Iconic Films

2 for 1 tickets to Singin' In The Rain, this coming Monday. Book now

Navigation - link to other main sections from here

From The Times

April 20, 2007

Russia plans $65bn tunnel to America

Tony Halpin in Moscow

Russia has unveiled an ambitious plan to build the world’s longest tunnel under the Bering Strait as part of a transport corridor linking Europe and America via Siberia and Alaska.

The 64-mile (103km) tunnel would connect the far east of Russia with Alaska, opening up the prospect of the ultimate rail trip across three quarters of the globe from London to New York. The link would be twice as long as the Channel Tunnel connecting Britain and France.

The $65 billion (£33 billion) mega-project aims to transform trade links between Russia and its former Cold War enemies across some of the world’s most desolate terrain. It would create a high-speed railway line, energy links and a fibreoptic cable network.

Proposals for a tunnel under the Bering Strait were first advanced a century ago under Tsar Nicholas II but foundered with the outbreak of the First World War and the Russian Revolution. The idea was revived after the collapse of the Soviet Union but was shelved once again in Russia’s financial meltdown of 1998.

Russian officials insist that the tunnel is an economic idea whose time has now come and that it could be ready within ten years. They argue that it would repay construction costs by stimulating up to 100 million tons of freight traffic each year, as well as supplying oil, gas and electricity from Siberia to the US and Canada.

Maxim Bystrov, deputy head of Russia’s agency for special economic zones, said: “This will be a business project, not a political one.” The tunnel across the international date-line would be built in three sections through two islands in the Bering Strait and would link 6,000km (3,728 miles) of new railway lines. The tunnel alone would cost an estimated $10-12 billion to construct.

The scheme is being championed by Viktor Razbegin, deputy head of industrial research at Russia’s Economic and Trade Development Ministry. He has long advocated a tunnel under the Bering Strait to provide a land route between Russia and the US, and published a feasibility study in the 1990s.

He told journalists that state and commercial companies would form a public-private partnership to fund and run the project. A conference in Moscow next week will propose an inter-governmental agreement with the US to underwrite construction of the transport link in return for a stake in the business.

Russian Railways is said to be examining the construction of a 3,500km route from Pravaya Lena, south of Yakutsk, to Uelen on the Bering Strait. The tunnel would connect this to a 2,000km line from Cape Prince of Wales, in West Alaska, to Fort Nelson, in Canada.

The project could save Siberia and the US $20 billion a year in electricity costs, according to Vasily Zubakin, deputy chief executive of Hydro, a subsidiary of Russia’s main electricity producer, Unified Energy Systems. The company plans to build two giant tidal plants in the Far East to supply tengiga-watts of electricity by 2020.

However, some of those said to be involved in the project appeared sceptical. Sergei Grigoryev, vice-president of the state oil pipeline monopoly Transneft, said: “I’ve never heard of this plan. We need to first develop fields in East Siberia.”

Others also questioned whether it made economic sense, pointing out that Alaska has large oil reserves of its own and that China’s huge market was closer and more lucrative.

The tunnel on the Russian side would start in the Chukotka region, governed by Roman Abramovich, the billionaire owner of Chelsea FC, who appears unlikely to plough his fortune into such a risky venture.

The Bering Strait ~ the global context

Russia’s proposals for a multi-modal transport and energy corridor between Eurasia and the Americas across the Bering Strait needs to be viewed in the global context (“Hopes for Bering Strait tunnel linking Russia and Alaska revived, IHT, Friday 20th April).
As the only British (or EU) delegate to attend the 24 April conference in Moscow at the Russian Academy of Sciences, I am able to report that geography lessons do not come much bigger.
The overall plan is now being termed the TKM-World Link, and is integral with Russian Railways recently announced strategy for 2016-2030 to reach out for Uelen on the Bering Strait with a rail corridor extending over 2,100 miles from Yakutsk via the Sea of Okhotsk to reach the Intercontinental Divide.
The world’s press is inclined to view the project as one big, inflexible scheme, which makes no sense of the reality: the North Pacific corridor is already the globe’s richest trade route. As such, the strategic locus for the overall Beringia scheme, and its many components, has global implications - tunnel or no tunnel – for energy and transport in the 21st century.
The Bering Strait is the world’s geographical crossroads.
The familiar maps of the Mercator projection inadvertently thrust the strait to the extremes of the chart. A Pacific-centred or global view reveals the 53-mile wide Bering Strait as the world’s geographical nexus: (N-S) between the Arctic Ocean and Pacific Ocean; and (E-W) Eurasia and the Americas. The strait, then, has the potential for: inter- and multi-modal overland crossings (the air corridor is already in place) and for the emergent northern seas routes, since the strait forms the confluence of the Northwest Passage (USA-Canada) and the Northern Sea Route (Norway-Russia. Exploitation of this potential has as much to do with the political software (a treaty or agreement is needed) as much as any grandiose engineering proposal to link the continents.
The governments of the USA and Canada, with their North Pacific allies, and the agencies of the UN and the EU, now need to find the courage or resolve to respond to Russia’s historic initiative.
The realisation of the “globe’s crossroads”, in an era of globalisation, is not something for Mother Russia to pursue alone.

