BBC: Could a Russia-US rail tunnel be built?

[pampango]

Russian officials have backed the idea of a rail tunnel linking Russia and the US.

It would run under the Bering Strait for 105km (65 miles) - twice the length of the UK-France Channel Tunnel.

The tunnel itself has been estimated to cost $10-12bn and to take 10-15 years to build.

But an additional 4,000km (2,485 miles) of new track would be needed to link it to Russia's rail network, plus another 2,000km (1,243 miles) to connect to existing services on the US side.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-15387714

It will never happen, but I didn't know anyone was even giving this any thought.

[BulletproofLandshark]

1. Seems like more trouble than it's worth.

Is there really THAT much of a demand to travel between here and Russia along the Bering Strait?

[itsrobert]

2. Travel? It's about shipping freight

It would have to be double rail to be worthwhile.

[Kolesar]

3. The warm Arctic Ocean is allowing the opening of the Northwest Passage. Barge and ship traffic ...

...can do this.
I don't like the idea.

[jakeXT]

4. I always thought it was a waste of money, because of plate tectonis, but they are on the same plate

Larouche claims to be peddling this for a long time

In June 2001, Zepp-LaRouche spoke before the Russian State Duma hearings on Measures to Ensure the Development of Russia's Economy under Conditions of Global Financial Destabilization. Her theme was the assertion that Dr. Wilhelm Lautenbach's program for productive employment, had it been adopted in 1931, could have ended the depression and prevented the Nazis' rise to power, and that the adoption of her husband's Eurasian Land-Bridge proposal today can avert a similar disaster. Zepp-LaRouche's presentation was later published in 2007 in the Russian magazine Forum International, in an issue devoted to the “Megaprojects of Russia’s East” conference on the Bering Strait crossing.<13>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helga_Zepp-LaRouche

You could do this with a FDR type president, with a McCain one certainly not
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x2165498

[piratefish08]

5. seriously? we can't keep fucking bridges from falling in rivers.

let's fix what we have first.

[FarCenter]

6. Talk about your "tunnel to nowhere".

[madinmaryland]

17. That's what I thought. Why not just take a ferry is if is so important to get there

with your vehicle. If it's winter up there, you wouldn't be driving anyway. What an absurd idea.

[liberal N proud]

7. We can't get rail in this country

What makes anyone think we would build one to somewhere else.

And who wants to go to/from Alaska to Siberia? Sarah could really say that she saw Russia from her house.

[Marnie]

8. Earthquakes?

[Octafish]

9. Long a dream of Rev Moon...

http://uts.edu/Journals/volume-xi-2010t/370-the-bering-strait-and-korea-japan-tunnel-projects-a-strategic-planning-model-.html

(W)hen a road is built it changes the course of history. When the International Peace Highway is completed, the world can be physically bound together as one. The road will make it so. -- Sun Myung Moon, As a Peace-Loving Global Citizen (2009)

[Odin2005]

10. I think it's an awesome idea.

[apocalypsehow]

11. I would support it just for the jobs it would create. Got a lot of infrastructure to fix in this

country, though, so it'd be a hard sell. And I can understand that side of the issue, too.

[Johnyawl]

12. An engineers wet dream...

...there is absolutely no need for this.

[Ikonoklast]

13. What a great idea!

FOR ME TO POOP ON!

[AverageJoe90]

14. Would probably really lighten up US-Russia relations..........I'd support it.

[Motown_Johnny]

15. Bleh.... just run across the arctic ice cap to the... oh wait..... nevermind

[War Horse]

16. It probably could

But two countries w/ infrastructure that needs serious attention...

Somehow I don't think a "Chunnel 2" is the solution :)