Russian Railways: News

Arkanghelsk wrote:
President Vladimir Putin on Friday instructed Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin to speed up plans for a brand new rail link to the ice-free Barents Sea in the Russian Arctic.

The short order posted on the Kremlin’s portal calls on the Government to “submit proposals for the creation of a railway route to the Barents Sea in the area of the bay of the Indiga River.”

Deadline for the proposal is set to May 10, 2022.

Thanks to FP's December post we all know where the Indiga River is and how the railway is likely to get there.

Now not just an important link but now a Putin Strategic Link.

For reference

This is the Russian electric train that Argentina will receive, 21.01.2022.




Thanks to advanced technologies, the train can reach a speed of 160 kilometers per hour and change direction in just 1-2 minutes.

The company Transmashholding, one of the leading Russian manufacturers of rolling stock for rail transport, has won the tender for electric trains from the Government of Argentina for a total value of more than 864 million dollars. 

As part of this competition, the Russian company will supply the Latin American country with 70 electric trains of the Ivolga series, covering 560 wagons. According to Transmashholding, throughout several stages, the Argentine authorities not only evaluated the technical and economic parameters, but also tried to ensure that the chosen model meets the expectations of the passengers. "In total, the process of choosing the provider lasted more than 3 years," they said.

Yandex Translate from Spanish

https://actualidad.rt.com/actualidad/417573-pais-america-latina-tener-trenes-electricos-rusos

Containers are dear to us everywhere

Russia wants to quadruple their Transit

...
Russian Railways plans to quadruple the volume of container transit over five years, to 4 million tons TEU in 2027. Market participants agree that Russia has such a potential, but not everyone considers it possible to realize it so quickly. Problems remain the lack of bandwidth infrastructure, terminals, as well as inconsistency in the work of railway administrations. According to analysts, to reach 4 million TEU, it will be necessary to attract additional capacities of the Trans-Siberian Railway, which will affect the interests of coal exporters.

Full article
https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/5183632?from=top_main_2

Kommersant is still spreading its anti-Russian BS. "Inconsistent work of administrators" must mean failure of the "Putin regime"
and the need for the crowning of Navalny. These Bereskovsky rotted clowns should take a look at Canada and the USA for an
example of administrative incompetence. F*cktarded vax mandates leading to empty shops shelves and massive disruption in
construction. Somehow Russia is not paralyzed in this manner.

https://zen-yandex-ru.translate.goog/media/sdelanounas.ru/sahalin-izbavilsia-ot-sledov-iaponskoi-okkupacii-rossiia-sdelala-to-chto-sssr-ne-smog-61b2474fc69745566cf7135e?&&_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-GB

Sakhalin got rid of the traces of the Japanese occupation. Russia did what the USSR could not
December 10, 2021
251k read

Sakhalin, even in the 21st century, was cut by the "legacy" of the Japanese occupation like scars on the body. These scars could be seen on any map. These were the railways with which the Japanese entangled Sakhalin, while the southern part of the island was under their control.
Damn bridge. Author of the photo: Sergey Dolya.

Actually, of course, railroads are good. And for their construction, the Japanese could be thanked, especially since they really built them in good conscience, and a number of objects - bridges and tunnels, still amaze with their beauty.

If not for one "but". All railways were built with the Japanese standard gauge - 1067 mm.

When South Sakhalin, as a result of the successful military operation of the Soviet troops, carried out on August 11-25, 1945, returned to the control of the USSR, it turned out that something had to be done with the railways. Of course, almost immediately it became obvious that the railways would have to be completely redone, under the Soviet gauge of 1524 mm (later 1520 mm).

I have alreadyhe wrote in great detail and fascinatingly about how Russia since 2003 has done what the USSR was even afraid to touch. We completely changed all the tracks on the island to the Russian standard 1520 mm. It was a gigantic job, it was necessary to essentially rebuild 800 km of railways, and without stopping the movement of trains on the island. It was truly a titanic work. Be sure to read myarticle , it's worth it.