Sincerely,
James A. Oliver
Author, The Bering Strait Crossing
http//www.beringstraitcrosssing.com

James Oliver, Exeter, UK

BUILD IT! Going from New York to London by train would be fun!

E James, New York, NY

"I thought that Alaska and Siberia were only 2 miles apart "
They are! (Well 2.5 miles). That is Diomede (Russia) and LIttle Diomede (US) Islands are. However both Islands are 30,20 miles from each mainland respectively. Also The Islands are seperated international date line. Brings new meaning to "Get it there yesterday".

raskle, Vancouver, B.C.

How do you safely tunnel thru the most active volcanic & earthquake area in the world.....good luck building it !
NOT to mention the enviromental impact on the area & the world !!!

C. Goronzy, Maple Creek, Sk. Canada

How long would it take to get from one end of the tunnel to the other? Seems faster and more convenient to fly really...

Louise, London,

I think it is a great idea, it would give a huge boost to the region, and not only trade wise but also as a tourist attraction -people always look for something new, and there are great things to see around there that's for sure. Definitely has to be funded by the private sector, and partially by the governments(from all sides). Looking forward finding out whether this project is really going to take off.

Nikolai , T, USA

Funny how erstwhile enemies build tunnels rather than bridges.

Kip, Bristol,

I think it would be profitable for USA, Canada, Russia, China and other countries of the region. And it's good idea for Russian Government how to spend our extra oil income. And I think we have some expirience in building huge tunnels in Siberia.But it's to hard to imagine our government will manage to construct it in next 10 years. I hope this idea will come true providing people and countries to do more, communicate better. I think, there is no doubt that this particular project has to be done sooner or later

Andrey P, Zelenograd, Russia

Um. Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it. When the channel tunnel was first mooted similar arguments were propounded: it would fully integrate Europe and create a "more perfect Union". Oh, yes? Bear in mind that the original shareholders have yet to get a return on their investment and competition from ferries and air transport has seriously hobbled the chunnel. By the by, when the tunnel reaches Siberia what exactly does one do?

Michael Phoenix, Arlington, Oregon, USA

Yeh, LH this is how brave americans are behind 2 ocean buffer zone. Let Russians worry about their environment and start worry about pollution in US, the largest pollutor on the planet. I think that its an ambitious project that can bring jobs and prosperity to east of Russia. I hop that is will happen and I will be able to see it for myself.

Oleg, Toronto, Canada

This idea was explored years ago, I believe that it was in either Popular Science or Popular Mechanics, but by building a bridge. Could this be a union like that resembling the European Union (EU)? With South/North America and Russia forming a stronger Union than that of the EU.
Interesting, what the future may hold. Since this Union has more available resources than the EU. It could also provide a conduit to China Mainland who would also benefit from this transportation connection. It would open up rail traffic to freight and high speed passenger systems.
The Bridge concept had problems with weather related construction and upkeep. The tunnel would eliminate those. Just don’t get any companies who are currently involved in the Boston "Big Dig" project to build it.
I would like to see it completed in my lifetime, if this idea goes forward.
Tony D, USA

Tony D, Pahrump, NV

need any help the British are great at building tunnels
and bridges and we need the jobs because our
goverment hasn't got any great ideas.

george william taylor, hull, uk

This is a prime example how the world is getting smaller. This is quite a good investment in the economic sector of the nations. With this tunnel relationships bewten the two countries will become closer. Will this tunnel finally settle USA and Russia or will this fuel another conflict?

daniel, Sunderland , England

I'm not sure why the article casts this in terms of energy. One of the biggest limiting factors for oil exports from Russia to China at the moment is the fact that they nearly all go by rail.

