Trans-Siberian Railway… Probably, you rarely meet a person now who has never heard this name in his life… It has been and continues to be found in books, songs and in many modern films about Russia. So what is this place? And why does it attract so much attention?
Trans-Siberian Railway. General information
This railway has several names. Some of them, such as the Great Siberian Way, have even become obsolete and become history.
Today, this largest railway across Eurasia bears the sonorous name of the Trans-Siberian Railway, and it is entrusted with the role of connecting Moscow and St. Petersburg with the large industrial cities of Eastern Siberia and the Far East.
The total length of the highway is a huge figure of 9298.2 km. This makes the Trans-Siberian the longest railway on the planet.
Currently, it connects Russiancenters from Europe to the Pacific. The Trans-Siberian Railway is a direction that, due to its technical capabilities, allows to transport approximately 100 million tons of cargo annually. But on this, according to experts, its throughput is completely exhausted.
Trans-Siberian Railway. Construction history
At the official level, the construction of the railway began at the very end of May 1891 from Vladivostok. The event was so significant that the future Emperor Nicholas II himself granted the bookmark.
The leading engineer of that time N. S. Svityagin. It was in his honor that the station of the same name was subsequently named. Cargo was delivered mainly along the Northern Sea Route: from Murmansk to the mouth of the Yenisei.
10 years pass, and the first passengers appear on the world-famous railway. At first, the Trans-Siberian Railway was a journey purely for workers.
Regular traffic from St. Petersburg to Vladivostok began in 1903, when the road was put into so-called permanent operation. However, the rail track was not continuous; at first, trains had to be transported across Lake Baikal on a ferry specially built for this purpose.
Passenger transportation originates from the moment the ring road appeared. In 1905, the opportunity opened up for movement exclusively on rails. The situation was somewhat complicated by the fact that the route passed through Manchuria, and after the Russo-Japanese War arosethe need to build a road passing exclusively through the territory of the Russian Empire. That is why the fateful decision was made to build a bridge across the river. Amur near Khabarovsk.
Full electrification of the road was completed in 2002.
Trans-Siberian Railway: interesting and unusual railway
There is nothing surprising in the fact that a lot of interesting facts are connected with such a symbolic place. We list just a few of them:
- It is considered to be the longest railway on the planet.
- Passes through the territory of two parts of the world at once: Europe and Asia.
- Its highest point can be considered the Apple Pass, located at a distance of 1019 m above sea level.
- At first glance, it's hard to imagine, but nevertheless, today there are already 87 cities along it, of which 14 are considered the centers of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation.
- The Trans-Siberian Railway crosses about 30 rivers, the most important of which are the Amur, Bureya, Volga, Vyatka, Yenisei, Zeya, Irtysh, Kama, Ob, Oka, Selenga, Tobol, Tom, Ussuri, Khor and Chulym.
- 207 km of the road is laid along the shores of the majestic Lake Baikal.
