Been there, done that. Once from San Diego to Portland, Maine (via New Orleans), and once from San Diego to Halifax, Nova Scotia (via Miami... but you could say via Washington DC {with an incidental detour to Miami} to keep it "all in the same general direction").
True. the tunnel itself is the easy part. Finding the money to build it probably less so. Building the railroad lines to access it will be far the most difficult. The Sieberial side terrain may be more difficult than the Alaskan side. Much of the approach is quite mountainous. On the US side getting past the EPA would literally require an act of Congress. Can anybody say "Pristine Wilderness"?
Serious question time: If the Russians decided that A) They have the money and B) It's in their interest to do this, then how much red tape would "Russia cuts the check" cut by avoiding NEPA requirements and the like? i.e. What would a private RR have to do to build a new line somewhere (since this is rather rarely discussed...almost all major new construction tends to be government-backed)?
Can you say "Keystone XL?" If no environmental act or agency can prevent a project as blatant and brazen as that then even the most egregious polluters obviously have nothing to fear whatsoever.
No, Alaska was sold because the Russian imperial government realized the Crimean War that it had no way to maintain control over Alaska, at least at a cost that was commensurate to its perceived low value. Sure, Russia had financial problems (when didn't it during the 19th century?), but the sale price of Alaska was not large enough to have any effect on Russia's financial situation.
Own a big day?
Who pays for it does not really matter. Soemtime look at the pains and delay that BNSF went through befoer they were allowed to build a second track through Abo Canyon.
Why convert? We can just use two separate consists or do what they do on the transiberian when they cross into another country and the gauges are different
There are through trains between France adn Spain and between Moscow and Beijing, and I am sure other places where a change of gauge is erquired at some point in the trip. Some are by changing wheelsets, some are by having wheelset where the wheels may be moved in or out along the axle.
Could you give me a link to some information on that? I'd be very interested. I only asked what I did because I know that adding government money complicates proposals with additional NEPA work.
Another point is that somewhere, you'd have to run the train through customs...so switching wheels could probably happen during that delay. You'd probably end up with a yard on each end of the tunnel to deal with customs stuff unless the two could cut some sort of deal to drop a customs office (and probably a consulate) on one side or the other.
No, you probably do a cross platform transfer from a US/standard gauge train to a Russian gauge train. You have to switch trains at some point so the train can get fully serviced.
A gauge switching through train is just nuts (even more than the tunnel proposal). So you would switch trains on the Alaska side to a special Bering Strait tunnel train and then move to a Trans-Siberian train to Moscow somewhere on the Russian side.Why would you want to start the train from Chicago? Start it from Seattle, with connection (guaranteed?If we use Chicago as the starting point for the ultimate LD train trip, the drive from Chicago to Fairbanks, AK is 3,470 miles. Fairbanks is as far as you can get on major roads. And Fairbanks is around 600 miles from the Bering Strait. After a journey of 4,000+ miles, the passenger cars will badly need to be cleaned and serviced. Don't even want to think what the restrooms might be like after 4,000 miles.
In simple terms the Keystone XL project is a pipeline link for transporting oil. It will be built by a foreign company in order to transport tar sands extract the entire width of the United States from the Canadian boarder all the way down to the Gulf of Mexico. In other words its primary purpose will be to facilitate and vastly expand the use of what is arguably the dirtiest and least efficient fuel source known to man. On a scale of "green" initiatives a project like this is pitch black.
Thanks for the info.
Ok, We'll start the LD train service to Russia in Seattle. But the route can't hug the coastline because of the terrain. A rail line to Alaska would likely follow the, in very general terms, the more inland route of the Alaska highway to Fairbanks. If the destination is the Bering Strait, Anchorage is way out of the way. Anchorage can be a southern spur on the Alaska railroad.Why would you want to start the train from Chicago? Start it from Seattle, with connection (guaranteed?) to the Empire Builder. I checked this on Google Earth, if you build a coast-hugging rail line, like the one Coast Starlight runs on, from Seattle to Anchorage (there is no need to go as up as Fairbanks) and further to the end of Alaska closest to Bering Strait, it will be 2100 miles. Next up a 66 mile jump across the Strait using a tunnel or bridge, and there you are, on mainland Russia!
I'd probably run a set of through cars attached to the Canadian and the Skeena, and then split the train off at Prince George. From there you've got the Prince George line (which would be a mess to run up the coast), or you can run the train up the old BC Rail/current CN line to Fort Nelson. At this point, you have to extend the track...follow the Alaska Highway (more or less) to Tok, and then you either go south to Anchorage/Wasilla or north to Fairbanks. Either option is going to offer some amazing scenery. You might nominally save some track laying by going to Anchorage (and the Alaskan government would probably prefer this because they could milk shipping fees off the Alaska RR), but Fairbanks is more direct. From there, you're off down the Tanana and Yukon rivers until you break to go to Nome and the bridge/tunnel. My guess is that you'd go a little bit south of an "air line" route and do your best to hug the coast (well, a little ways in to avoid erosion problems) and make sure to hit Nome (which would probably be where you'd base the American customs office, for sheer practicality reasons).Ok, We'll start the LD train service to Russia in Seattle. But the route can't hug the coastline because of the terrain. A rail line to Alaska would likely follow the, in very general terms, the more inland route of the Alaska highway to Fairbanks. If the destination is the Bering Strait, Anchorage is way out of the way. Anchorage can be a southern spur on the Alaska railroad.Why would you want to start the train from Chicago? Start it from Seattle, with connection (guaranteed?) to the Empire Builder. I checked this on Google Earth, if you build a coast-hugging rail line, like the one Coast Starlight runs on, from Seattle to Anchorage (there is no need to go as up as Fairbanks) and further to the end of Alaska closest to Bering Strait, it will be 2100 miles. Next up a 66 mile jump across the Strait using a tunnel or bridge, and there you are, on mainland Russia!
The driving distance from Seattle to Fairbanks is around 2150 miles, and you have another 600-800 miles (depends on how twisty the route would be) to the Bering Strait. So we are in the close to 3000 mile range from Seattle to the Bering Strait if a tunnel were to be built there. About as far as NYC to Seattle to put it into perspective. A 3 day train ride? 4 days given winding terrain? Would be one heck of a scenic trip in the summer though.
