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| Re: Bering Strait Rail Tunnel (832276) | |||
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Re: Bering Strait Rail Tunnel |
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Posted by WillD on Fri Sep 11 23:42:58 2009, in response to Re: Bering Strait Rail Tunnel, posted by Hank Eisenstein on Fri Sep 11 16:02:19 2009. But that containerized freight is entirely dependent upon oil. Thus if oil prices rise it may reach a point where the investment in the tunnel makes economic sense relative to continuing to operate container ships. A rail line could of course use electric trains from nuclear or coal powerplants. Admittedly the ships could also convert to the same power sources, but as mobile sources they'd be much harder to regulate.IMHO the major problem would be the break of gauge. It is virtually impossible to expect the Russians to fully convert to standard gauge, but I would not rule out the potential for building one or two standard gauge lines from the tunnel to China so as to eliminate the gauge change. Yakutsk may make a good location for a central marshalling point, perhaps with just standard gauge tracks running east to the tunnel and Alaska, standard and broad gauge tracks running south to China and Vladivostok, and broad gauge tracks running southwest to the Trans Siberian Railway. Transloading would not make much sense since it'd create the same labor and in-shipment downtime that is present in containerized shipping. Similarly some rolling stock, such as the double stack cars that are used in the US, Canada, and Mexico would prove extremely difficult to change gauges due to the lack of space for trucks to be removed. |
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