But at that time, although all the main railways were rebuilt, there remained a small, only 7 km long section, which the locals called "dacha", from Chekhov through Kholmsk to the Nikolaychuk station. A diesel train went there - drove summer residents. And then we decided to first wait until the end of the summer season, then finish this section. On September 30, 2020, the last trip was made by a “narrow-gauge” suburban train, the locomotive of which will become an exhibit of the Museum of Railway Engineering.

I am amazed at the modesty of RZD. I have to do their work, because last year, before the spring of this year, this section was changed to 1520 mm gauge, and the traces of the Japanese occupation were completely finished. And about this epoch-making event in the Russian Railways, they took water in their mouths.

Moreover, the work was done not only on laying the tracks to the Nikolaychuk station - the route was extended by one stopping point - closer to the Devil's Bridge.
Photo by IA "Citysakh.ru" with reference to the press service of the Far Eastern Railway

The Devil's Bridge is a very popular tourist attraction. It is located on the half-dismantled Nikolaychuk-Kamyshevo-Sakhalinskoye railway line and was built by the Japanese in 1928. The most beautiful object. Two tunnels and two high bridges, located in picturesque mountain valleys, are popular tourist sites.
Photo: press service of the Far Eastern Railway - a branch of JSC "Russian Railways"

In 1994, traffic on the bridge was closed due to the closure of the stage. In the 1990s, the Sakhalin railways experienced, to put it mildly, not the best of times, and many sections were closed and dismantled. Fortunately, the Devil's Bridge is currently maintained in good condition.

By the way, now summer residents will get to their plots on the handsome train RA3 "Orlan" produced by the Mytishchi plant "Metrovagonmash".
Photo: sovsakh.ru

Compare with what you had to ride before. Japanese train D2, manufactured by Fuji Heavy Industries LTD. But this is no longer a fragment of the occupation, the USSR continued to buy diesel trains in Japan, instead of altering the railway. This train D2-007 was bought in 1986.
Author of the photo: Sergey msv1974, https://trainpix.org

In general, it turned out symbolically - Russia replaced the Japanese gauge, while the last site of work was the station directly in front of the most famous and most beautiful bridge built by the Japanese. As a reminder of the past, and that it was Russia that managed to put an end to it.

The link takes you to a translated version of the article, so if you have the time please visit the article by the link above and give it a like too... I am sure they would appreciate it.

I did not bother to copy across the photos so visiting the link will show you the old lines and trains and the new trains being used.

Important news, especially in view of present situation.

https://www.gudok.ru/news/?ID=1615456


Heavyweight trains started transporting goods on BAM

Russian Railways has successfully completed experimental dispatches of trains weighing up to 14,200 tons and switched to their mass use.

Before the start of the first stage of modernization of the Eastern Landfill, trains with a mass of no more than 6,300 tons followed the BAM. During the implementation of the first stage, the movement of heavy trains weighing 7,100 tons was organized. By 2022, driving heavy coal trains has become the new norm on the Trans-Siberian Railway and BAM. In the first half of the year alone, more than 8 thousand of them followed . This allowed an additional 1.8 million tons of cargo to be exported.

The increase in the length and mass of the trains makes it possible to maximize the use of the resources of the Eastern Polygon, in addition to the capacities that are growing due to construction.

And over the past two weeks, railway workers have sent 11 trains weighing 14,200 tons and 14 trains weighing 13,400 tons on the Irradiation — Khabarovsk section. Six trains weighing 14,200 tons and nine trains weighing 13,400 tons were sent on the Taishet— Irkutsk section.

Every day, about 30 double trains of weights from 12.5 to 14.2 thousand tons follow the network of JSC "Russian Railways" to the east.

The technology of twin trains requires the presence of a mainline freight traction capable of pulling a train of such length and weight, and the appropriate infrastructure for both sending and receiving trains of such length.

