Interbering Railway

[Ellie]

http://www.interbering.com/

Construction of an international railway from the USA to Canada to Alaska to Russia and beyond.

(Notice the links to N/S Korea, Japan, etc)

It is not entirely unfeasible. The Channel Tunnel (England to France) cost $17.5 billion in today's money; this tunnel would cost $20 billion. (But then you have to factor in the train lines each side of the tunnel too).

Essentially, due to the joint up nature of European railways, you would potentially be able to get a train from Argentina to Birmingham... via... well, Brazil, Panama, Mexico, USA, Canada, USA again, Russia, Ukraine, etc etc etc etc High Speed 2... Birmingham. Ouch. Bet that would take a while.

The construction of a development corridor extending 50 miles (80 km) on each side of the railroad, can transform the regions in Canada, Alaska and Russia in its entirety. Power lines, fiber-optic lines, and where necessary, freshwater pipes would be encased within the corridor. Cities, population, manufacturing, and scientific agriculture would be fertilized and harvested in this corridor as well.

In before Hybrida, and, continue.

 

[Hybrida]

In a perfect world this would be great. So this is the plan after world peace -_-? I thinks it's extremely dangerous and too much of an target. It sounds very nice on paper., but this can create a lot of jobs like they say.

 

[Ellie]

Maybe it would also be a move towards world peace? The Chunnel really made Britain feel a part of mainland Europe much more than before (and there is... *slightly* less angst against the Frenchies now that we're closer neighbours).

 

[GameBoy]

Holy shit, DO WANT. Riding in train across half of the world? HELL YES.

Superb alternative to plane (cough) "traveling".

 

[Hybrida]

You have a point. This may force some factions to stay at peace. I read cargo trains might be added to the lines after completion. Open trade between North Korea and the USA will calm things down. I'm glad Russia and the USA are closer too. If these 2 superpowers can play nice, then others may follow. Really nothing to lose by linking us all to together. Just have to wait and see what happens.

I hope 80% of the train ride isn't in a tunnel. Is 450MPH really fast enough? I wonder...

 

[Ellie]

Like with the channel tunnel only a tiny fraction of travelling actually involves the tunnel. Here, even less so.

 

[glorious caesar]

i find myself strangely indifferent. maybe if this was fifty or even twentyfive yeas ago it would be exciting news but international travel isn't really the most difficult or exciting things with technology right now.

 

[GameBoy]

international travel isn't really the most difficult or exciting things with technology right now.

You're right, that's why I spelled 'plane "traveling"' instead of 'plane traveling'. Now it's just like:
1. Go to airport in Europe
2. Sit in seat for x hours until flight is over
3. Congratualtions, you're reached USA/Canada/Japan/etc!

Compare this with a few days long trip across various landscapes of USA, Canada, Alaska, Sibeira, Japan, China etc. You can also stay a night in some cities and took another train next day. Oh my, that would be great.

 

[Ellie]

Plus as they say, if Oojyfoojypuddingandpieccoakull ever blew again there'd still be transport opportunities.

Compare this with a few days long trip across various landscapes of USA, Canada, Alaska, Sibeira, Japan, China etc. You can also stay a night in some cities and took another train next day. Oh my, that would be great.

I bet tourism alone would pay for the line, if they market it right.

 

[dadevvtsvre]

I've heard of this before. Honestly, it sounds really interesting and exciting - being able to travel to 95% of the world by train - but who the hell would actually ride it?

You can get to just about anywhere on earth by plane in less than 24 hours, and although air travel isn't cheap, it's priced enough so that just about anyone can use it.

Maintenance would be hell. Would you want to be the guy that has to fix the track after it's been exposed to years of -50° temperatures and blizzards? Would tourism in itself really pay for $20 billion, plus the millions it would take every year to keep it in shape?

If I needed to get to Moscow I would take a 15 hour plane ride, not some week-long trip that involves me spending days in the Arctic.

 

[Tindy]

Oh my goodness. I'm both totally geeked about the possibility of this existing and completely against the idea of it.

1) Man, that ride would be gorgeous. Seriously, just think about it - all of the scenery from, say, San Francisco to Tokyo? Yes please.

2) Good lord that ride would take forever. Just for example, it takes right about 10 hours to get to Japan from...almost anywhere in the US (for some reason?), and that's going in a lovely straight-ish V shape (up to Alaska, down to Tokyo) in the sky. This train would snake around mountains, forests, and the fucking tundra. Even if bullet trains *are* as nice as planes, I can't see anyone wanting to spend more hours in transit like that.
2a) Now, if it were something like a luxury liner, with stuff to do and beds and things, that would be ok, I guess. But it wouldn't make much sense to have all that if the trip only took, say, 10 more hours than usual (to go all the way from America to Asia). Then you would need beds, certainly, but I can't imagine they would go to the trouble of having anything else. Besides that, they'd have to make a lot of stops, yes?

3) The amount of tunnels that thing would probably have to endure makes my head hurt just thinking about it. Unless it's got a properly pressurized cabin - then, tunnels all the way! (Otherwise your ears will pop - painfully - each and every time. Goddamn train tunnels.)

4) I would be seriously and completely worried about the world peace thing. That the Chunnel brought Britain closer to the rest of Europe is pretty cool, but you're all pretty close in the first place, both from a geographical and cultural point of view. This would link - from what I can see - Mexico, the US, Canada, Russia, Japan, Korea, and China? The US and Russia are different enough as it is, but to also link Asia? And China? And I assume it would have to go through North Korea, which is scary enough - on both sides of the international fence, mind you. What's to keep dangerous people out? For that matter, what would keep them from just conveniently destroying several billion $$$'s of track? What kind of documentation would be needed to even *ride* this thing? Would you need a passport for each country you ride through? What's to ensure you stay *on* the train until your desired station?

 

[Mr_Smith]

For all the guys complaining about the time it takes to go from Mexico to China this way, remember you are not going to take the train to do that if you have business to do or something. It's a trip you make because the scenery would be great, it would be a good experience to see countries that differ so much from each other.

 

[Ellie]

Yeah. The main point of the railway isn't to link Mexico with China or anything like that (that's just a bonus for tourism or whatever, the sort of people who eurotrip or drive across America, which is a big industry).

The point of the line is the links such as the main USA to Fairbanks or Deadhorse (rendering Ice Road Truckers obselete heh), Japan to mainland Asia, Russia to Alaska, and other relatively close crossings which in reality are hell to perform.

Didn't realise about the Darien Gap when I posted this; it wouldn't go Pan-America after all... although someone said a good idea would be a tunnel beneath the Darien Gap! It's only 31 miles, but relatively uncrossable. In comparison, the Seikan Tunnel (Japan) is 33.46 miles.

 

[bacon]

one of the only issues a really see is upkeep. I mean, what if something like an earthquake or tidal wave comes along how much money would that take to fix. Not only that, if the tectonic plates are constantly moving that could cause some huge stress to the system. I mean where you live between france and brit it isnt bad because everything is located on one plate but i could see some serious issues especially in the japan area and when crossing them. I dont know exactly where they are planning to build or locate it but this is something that could cause some issues in the future~

 

[Mr_Smith]

It will mostly be an issue if the tunnel actually goes from one plate to the next, as that is where those forces come in to play. If it's just near the edge of a plate, it can be solved quite easily with a VERY strong construction.
A plain railway crossing the edge of a border still can have some nasty consequences, but not nearly as bad as the tunnel crossing it.

According to this image, the tunnel and most of the railway would be on the same plate, thus problem partially solved.