The Trans Siberian Railway

The Trans Siberian Railway

The 4607 mile long Trans Siberian Railway is the longest railway in the world. It runs across Siberia, a vast Asian part of Russia, from Chelyabinsk in the Ural Mountains to Vladivostok on the Pacific coast. Although studies of projects of the railway date from the mid 19^th century, its construction actually began in the Czarist regime in 1891 and it was opened for use in 1905. The construction of the railroad encountered enormous problems including wide rivers, steep grades around Lake Baikal, permafrost in Eastern Siberia, extremes of temperature and political turmoil .But all obstacles yielded to human endeavour. Thirty eight tunnels were cut through the mountains along the shores of Lake Baikal and the all Russian route, which was completed by 1917, covered a total distance of 5973 miles from Leningrad to Vladivostok. Modernisation of the railway followed in the 1930s. It was originally a single track but a second track was laid later and electrification was undertaken soon after. This vast railway was a major element in the settlement of Siberia at the turn of the 20^th century. It is a vital artery linking outlying Siberian industrial regions and mining centres with the core economic area of European Russia.