By the end of 2024, as part of the second stage of the development of the Eastern Polygon, it is planned to build 1,350 km of additional tracks, 26 sidings, reconstruct 25 stations and six sidings. It is also planned to carry out construction in the Primorsky Territory of a bypass of the Shkotovo — Smolyaninovo section with a length of 12.2 km . In the Khabarovsk Territory, the Volochaevka — Komsomolsk-Sortirovochny — Vanino section with a length of 829 km will be electrified. In addition, traction power supply devices — transformer substations feeding the contact network - will be strengthened on the Transsib and BAM sections.

caveat emptor wrote:Important news, especially in view of present situation.

https://www.gudok.ru/news/?ID=1615456

Heavyweight trains started transporting goods on BAM

Any chance of a map, the link doesn't work for me?

BAM route is dark red, while TransSiberian is light red. They are basically building second line on BAM route. On this map you can see investment projects developed/developing on the route.

A year ahead: footage of the construction of BAM-2 by military railway workers of the Eastern Military District

The construction of the second BAM track is being carried out at the Ulak-Fevralsk section with a length of 340 kilometers, more than 1,200 military railway workers are involved.

Servicemen of the railway brigade of the Eastern Military District (VVO) are performing the task of building the second track of the Baikal-Amur Mainline (BAM-2) in the north of the Amur Region.

Military builders laid about half a million cubic meters of rocky soil into the body of the railway embankment at the site of the Ogoron-Moldavsky double-track insert. This currently represents 98 percent of the planned major earthworks.

This work began at the end of April 2021. Military railway workers carried out work on the construction of an embankment of a subgrade, developed soil in recesses, and also equipped drainage ditches. These works were carried out with the help of standard equipment of the railway troops of the Eastern Military District - heavy wheeled and tracked vehicles, including mining articulated dump trucks, excavators, bulldozers, motor graders, rollers and equipment equipped with hydraulic hammers.

Rocky soil and large oversized stones mined from a quarry were used to build an understudy road and to build a new railway embankment next to the tracks of the first branch of the BAM. The embankment in this area was erected by military personnel in several layers. After each, samples were taken by a special laboratory, where an analysis was made and a conclusion was made on compliance with state standards.

“The work is now nearing completion. We are one year ahead of schedule. Planning work is currently underway on the embankment. So to speak, we give it a “marketable appearance”: we smooth everything, measure it out, ”said Dmitry Tatarinov, commander of the mechanization battalion.

It is worth saying that military railway workers are retired from the Russian Armed Forces with extensive experience working on equipment. As a rule, they choose the specialty of an excavator driver, roller or motor grader, as well as a tractor driver, bulldozer driver and others.

In total, work on the construction of the second BAM track is being carried out at the Ulak-Fevralsk section with a length of 340 kilometers. More than 1,200 military railway workers are involved in the work, about 1,000 pieces of equipment for various purposes of the Western, Central, Southern and Eastern military districts are involved.

https://tvzvezda-ru.translate.goog/news/20221029311-Y1izP.html?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-GB&_x_tr_pto=nui

Russia needs new BAM and Transsib

The recently launched first-ever railway bridge across the Amur River, coupled with a road bridge, has greatly accelerated the transportation of goods to China. However, this is not enough to redirect Russian cargo from Europe to the East. Russia, in fact, will need to build a second BAM and a second Trans-Siberian Railway.

Cargo transportation between Russia and China continues to grow, thanks in part to the expansion of infrastructure. A milestone event was the opening in the summer of an automobile, and in November of this year, the first ever railway bridge across the Amur River.

The railway bridge across the Amur has become a new transport corridor between Russia and China. Prior to that, there were three railway crossings in the Far East. The largest checkpoint is in Transbaikalia, it accounted for up to 70% of cargo going to China. There are two more checkpoints in Primorye.

The new artery across the Amur expands infrastructure opportunities and facilitates the transportation of goods to China. In particular, the distance to the northern provinces of China is reduced by more than 700 km compared to existing routes. Container trains launched across the bridge make it possible to speed up delivery by up to 15-20 days, Alexei Dakhnovsky, Russia's trade representative in China, said.

