Alaska - Russia Railroad Link vis Bearing Straight

[Bernd]

I mentioned this subject back in September 2025 on MRH. It was poop-pooed as impossible to do. This is a project that was talked about way back in history.

I said on MRH:

Looks like the Bearing Straight crossing by bridge or tunnel has been talked about quite a bit.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bering_Strait_crossing

Putin's envoy boasts of plans to sign agreement with US on Chukotka-Alaska tunnel

https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2026/06/04/8037791/index.amp?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
 
Looks like Elon Musk will be involved. The signing happens today.

Aught to make for some interesting conversion.

Bernd

[deemery]

This would not be cheap, but the benefit is unclear.  Do we really think that Russian raw materials are sufficiently valuable to cover the costs (construction and operating costs)?  That would include not just the crossing of the Straits, but the tracks across Alaska and Siberia.   (I'm ignoring right now the political dimensions of any agreement with Russia.)

dave

[PRR Modeler]

James interesting project.

[Zephyrus52246]

Interesting reading.  With the poor weather in the area and ice floes I doubt bridges would be used.  With the major earthquake fault lines there I doubt bridges nor tunnels would work.  And the political issues seem to make this an odd time for both sides to be talking about this.   

Jeff

[Bernd]

James interesting project.

Who?

Bernd

[Bernd]

With the major earthquake fault lines there I doubt bridges nor tunnels would work. 

Jeff

Interesting question. I looked it up. Seems like they don't happen on the surface but anywhere from 7km to 127km below the surface. I don't think the tunnel would be that deep.

Source:
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_earthquakes_in_Alaska

Bernd

[deemery]

With the major earthquake fault lines there I doubt bridges nor tunnels would work. 

Jeff

Interesting question. I looked it up. Seems like they don't happen on the surface but anywhere from 7km to 127km below the surface. I don't think the tunnel would be that deep.

Source:
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_earthquakes_in_Alaska

Bernd

7km is -shallow- for an earthquake.  There'd definitely be displacement.  

The massive 1964 earthquake was Magnitude 9.2, 25km deep: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1964_Alaska_earthquake

Here's a list of earthquakes, showing location and depth.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_earthquakes_in_Alaska

dave

[jbvb]

Given enough thrust, pigs fly just fine.  But I can't see this as anything more than a con.

Without any consideration for topography, Russia would need maybe 2,500 miles of new RR to reach its shore of the Bering Strait.  Our shore of the Strait is about 600 air-line miles from the Alaska RR. Then about 500 miles from Anchorage to Whitehorse, Yukon, plus maybe 300 miles to Dease Lake, BC. Which is the end of a 300 mile Pacific Great Eastern extension that was graded in the '60s but never put into operation.  So at least 1,700 miles of new track on our side for 4,200 or more total.  And it doesn't serve Juneau, AK.

Then we get to the tunnel.  The Japanese Seikan Tunnel is almost as long. It took 13 years to build and cost $7B in 1988. But it was through rock, maybe laying tubes in trenches in the seabed would be cheaper.  Then the power plant, because a tunnel that long just doesn't work with diesels. Then all the RR infrastructure: car shops, MoW bases, refueling points, towns for employees to live in etc etc etc.

[deemery]

A bit of geology history on ocean mapping:  https://marietharp.ldeo.columbia.edu/about-marie-tharp  

dave

[Bernd]

Should have done the "72-hour rule". Asked AI if an agreement was signed on June 5. AI couldn't find any activity that the US was involved in such a signing. Did some further research and found that Trump had once mentioned that it was an interesting subject.

Time to sit back and see what develops and apply the 72-hour rule.

Bernd

[jbvb]

No worry, Bernd. I enjoyed digging through Open Railway Map and Wikipedia to confirm my memories of a 1960s Trains Magazine article about the PGE.  Kinda wish BCRy were still operating all the resource exploitation lines the PGE built during BC government ownership, but it seems the resources went the way of Colorado's silver and gold veins.

[deemery]

I think BC Rail is abandoning the line north of Squamish up to Whistler.  That's a real shame!  I'm sure it's expensive trackage to maintain.  When we lived in Vancouver, the drive to Whistler was one of our highlights.  Rocky Mountain Rail Tours runs an excursion over that line, with a small break using busses north of Whistler, to continue to Quesnel and then to Jasper.  Any of the Rocky Mountain trips in BC would be a bucket list trip for me.

dave