Russia Plans World's Longest Tunnel, a Link to Alaska - Page 2

SapphireBlueEyes · #21 Posted **Apr 19, 2007, 10:35 PM**

This is nonsense. Also, Chicago103 is applauding this? Umm, Chicago103, driving through this tunnel would make us more fuel dependent. Sure, cut the apron strings to the middle east and rely on Russia? I trust Putin as far as I can throw him!
This could be a ploy to somehow set up an attack on the U.S. Not a good idea, not at all!

-SapphireBlueEyes-

Eigenwelt · #22 Posted **Apr 19, 2007, 10:46 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by sapphireblueeyes

This could be a ploy to somehow set up an attack on the U.S. Not a good idea, not at all!

-SapphireBlueEyes-

Do me a favor and never, ever, ever breed. Thank you.

As far as why would anyone drive across siberia: because some people like road trips and not everyone considers the destination of a trip to be the goal.

I like road trips. No, I love road trips. Driving 3,700 miles through a barren landscape appeals to me in ways I can not fully express with words. On the flip side I hate commuting by car. I prefer mass transit for my day to day travels and daily errands.

Spring Break 2025: Beach Party Vladivostok!

Chicago103 · #23 Posted **Apr 19, 2007, 11:02 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eigenwelt

Do me a favor and never, ever, ever breed. Thank you.

As far as why would anyone drive across siberia: because some people like road trips and not everyone considers the destination of a trip to be the goal.

I like road trips. No, I love road trips. Driving 3,700 miles through a barren landscape appeals to me in ways I can not fully express with words. On the flip side I hate commuting by car. I prefer mass transit for my day to day travels and daily errands.

Spring Break 2025: Beach Party Vladivostok!

SapphireBlueEyes was not the first person to express concerns over Russia's intentions with this in all fairness. I do support the project mostly for the high speed rail opportunities and being able to connect the eastern and western hemispheres. I wish we could just erase all this foreign policy nonsense on whether or not we trust Russia or the oil complications and just focus on what this means for connecting humanity but we cannot. There are valid concerns, hopefully neither Putin nor Bush will be in power when this project is realized.

R@ptor · #24 Posted **Apr 19, 2007, 11:44 PM**

Highspeed Rails? Driving from the the US to Western Europe? Seriously folks

Have you ever looked at a map and realized the distances in Siberia or are familar with road conditions in even the better developed parts of Russia (I doubt you can even call that roads). Add to that temperatures around -30 to -50 year round and you get the picture. If this tunnel will be built, it will only be built for the purposes stated in the article...and that is a industrial transport and pipeline link.

Chicago103 · #25 Posted **Apr 20, 2007, 12:01 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by R@ptor

Highspeed Rails? Driving from the the US to Western Europe? Seriously folks

Have you ever looked at a map and realized the distances in Siberia or are familar with road conditions in even the better developed parts of Russia (I doubt you can even call that roads). Add to that temperatures around -30 to -50 year round and you get the picture. If this tunnel will be built, it will only be built for the purposes stated in the article...and that is a industrial transport and pipeline link.

I agree with the roads part but what about the Trans-Siberian railway? I have limited knowledge of it but why cant that same principle apply to modern High Speed Rail?

Lecom · #26 Posted **Apr 20, 2007, 12:06 AM**

SapphireBlueEyes and Busy Bee, thank you very much for your highly entertaining input. I was literally waiting for for some trolls to make an obligatory stop on this thread to post some Russophobia.

Xelebes · #27 Posted **Apr 20, 2007, 1:31 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by R@ptor

Highspeed Rails? Driving from the the US to Western Europe? Seriously folks

Have you ever looked at a map and realized the distances in Siberia or are familar with road conditions in even the better developed parts of Russia (I doubt you can even call that roads). Add to that temperatures around -30 to -50 year round and you get the picture. If this tunnel will be built, it will only be built for the purposes stated in the article...and that is a industrial transport and pipeline link.

Y'know, -30C isn't really that bad.

Xelebes · #28 Posted **Apr 20, 2007, 2:18 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by arkhitektor

Really? Why would you? Why would anyone drive over 10,000 miles through artic nothing to get to Russia. I won't even drive to Phoenix and its only a 10-hour drive from me. The reason: Its much cheaper, easier and faster to simply fly.