The railway bridge connected the settlements of Nizhneleninskoye, Jewish Autonomous Region, and Tongjiang, Heilongjiang Province, China. The Russian Direct Investment Fund, together with Chinese partners, financed more than 70% of the entire budget for the construction of the Russian part of the bridge.

The new bridge was necessary for the growth of cargo traffic, including for the increased export of Russian coal to China. Because of the EU coal embargo, Russia had to redirect coal flows to Asian countries. And China became the main buyer, because the use of Russian coal for electricity generation turned out to be more profitable than liquefied natural gas (LNG). Russian coal, in addition, is sold at a discount, which makes it even more profitable than buying, for example, Australian coal.

As a result, Russian rail routes to China were overwhelmed with coal exports. We are talking about record volumes - in August, Beijing received 8.54 million tons of Russian coal. Moreover, China would most likely buy even more Russian coal if there were no transport restrictions.

Deliveries of Russian coal to India are also growing. In the first nine months of this year, the Indians purchased almost 6 million tons of thermal coal from Russia, three times more than a year earlier. The Turkish sales market also looks promising.

Experts in the review of the consulting group "Business Profile" indicate that in order to enter new sales markets and reorient supplies from West to East, it is necessary to create new logistics routes, since the load on the existing ones has almost reached its maximum. In particular, an additional 25 million tons of coal will be redirected to the eastern direction this year, also using ports located in the Azov-Black Sea basin.

This year (for 10 months) in general, Russia and China managed to increase their trade turnover by a third. It amounted to 154 billion dollars. The partners are already pretty close to the $200 billion target set by 2024. However, in order to implement it, bridges across the Amur alone will obviously not be enough.

“The main weak point for the growth of exports to China by rail is the insufficient capacity of Russian railways. There is potential for developing freight traffic to China by rail, but for this Russia needs, in fact, to build a duplicate of BAM and TransSib, which will take a lot of time.

Therefore, there are "plugs" with trains clogged with coal. They cannot travel for several weeks - there are not enough ways to pass several trains at once,” says Artem Deev, head of the analytical department at AMarkets.

Another bottleneck, according to him, is the lack of locomotives, cargo containers, tanks, freight cars. Now Russian Railways is even reducing the number of produced tanks, as there are not enough funds for their production.

But simultaneously with the construction of new infrastructure to the East, it will be necessary to expand the factories for the production of freight trains, which also requires investment and time. According to the forecast of the Ministry of Energy of the Russian Federation, in order to maintain the level of coal production and export as much as possible, in the future until 2030 it is necessary to invest 1-1.2 trillion rubles in the development of infrastructure and import substitution of equipment for the industry.

The program to increase the capacity of BAM and TransSib is designed for ten years. “Only by this period, Russia will be able to increase the volume of exports to Asia in such a way as to completely replace the falling volumes of Europe. This is not only coal, but also timber, oil, oil products, etc.,” Deev believes.

Russia traditionally imports cars, construction and agro-industrial equipment, various components, raw materials and materials for our industries, as well as consumer goods (clothes, shoes, household appliances, toys) from China. That is why a number of infrastructure projects in the Chinese direction are currently being implemented.

“Today, 65 projects worth $106.2 billion are being implemented in Russia, and 5 projects worth $5.8 billion are being implemented in China.

The Europe-Western China project is also important, for the construction of which financing in the amount of 655 billion rubles was planned. Including the construction of a bypass road around Togliatti and a bridge across the Volga, as well as the project of the Meridian toll highway, which will connect Russia and China, and will cost 600 billion rubles. The project is considered exclusively as a transit one and is practically not focused on the needs of domestic Russian carriers,” notes Associate Professor of the Department of Economic Statistics of the PRUE. Plekhanova Olga Lebedinskaya.
KADAM

In general, more than 70 projects totaling over $120 billion are under discussion at the Intergovernmental Russian-Chinese Commission for Investment Cooperation.