Still, it would give all those hunting enthusiasts an opportunity to visit Russia and wipe out the Amur tiger. What red blooded redneck could resist a challenge like that?

Ian Kemmish, Biggleswade, UK

Hmm, maybe time to buy some land in Fort Nelson.

Geoff Collier, Kamloops, Canada / BC

Has this Russian guy ever been out here? The tunnel across the Bering Straits would be difficult to build, buty it would be the easiest part. We're pretty remote out here. Building a rail link from Western Alaska to Canada would be a huge undertaking, building across frozen tundra at a time that the tundra is thawing. And it's the same situtation on the Siberian side. This project should be put on the back burner for a couple hundred years, at least. There are reasons why we have airplanes. Alaska and Siberia are two of them.

James Mason
Alaska

James Mason, Kotzebue, Alaska, USA

A very sh..sh..sh..shaky idea - don't they realise how seismically active this area is?

A geoloigist, Aberdeen, Scotland

It sounds like a brilliant idea. I wonder how much it would save in shipping costs. When did we Americans begin to start thinking so small. I mean just a little while ago we stole Panama from Columbia and built the Panama canal. It also would make us less dependent on Middle Eastern oil. My grandfather worked on the railroad and our family has always had the deepest romance with that form of travel. I am so delighted to be able to take the trolley everyday. I would just love to buy a ticket here in San Diego and ride the train to London! Right now my sister lives in Taiwan. My parents are older and the long transpacific flight isn't good for them. Imagine being able to take the train most of the way and then just a short flight to the Island (That is if China and Taiwan can ever get over that whole civil war unplesantness.).

Charlie Marques, San Diego/Tijuana, CA

Oh yippee, not only millions of illegals from Mexico and Latin America coming into the US but millions of Chinese too, if this scheme was ever put in place. More likely it's a scam to get money from gullible investors.

wc mccall, USA,

Oh, great, let's have a northern tunnel....maybe it can do for the average American worker what NAFTA and the open southern border has already done to great effect: destroy American jobs.

CS, Michigan, USA

this is another typical russian idea that ranks up there with having the world's biggest bell (that doesn't work), cannon (which never was fired) and now the biggest and longest man made hole in the ground...never short of amibition, the russian should sort out building a few decent airports in moscow and st petersburg first..leave siberia until the 22nd and 23rd century...

mick, dublin,

"The added freight going both ways would require a more developed infrastructure on both sides - support personnel requiring housing, places to purchase goods and services, businesses to enhance the quality of their life". and "And for human convenience, small towns should develop along the routes". This is exactly what I was talking about, developing some of the last pristine areas of the US for the sake of tourists not just freight. This is being touted and trumpeted in other news places as "the ultimate train trip" because it will hook up with the Orient Express and then other trains in Europe. So, yes there WILL be passengers. Russia's past in regards to their polluting of rivers, lakes and generally raping the land isn't too exciting either, and there is still that whole problem of all of Russia's suburbs that end in "stan", like Uzbekistan, who last I heard were exporting terrorists to Al Qaeda. No, I want my northern border left intact.

LH , Mesa, USA

From where I sit I would say it looks like a sand castle. I'd rather agree with Sergey Grigoryev: there is much to develop in the country itself, Siberia by no means. The article gave me a strong feeling that the author of the project who ever he could be is just trying to fulfil his childish dream .

Olga, Ufa, Russia

Next it will be a rail link from Quebec to Baffin Island, to Greenland, to Iceland, to Britain. Then we have a round-the-world trip!

Greg, Victoria, BC, Canada

A couple of the questions that need to be answered is whether the vast amount of goods that traverse the Pacific to and from North America via boat could be transported more cheaply via rail and would new rail lines have the capacity? The Chunnel goods traffic versus Channel boat transport might answer that question to some degree. If not then a Bering Strait tunnel would hardle pay for itself, though the idea is intriguing. After all, people will still travel by air so it would be almost exclusively goods traffic.

