4X;6655840A
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.
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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?
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?
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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?
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?
Last edited by JessePS; 09-04-11 at 01:27 PM.
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