https://k--politika-ru.translate.goog/rossii-nuzhny-novye-bam-i-transsib/?utm_source=finobzor.ru&_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en

The new Russian 4-axle diesel-electric locomotive TEM23 has been trialed and is being introduced into service. Vid starts at 1:43
It has a modular design which simplifies manufacture and maintenance, it's capable of running in unmanned mode, it uses only half as much fuel and gives off half the emissions than the previous model does, it has a microwave and fridge in the cabin, it's pretty great

https://www.russia-briefing.com/news/pakistan-invites-russia-to-develop-national-railway-projects-with-instc-connectivity.html/

Pakistan Invites Russia To Develop National Railway Projects With INSTC Connectivity

Pakistan has invited Russia to participate in it railway projects, according to Yevgeny Fidchuk, assistant to the Russian Transport Minister. The comments were made during a meeting of the Russia-Pakistan intergovernmental commission.

“We have discussed possible ways to develop regional railway lines with the Pakistani side, including the North-South corridor, and ways to improve it,” Fidchuk said, noting that Pakistan has invited Russia to participate in implementing potential projects in the railway sector for investing and establishing joint ventures.

“The Russian side expects more detailed information from the Pakistani side, after which we will consider it carefully.” Fidchuk added. Syed Mazhar Ali Shah, Pakistan’s Secretary of the Ministry of Railways, in turn said that Pakistan has invited Russia to consider possibly investing in projects in the railway sector as part of work at the intergovernmental level. The Russian side has agreed to consider the request and develop it.

The Pakistan Railways network has a total of 7,791 km of track, with 625 stations along the network, 1,043 km of double-track sections (in total) and 285 km of electrified sections. It is in significant need of upgrading.

In 2014, the Ministry of Railways launched Pakistan Railways Vision 2026, which seeks to increase Pakistan Railways share in Pakistan’s transportation sector from 4% to 20%, using a US$3.9 billion China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) rail upgrade. The plan includes building new locomotives, development and improvement of current rail infrastructure, an increase in average train speed, improved on-time performance and expansion of passenger services. The first phase of the project was completed in 2017, and the second phase is scheduled for completion by 2021. That second phase includes the ML-1 project, running between Karachi and Peshawar, to be completed in three phases at a cost of US$4.9 billion. This line carries 75% of Pakistan’s freight, yet has been significantly delayed due to covid and Pakistan’s internal political issues. The delays have become a source of friction between Islamabad and Beijing as they push back projected cashflow income that Pakistan needs to generate in order for it to repay Chinese loans over the longer term.

The Russian potential involvement however in Pakistan’s railways seem to be concentrated on integrating the Pakistan railway system with other external routes, and specifically the International North-South Transportation Corridor (INSTC). Russia is already involved with building a major gas pipeline linking the Pakistani southern ports of Karachi and Gwadar, to power plants and industrial hubs in Pakistan’s northern region of the Punjab. Pakistan has oil and gas fields around its southern coast, while Gwadar Port can also be connected to incoming pipelines from Iran. These supplies would then be piped to northern Pakistan and the industrial belt where the energy is most needed.

Developing rail connectivity between Pakistan’s Gwadar Port overland to neighbouring Iran is probably more in line with Russian interest as this would provide overland access for Pakistan to Iranian energy. Iran, for its part, has already stated it is prepared to connect its national electricity grid to member countries of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation – which includes Pakistan.

Pakistan has embarked on a long term industralization project, most notably with China under CPEC however Russia now views Pakistan as a significant potential energy client.

Pakistan’s energy sector remains one of its main obstacles to economic growth. Although Pakistan has managed to increase power generation since 2013 and mitigate power blackouts that plagued the country over the past decade, expensive fuel sources, a reliance on imported energy products, chronic natural gas shortages, major debt in the power sector, and aging and insufficient transmission and distribution systems have prevented the sector from growing and modernizing. Weak governance, uncoordinated energy policymaking and a lack of long-term energy planning only add to Pakistan’s current energy woes. With Russia’s inexpensive and massive energy supplies now being redirected to Asian as opposed to Western consumers, building the infrastructure to get that to Pakistan with Iranian assistance is likely to become a core South-Asian development issue and ultimately assist with regional growth.

