A REALLY LONG tunnel
CNN posted a story today about another proposal to link Russia to Alaska.
The idea is an interesting one. "Eventually, 3 percent of the world's cargo could move along the route, organizers hope," it says. That's a lot of cargo. A purely surface transit method for shipping all of that Asian cargo that does not involve huge container ships should be attractive to shippers. China and the United States both use the same rail gauge (1435mm), which means cars that run in China can theoretically run in the US.
Unfortunately, Russia has to be difficult. Russia uses a 1520mm gauge. Shipping between the two gauge systems requires cars to undergo a 'break of gauge', which means each car's bogies are changed out for bogies for the new gauge. Talgo has a system that permits axles to change their gauges, but it is not widely used. Which gauge to build the railroad on will be a source of debate, as Russia, China, and the US all have their own interests in not having to change the gauge of their rail. The best rail efficiencies can be found by having an end-to-end network on the same gauge. Unfortunately, doing anything in Russia now requires pandering to national interests which may force the break-of-gauge to occur if the project is to go anywhere.
Considering the volume of shipping from Asia to the North American markets, it would make sense for that tunnel line to have several to many different tracks. This, of course, increases the width needed. Add in the proposal to run fibreoptic and natural gas pipelines along this route and you have a whonking big tube under the ocean.
68 miles long, more than twice the length of the Chunnel.
This is mega-engineering. Paying for it will be a battle for the generations. I don't think it'll happen, but it still is a nice idea.
The idea is an interesting one. "Eventually, 3 percent of the world's cargo could move along the route, organizers hope," it says. That's a lot of cargo. A purely surface transit method for shipping all of that Asian cargo that does not involve huge container ships should be attractive to shippers. China and the United States both use the same rail gauge (1435mm), which means cars that run in China can theoretically run in the US.
Unfortunately, Russia has to be difficult. Russia uses a 1520mm gauge. Shipping between the two gauge systems requires cars to undergo a 'break of gauge', which means each car's bogies are changed out for bogies for the new gauge. Talgo has a system that permits axles to change their gauges, but it is not widely used. Which gauge to build the railroad on will be a source of debate, as Russia, China, and the US all have their own interests in not having to change the gauge of their rail. The best rail efficiencies can be found by having an end-to-end network on the same gauge. Unfortunately, doing anything in Russia now requires pandering to national interests which may force the break-of-gauge to occur if the project is to go anywhere.
Considering the volume of shipping from Asia to the North American markets, it would make sense for that tunnel line to have several to many different tracks. This, of course, increases the width needed. Add in the proposal to run fibreoptic and natural gas pipelines along this route and you have a whonking big tube under the ocean.
68 miles long, more than twice the length of the Chunnel.
This is mega-engineering. Paying for it will be a battle for the generations. I don't think it'll happen, but it still is a nice idea.
posted by Corwin at 4:07 PM
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