H. Stevens, Newtown, Pennsylvania, USA

I hope this idea will not materialize during my and my kids' lifetime. Because in case it does, we all, can kiss goodbye two of the last and most beautiful wild places in the world. Farewell wild life and serene scenery, welcome waste of modern civilization!

CP, Vancouver,

I have often wondered whether such a rail line would be possible and used atlases and goggle earth to explore the best routes, to and from the Baring Straits crossing.. Climate would be the greatest obstacle.
In the process I also noticed the short stretch of sea (7km) between Lazarev on the Russian mainland and Pogibi on the island of Sakhalin, followed by a 42 km stretch of sea across the La Perouse Strait to the Japanese island of Hokkaido. The 53.85km Seikan tunnel (23.35km under water) already links Hokkaido to main Japanese island of Honshu.
All the worlds major economies and 5 of the worlds continents linked by rail. Pity about us Aussies down under though.
It may happen one day, not in my lifetime but maybe in yours.

A Cox, Melbourne, Australia

I thought that Alaska and Siberia were only 2 miles apart at the closest point, so why not build a suspension bridge - it will be much cheaper!

Chris, Aylesbury, England

Well, if the Brits and French can bury their mutual suspicion enough to get the Channel Tunnel done, I guess the Yanks & Ruskies can do it too.

It might be interesting - Wild East meets Wild West. When they link up in the middle, will they toast with beer or vodka, I wonder?

Ben Hoff, NJ, USA

This is a great idea. Just don't waste my money.

goodguy, new york, ny

Yes, the least populated area of the US to the least populated area of Russia. Yes. However, Customs would be required on both sides. The added freight going both ways would require a more developed infrastructure on both sides - support personnel requiring housing, places to purchase goods and services, businesses to enhance the quality of their life. I am not completely convinced that this thing is going to happen, but if it does - there will be many people that would love to take advantage of the opportunities that will accompany it. We are not talking about a tunnel from the Florida Keys to a popular Carribean island here - so OK. People are not going to flock to Alaska or Siberia. But these areas and the opportunity to traverse that tunnel across the international date line WOULD have a certain appeal.

unclpaul, Hibbing, MN

The tunnel is a great idea. The Eurotunnel between france and the Uk is similar. As for population, well, does freight really care about how it gets to its destination? Freight is business, not a pleasure cruise. And for human convenience, small towns should develop along the routes. Railways don't take up any more space than a motorway. The tourism idea of travelling 3/4 of the way around the world on a train should sell and add positively to the economics of the tunnel. I say that the tunnel should go ahead.

Greg Haynes, Kettering, UK

This is an old story that usually attracts ridicule and admiration in equal measure.

The scheme was first proposed in the 1840s by William Gilpin. In 1905, the project to link East and West was actually attempted by a US-Franco consortium. That particular year, though, was not a good time for such an endeavour.

A century later, I was asked - by George Koumal, the modern exponent of the scheme - to investigate the subject of an intercontinental link across the Bering Strait.

As geography lessons go, these do not come much bigger, and resulted in my own modest endeavour titled "The Bering Strait Crossing" http://www.beringstraitcrossing.com

The complexity of the subject is enough to challenge - North by North West - sanity itself.

I submit this to The Times from Kensington Library - since I am presently on my way to Moscow to discuss project at the Russian Acamdemy of Sciences.

A postscript to this message therefore seems likely.

Regards,

James Oliver

James Oliver, Exeter, UK

Hogwash, pure and simple

Cobion, Vancouver, Canada

Ok, nice idea in theory. We'd be able to take a train from the tip of Alaska to the tip of Siberia. Scenery galore and travel to new and exotic places! However, that tunnel would go to the least populated part of the US to the least populated part of Russia. They are the least populated for a reason. People move to Alaska to get away from civilization and go to one of the last wild places in the US. Bringing that civilization and all it's attendant messes will go over real well, just look at the whole pipeline fiasco.There isn't much civilization on the Siberian side either, but that all could be overcome like the Harvey houses took care of travelers in the old westward expansion phase of the US. Nature lovers and environmentalists will go nuts just watching Russia cut up and pollute wonderful outposts of nature on their side. Now, how do we check the baggage of all the jihadi extremists that live over that way in Russia? Personally, I kinda like my 2 ocean buffer zone.

L H, Mesa, USA