The volume of cargo transportation of Russian Railways to the east in 2022 for the first time exceeded transportation to the west

In the second half of 2022, the volume of traffic on the Russian Railways (RZD) network to the east exceeded the volume of traffic to the west for the first time. This was announced on February 6 by the head of Russian Railways Oleg Belozerov at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"For the first time in history, the volume exceeded transportation to the west — 80 million against 76 million tons," Belozerov said.

According to the head of the transport company, the volume of railway traffic with friendly countries in 2022 increased by 23%, and with unfriendly ones, on the contrary, decreased by 40%.

"Accordingly, from 365 to 210 million [tons], and this trend continues," the head of Russian Railways said.

Belozerov also added that in December of this year, Russian Railways plans to launch the new port of Lavna in the Murmansk region.

In December, logistics expert Mark Veshnyakov commented to Izvestia that in 2022, the logistics services market was adjusting to new conditions: suppliers reviewed many aspects of their work and changed delivery routes. Thus, Turkey has become a hub for cargo transportation. Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Iran also participate in deliveries from abroad to Russia. In 2023, these countries will continue to actively help Russia with the transportation of goods, including through parallel imports, Veshnyakov predicted.

On September 23, 2022, Vladimir Sagalaev, a financial analyst at CMS Group of Companies, in an interview with Izvestia, called for support for cargo transportation participants amid rising prices. He noted that prices for freight transportation by rail have increased significantly, in such conditions, market participants need support, and discounts and tariff differentiation should be introduced for this purpose.

According to him, the growth in the cost of cargo transportation was also affected by the global economic slowdown and disruption of logistics chains around the world. Therefore, international transportation has risen in price much more than domestic ones. For example, cargo transportation from China to Russia grew by an average of 300% over the year.

On September 7, Putin announced at the plenary session of the Eastern Economic Forum (EEF) that the volume of cargo transportation in the eastern direction will grow, including due to the expansion of capacity. The target is a volume of 40 million tons.

Sanctions pressure on Russia increased after the start of Moscow's special operation to protect the civilian population of Donbass, which was announced on February 24, 2022. It began against the background of the escalating situation in the region in mid-February.

https://translated.turbopages.org/proxy_u/ru-en.en.c85bb0fc-63e0e84f-2b45fefc-74722d776562/https/iz.ru/1465871/2023-02-06/obem-gruzoperevozok-rzhd-na-vostok-v-2022-godu-vpervye-prevysil-perevozki-na-zapad?main_click

A tourist train for wine connoisseurs will be launched from Moscow to Kuban, 02.17.2023.

A tourist train will be launched from Moscow to the vineyards of the Kuban in the summer.

KRASNODAR, February 17 - RIA Novosti. A new tourist train from Moscow to the vineyards of Taman and Novorossiysk will be launched in the summer, the press service of the administration of the Krasnodar Territory reports.

"The railway cruise "To the vineyards by the sea" starts in the "high season" - June 9, 2023. The route, lasting five days and four nights, will connect Moscow, Taman and Novorossiysk," the release says.

The train will run all summer. Passengers will be able to additionally purchase tickets for sightseeing tours along the way and get acquainted with the main sights of the cities.

“Travelers will be able to see the resort landscapes of the Krasnodar Territory not only from the train window, but will also attend excursions to the wineries of Taman and Novorossiysk, as well as tastings and master classes,” the press service of the Ministry of Resorts, Tourism and Olympic Heritage of the region reports.

The Krasnodar Territory is one of the largest wine and gastronomic centers in Russia . There are about 50 such facilities in the Kuban, 30 of them specialize in winemaking, the press service notes.

https://ria.ru/20230217/puteshestviya-1852753485.html

Giant trains with a length of more than 2 km and a mass of over 14,000 tons began to run on Russian railways

A US opinion on the 'Northern Rail Route'.