10 hours isn't much. The 13 hour drive to Vancouver isn't so bad. I'm guessing it's an 18 hour drive to Whitehorse from here. 30 hours to Fairbanks... 50 hours to the tunnel...

Kitchissippi · #29 Posted **Apr 20, 2007, 2:24 AM**

With global warming, Siberia could end up being one of the most liveable places on Earth. Enough space for all the people displaced by rising sea levels!

Canadian Mind · #30 Posted **Apr 20, 2007, 3:37 AM**

you folks that talk about siberia being -30 to -50 year round are daft. it isn't that cold during the summer. And even if it is that cold, winter or summer, us canucks do that on a daily basis.

ho here has driven for more than a full day (24 hours +) in the middle of winter? I have, got me only 1000 miles, but whatever.

as for the distance from Edmonton to Moscow, it would be like driving from Edmonton to Montreal and back, again, not that far. To you yanks these distances may seem a bit extreme, and maybe call us canadians crazy, but remember, out country is wider then yours in every way but down (you guys have a deep fucking canyon). As such, we are used to long distance traveling.

I for one would love to ride my bike from here to Europe someday. would likely take 3 or four months, but thats why i'd start in summer to avoid siberian cool.

bnk · #31 Posted **Apr 20, 2007, 4:51 AM**

very interesting factoid.

Tsar Nicholas II, Russia's last emperor, was the first Russian leader to approve a plan for a tunnel under the Bering Strait, in 1905, 38 years after his grandfather sold Alaska to America for $7.2 million. World War I ended the project.

That was over a century ago.

This kind of reminds me of a great book I read about the panama canal.

It literaly took many decades on and off to finish this project.

BTW they plan on expanding the canal with new locks, while keeping the older ones within 10-15 years or so.

At first they tried to make it a sea level canal like suez, obviously without sucess.

Good read.

Nowhereman1280 · #32 Posted **Apr 20, 2007, 7:22 AM**

Just for the record, the bering strait is well outside of the arctic circle. It is nowhere near as cold are you are making it out to be.

Also, I don't think anyone here really realizes how momentous this could be. Most people don't realize this, but freight trains are actually the most efficiant and cost-effective way to trasport large quantities of goods. Far cheeper than airplanes, and much faster than Cargo ships (even with having to go way out of the way to the north a train averaging 50 miles and hour would be faster than a freighter averaging 10 miles an hour...). If built, I bet most trade from the rest of the world to the US would begin entering via this tunnel.

Trains would also have the added benefit of not having to be unloaded at port facilities, which takes quite a bit of time and energy. A factory in China could make a load of widgets and pack them into a sea container and instead of having to take it to a port via truck or train, then take it off and stack in in a heap until the appropriate freighter arrives, then go back dig up the container and put it on the ship when it gets there, then take a couple weeks to get across the Pacific then unload it in LA and put it on another train or truck and deliver it to whoever wanted the widgets... Well with the tunnel, you could just stick it in the crate, throw it on the next America bound train, and it would go straight to America and avoid all of the hassles of storage and waiting for boats in a port...

Get the picture? This could be a revolution in globalism, the ability to get goods from anywhere in the Eurasia landmass directly to the Americas without using anything more than a train? The economic benefits would be enormous for all those involved.

By the way, the worst winter weather rarely stops freight trains, it is much more likely that a major storm will force a freighter to go way out of its way, than for a winter storm to stop train traffic.

This would also mark the first time humans would be able to cross the berring straight on foot since the land bridge flooded... Talk about symbolic of the global age and reunification of humanity...

Kitchissippi · #33 Posted **Apr 20, 2007, 11:48 AM**

The US got most of its present-day global economic might from sitting in the middle of world trade between Asia and Europe. This scheme puts Russia in the same position, with untapped resources in Siberia to boot.

This tunnel could end up being a Trojan Horse. Either Russia becoming the new economic king, or the final corporate takeover of the former communist nation.

