Here is a link to how Chinese engineers built the Beijing - Lasa high altitude low temperature railroad. They probably believe that many of the lessons learned there can be applied to this proposed RR. Looking at the locations in USA and Canada that have same problems maybe some could be applied here ? MC ?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yo7FBo4mLgU
Dave
Lackawanna Route of the Phoebe Snow
A tunnel under the Bering strait? I remember reading a Superman comic where he built a highway bridge across the Atlantic complete with motels and gas stations so I guess anything is possible. That was back in the sixties and I've been to the New York World's Fair and I'm STILL waiting for my own hovercar!
schlimm Phoebe VetRemember when we called them "corporate raiders" and they were bad guys? Now we call them "venture capitalists" and they are heroes. As long as we worship at the alter of commerce without conscience in pursuit of every last nickel possible, we will live fiscal quarter to fiscal quarter. Many (not all) of the latter are simply playing at casino capitalism, not really investing in the long term, ongoing businesses that serve a useful function.
Phoebe VetRemember when we called them "corporate raiders" and they were bad guys? Now we call them "venture capitalists" and they are heroes. As long as we worship at the alter of commerce without conscience in pursuit of every last nickel possible, we will live fiscal quarter to fiscal quarter.
Johnny
RIDEWITHMEHENRY is the name for our almost monthly day of riding trains and transit in either the NYCity or Philadelphia areas including all commuter lines, Amtrak, subways, light rail and trolleys, bus and ferries when warranted. No fees, just let us know you want to join the ride and pay your fares. Ask to be on our email list or find us on FB as RIDEWITHMEHENRY (all caps) to get descriptions of each outing.
C&NW, CA&E, MILW, CGW and IC fan
Narig01 I agree with you re China's long range thinking. Our problems is that our CEOs have to dance to the Wall Street slugs. Wall Street wants instant gratification. If the next quarter is not good Wall Street calls for his canning. Due to this CEOs make decisions to make the current quarter report look good to please Wall Street even if these decisions will damage the country 5-10 years in the future. If C P Huntington had to dance to Wall Street we would never have trains to the west coast. When are we going to wake up and make decisions for the long term of the company rather than the street? Too many of the street people are like the Wolf of Wall Street. ( In all fairness I have significant investment in the street.)
A quick look at a map yielded the following:
The part of Asia that is of economic interest to shippers is, basically, industrial China. The Japanese home islands are isolated from the mainland, and South Korea is isolated by North Korea. Eastern Siberia isn't exactly a hotbed of commercial activity.
The part of Alaska that has enough development to need significant transportation is at the opposite end of the state from the approaches to a Bering Strait crossing.
I won't say that there will never be a connection between extreme northeast Asia and extreme northwest North America - but I will say (once again) that we'll be mining asteroids and launching interstellar probes before it's ever built.
Chuck
The technology is there to build the line from China to the lower 48. What is missing is the financing. Will there be sufficient revenue to ammortise the huge investment in the project? I think that ifit is ever built it must mostly funded by government.
It would never happen. Look at all the studies to connect Alaska with the lower 48. And 220 mph! Give me a break. Of course if China wants to build it we could be getting some of our money back.
It's still a pretty far-fetched idea, but one that has definitely moved a lot closer to practicality in the half-century since i began to follow the rail industry.
One of the few contributions made to human progress by the mistake that came to be called the Soviet Union was an increased ability to sustain economic activity in extremely cold climates; and I don't have much doubt that tunneling technology which has already conquered the Tsugaru (Hokkaido) Strait and the English Channel would (eventually) be able to take on the Bering Strait as well,
The question is: Will the markets ever generate enough potential commerce to justify the investment?
Something on he order of 80% of the world's population lives in the Old World, and a similar, though less-pronounced disparity exists between the temperate vs. tropical climates, Yet large portions of what has been described as "the empty quarter" are capable of agriculture, and the possibility of turning to the sea for more of our food has not been ruled out. And the efforts to defuse the "population bomb" continue to slowly gain ground.
So if these trends are linked to a continued spread of true parliamentary pluralism (i'll leave it to others here to decide whether the current folly of infatuation with Big Brother/Sister in the U S and parts of Europe will burn itself out) -- it becomes a possibility that global "mega-markets" for both consumer goods and the extracted feedstocks to produce them could evolve. At that point, the question merely becomes one of the relative efficiency of land vs. water transport.
But it also has to be recognized that even a respected trade publication, which ought to be the first to grasp and emphasize the disparity between workaday railroading and the dreams fed to the public by Hollywood, its Madison Avenue shills and allies, and that mostly-young, female and impressionable segment of the public which doesn't care to look too deeply when technical and economic realities are introduced, made the mistake of labeling this idea as "High Speed Rail".
As with the ongoing controversy over climate change (which is real and worthy of slow, careful, and not-that-expensive study), vs. the media circus about "global warming" (clearly linked to a push toward an expanded environmental bureaucracy which might not even be able to agree on a plan of "action") we need to separate more of the fantasy from the feasible.
The Chunnel could have been built in the 1960's, however, there were both political and military reasons it was not. One of the reasons the Chunnel was finally built was because the Red Army wasn't a threat to slam through the Fulda Gap like it might have in the 1960's. This proposed tunnel will never be built because the United States and China still see each other as a military threat.
Also just what would you ship? I see that large all cargo aircraft could be developed to ship high value cargo between the two countries and certainly container ships could continue to handle cargo they now presently carry at a fraction of the cost of building this railroad. This railroad would have to make economic sense first before any construction could begin; I just don't see it either way.
Murphy Sidinghenry6dehusman Pretty soon somebody will propose the fool idea of putting a tunnel under the English Channel. Or land a man on the moon. Assuming they did land on the moon.
henry6dehusman Pretty soon somebody will propose the fool idea of putting a tunnel under the English Channel. Or land a man on the moon.
dehusman Pretty soon somebody will propose the fool idea of putting a tunnel under the English Channel.
Pretty soon somebody will propose the fool idea of putting a tunnel under the English Channel.
Thanks to Chris / CopCarSS for my avatar.
dehusmanPretty soon somebody will propose the fool idea of putting a tunnel under the English Channel.
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
ndbprrWatch Deadliest Catch on the Discovery channel one time and then tell me how they will accurately lower tunnel sections and allign them and how divers will survive in 30 degree water.
Robots. Robots, or men remotely opperating powersuits, will do it.
It IS the Twenty First Century!
The future looks bright On that train all graphite and glitter Undersea by rail Ninety minutes from New York to Paris Well by seventy-six we'll be A.O.K.
http://www.sing365.com/music/Lyric.nsf/I-G-Y-lyrics-Steely-Dan/1F736A8B746A954B48256D49000F82CD
We had a thread on this about two and a half months ago. You'll find it here.
46 miles of open ocean and many miles of tundra to cross. Doubtful that it will be economically feasible..
Norm
I'm going to hedge my bets. This WILL happen (in about 500 years from now).
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