Scrapped Railway Project Could Derail Putin’s Arctic Ambitions
By The Jamestown Foundation - Feb 23, 2023, 2:00 PM CST

Russian President Vladimir Putin has big plans for Arctic trade and development.
The Russian government has canceled a key railway project despite Putin’s repeated orders to the contrary.
The planned railway was a critical piece of infrastructure, and its cancelation could throw a wrench in Putin’s plans.

Moscow’s ability to develop its own resource-based economy, expand the Northern Sea Route, cement ties with China and support Vladimir Putin’s ambitions to project power into the Arctic depends on the development of land-based infrastructure in the northern regions of the Russian Federation (see EDM, April 29, 2016; September 11, 2018; December 6, 2018). Yet, that ability has now been called into question, as the Russian government has canceled, despite Putin’s repeated orders to the contrary, a program to complete the broad-gauge Northern Broad-Gauge Railway. The route was intended to link settlements that support the Northern Sea Route, military bases and the locations of key sources of raw materials across the Russian North with the rest of the country (see EDM, July 6, 2021; The Barents Observer, September 27, 2021; Ura.news, December 30, 2022, Svpressa.ru, February 19). Without such a rail line, in fact, Moscow will not be able to achieve its economic and geopolitical goals in the region, according to some Russian observers, as there simply are not enough alternative routes to support them (Ura.news, October 7, 2022; Regnum, August 30, 2022).

This planned railway is crucial due to the lack of other land-based infrastructure in the Russian North. At present, few regular highways exist in the region, and the melting of the permafrost makes constructing more roads extremely difficult, time-consuming and expensive (Profile.ru, December 22, 2022). The ice roads Russia has long relied on are now ever-more difficult to maintain and accessible for ever-fewer months of the year for the same reason (T.me/Torbozne_radio, January 4; Yakutiafuture.ru, January 6). And air carriers cannot make up the gap, not only in exporting tons of raw materials but also in supplying northern settlements, ports and bases. The number of airports in the Russian North has declined by more than 80 percent since the collapse of the Soviet Union (Window on Eurasia, February 15).

These dangers are already raising alarm among Russian economic and strategic thinkers. Indeed, their calculations and concerns help explain why Putin pressed for the Northern Railway in the first place. Now, with the project having been effectively axed, their worries are mounting. (For a comprehensive discussion of the economic and political impact of Russia’s broader infrastructure problems, see Profile.ru, July 25, 2022; for their specific impact on the military in the North, see Nezavisimoye voyennoye obozreniye, December 2, 2021). In a recent article, Aleksandr Shalak lays out the impact of particular challenges in the Arctic on the domestic economy and the growth of the Northern Sea Route (Jhist.bgu.ru, accessed February 22). He points out that settlements, bases and natural-resource sites in the Russia North require land-based infrastructure because the other routes cannot carry enough cargo. However, Shalak argues, Russia will not be able to handle more than 1 percent of Asia-Europe trade on the Northern Sea Route or otherwise project power into the Arctic Sea, regardless of what Russian leaders might be saying.

As a result, and with growing frequency in recent years, Russian officials have placed their hopes in the construction of a major railway across the Russian North. Discussion of such a line goes back to imperial times (Svpressa.ru, February 19; for general discussions of building railways in the north, largely on the model of the Trans-Siberian Railway, see Historicus.ru, accessed February 22). Actual construction began using Gulag prisoners at the end of Stalin’s rule, though it was suspended upon his death. And a new push for this line emerged in the past decade, with many brave words being said about what it would mean for the Russian North and the country more generally. But, in reality, little work was actually carried out on the ground. Now, even planning has been suspended, a development that makes it unlikely that, in this decade or the next, the Russian North will have the land-based infrastructure that Moscow needs if its hopes are to be realized.