MtnClimber · #34 Posted **Apr 20, 2007, 4:36 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Canadian Mind

you folks that talk about siberia being -30 to -50 year round are daft. it isn't that cold during the summer. And even if it is that cold, winter or summer, us canucks do that on a daily basis.

ho here has driven for more than a full day (24 hours +) in the middle of winter? I have, got me only 1000 miles, but whatever.

as for the distance from Edmonton to Moscow, it would be like driving from Edmonton to Montreal and back, again, not that far. To you yanks these distances may seem a bit extreme, and maybe call us canadians crazy, but remember, out country is wider then yours in every way but down (you guys have a deep fucking canyon). As such, we are used to long distance traveling.

I for one would love to ride my bike from here to Europe someday. would likely take 3 or four months, but thats why i'd start in summer to avoid siberian cool.

Extreme distances haha. I think people in the Lower 48 particularly those back east have little concept for long distances. I reguarly make the trip from Seattle to Alaska by CAR! not ferry, and its not to bad. I think people out west have more tolerance for driving long distances.

That being said i doubt the average American or Canadian could tolerate a drive all the way to Moscow!! Of all places. Heck just a drive up to Alaska can be a pain in the ass from Seattle.

Just imagine driving to freaking Valdivostok or some place comparable. I could see this being a large boom for places like China however. If the high speed rail thing got going, it would be intersting to see how this would effect Northwest port cities like Vancouver and Seattle. It seems that it would be a boom to more interior cities like Fairbanks and Edmonton.

It may not be practical to drive all the way to Moscow, but going to places such as Vladivostok and NE Asia seems somewhat doable by train. I doubt this project will ever move forward any time soon.

anm · #35 Posted **Apr 20, 2007, 4:48 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Busy Bee

I might be alone in saying this but it kind of sounds like a Trojan Horse. I mean , I'm not so sure we should get so squishy [i.e. dependent] on Russia, they still aren't what you would consider our best buddies. I don't listen to or subscribe to ultra-conservative media, but even I am a little suspicious of Putin and closely watching Russian government activity is still in the best interest of the US.

not to sidetrack the tread, but IMO it would be in the best interest of the US citizens to watch closly the activities of their own government... much more closely than they have done so far (for the record - I am no admirer of Mr. Putin)

Kimo · #36 Posted **Apr 20, 2007, 5:19 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by arkhitektor

Really? Why would you? Why would anyone drive over 10,000 miles through artic nothing to get to Russia. I won't even drive to Phoenix and its only a 10-hour drive from me. The reason: Its much cheaper, easier and faster to simply fly.

It would be an trip to tell my grand kids about. Sometimes the destination is not the vacation, the journey is.

Chicago103 · #37 Posted **Apr 20, 2007, 6:59 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nowhereman1280

This would also mark the first time humans would be able to cross the berring straight on foot since the land bridge flooded... Talk about symbolic of the global age and reunification of humanity...

On bike? On foot? I doubt there would be a bike or pedestrian lane in a 64 mile long tunnel! Unless by on foot you meant without travelling in the air or on the water.

big W · #38 Posted **Apr 20, 2007, 10:36 PM**

I would personally do the drive if I could. I love the journey and would drive from Edmonton to any place in Asia, Europe and Africa. I have done the drives all across Canada and the US and the trip is the funnest part. Just going with a couple of the boys and hitting weird and wonderful places. Now this is not saying I would never fly but rather that I would do this journey a couple times.

MtnClimber · #39 Posted **Apr 20, 2007, 11:41 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by anm

not to sidetrack the tread, but IMO it would be in the best interest of the US citizens to watch closly the activities of their own government... much more closely than they have done so far (for the record - I am no admirer of Mr. Putin)

Don't compare Russia to USA.

PuyoPiyo · #40 Posted **Apr 21, 2007, 8:15 AM**

My words to you who hate drive trip, I hate fly. VERY boring than the cars! Been in the airplane for over 10 hours from San Francisco to Tokyo, Japan. That is the most worst ride I ever had, all I can do is sit and stare how long will we get to Tokyo or to San Francisco.

I wouldn't mind to drive for 19 hours to Las Vegas as far as I could pass Portland, Crater Lake, Mt. Shasta, Reno, Carson City, then finally Las Vegas.

My little advice for drive trip: Don't stay in the car too much, try get out of the car and get around the town that you passed.