What appears to be this project’s death knell, at least for the time being, is instructive in its own right. It occurred not with some dramatic single action by the Kremlin but in a rolling fashion as has often been the case with the backtracking of decisions under Putin. In April 2021, to much acclaim, the Russian president called for construction of the Northern Broad-Gauge Railway to begin, with the goal of completing the project in the next few years. Yet, despite Putin’s words, nothing happened, at least in part because of the COVID-19 pandemic, increased spending for his war against Ukraine and the impact of Western sanctions. Then, in 2022, Putin issued a new order for the project to go ahead. Again, nothing happened. Instead, less than a month later, Marat Khusnullin, a Russian deputy prime minister, quietly stopped all work on the project without giving anyone reason to think it would be resumed. Indeed, many Russian experts and commentators concerned with infrastructure issues believe that this railway plan has come to the end of its line, and one has even suggested that the cancellation of this project puts “a cross on the future of Russia” (Svpressa.ru, February 19).

Khusnullin, who announced the completion of half the project, is, as many have noted, a Kazan Tatar, and some in the Russian Federation think he made this decision to find funds to pay for one of his own pet projects: a super highway connecting Moscow and Kazan (Ura.news, December 30, 2022). But whatever his true intentions, the decision highlights two factors of enormous consequence in Russia today. On the one hand, it underscores the fact that, in today’s Moscow, junior officials can sabotage even a critical security-related infrastructure project that the Kremlin leader has made clear he is prioritizing. And on the other, it shows just how tight the Russian budget has become and how that is affecting even high-priority plans, such as those for the Arctic. This in turn means that most of what Putin has talked about in developing the Russian North is just that, talk. And alarmist reactions in the West reflect the fact that too much attention is paid to what Putin says and too little to what is actually happening after he says it. Unless money is found, and soon, to restart this project, Putin and Russia will have a difficult time trying to achieve their goals in the Arctic.

https://oilprice.com/Geopolitics/International/Scrapped-Railway-Project-Could-Derail-Putins-Arctic-Ambitions.html

The guy pulled the whole article out of his ass.

By The Jamestown Foundation

Funded by the Anti Putin anti Russia coalition of evil, I wont even bother to read it.

As probably the second largest layers of new railway track at the moment, do the Russians have a machine like this?

Note that they only seem to clip down the rails every 10th or so sleeper at this stage.




P.S. thanks for the comments on my last post, so its untrue.

The pattern of propaganda attack is always the same.   If it is good for Russia, then it must be smeared as bad for Russia.
Corruption-free Putin is bad, but corrupt to the core Navalny was supposed to be a saviour for Russia.  Rotten comprador
Yeltsin who almost sold Russia down the river was a "palpable humanitarian", etc.  It's always wrap the turd in gold leaf to
make it look precious as long as the west's colonial agenda is satisfied.

Nobody can even start to claim that the "Northern Latitudinal Diameter" railway is a bad investment.   It removes serious
transport bottlenecks in a strategic region.   It is the type of project that western prats would wank off to if they were
doing it.   The analogy is with the railway projects in the US and Canada in the second half of the 1800s.   And no, roads
on permafrost are a bad idea but railways solve the problem.  (For the physics explanation, the amount of heat absorption
by rails and concrete ties is vastly smaller than any paved road even if it is with concrete without asphalt thanks to surface
area reduction).

The whole premise behind the Northern Railway is to develop Arctic resources. With the cooldown in the world economy after the pandemic and now that ze West no longer is buying Russian mineral resources the demand probably just isn't there to justify the business case anymore. It is way more of a priority to further develop the Eastern borne railways in the BAM and Transib.

I mean they could develop Arctic ports and the Arctic Sea Route as a way to bypass the Black Sea and Suez canal but is it really worth it? I would just make additional oil and gas pipelines via Mongolia, or expand the existing ones close to ESPO and Power of Siberia and use those to move energy resources. And all Arctic resource development investment could instead be moved to the Far East region of Siberia closer to the markets in China. For example the mining projects at Chukotka.