Abstract
The paper describes that the main challenge to the transport and transit position of Asian Russia is the difficulty in building and maintaining the railway network. It is emphasized that the fragmentation of the economic space causes focal development. The general lack of coordination between the modes of transport in Siberia could be explained historically by the active use of railways as the panacea for region growth. The significant positive impact of the experience of construction of the Baikal–Amur and Amur–Yakutsk highways is optimal for the development of Siberia in transport development with the parallel creation of industrial complexes. Nowadays, it is necessary to use significant projects to upgrade Siberia’s railway infrastructure for the formation of the region’s transit potential. It is emphasized that most transport projects initially contain such a possibility. It is determined that the “Eastern Polygon” development exclusively for export transportation seems inappropriate. The article discusses critical railway projects for the future, which are of a pronounced urgent nature, and are summarized: the Northern Latitudinal Railway, the railway crossing to Sakhalin, Kyzyl–Kuragino, the North Siberian Railway. These proposals consider the long-term transcontinental road for Russia’s northeast integrated development. Finally, we proposed and substantiated that the development of railways remains crucial for the development of Siberia and the formation of international corridors that will take shape by commissioning new infrastructure and reducing the shortage of capacity.
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Abbreviations
- Amur–Yakutsk Magistral (AYM) :
-
is a railway in the eastern part of Russia connecting Yakutia with BAM and the Transsib.
- Baikal–Amur Magistral (BAM) :
-
is the railway passing through Eastern Siberia and the Russian Far East, with a length of 4324 km, one of the largest railway lines in the world. It runs approximately 610–770 km north of the Trans-Siberian Railway and is parallel to it. The main stage of the construction of the highway occurred in 1974–1984. Most of the highway is laid in the permafrost zone.
- Eastern polygon :
-
is a project of comprehensive modernization of the BAM and Transsib, which will increase the capacity of railways by almost twice.
- Elegest coal deposit :
-
is located in the center of the Republic of Tyva along the left tributary of the Yenisei—the Elegest River. The deposit has reserves of about 1 billion tons of coking coal of the highest quality.
- Kuznetsk coal basin (Kuzbass) :
-
is one of the largest coal deposits in the world, located in the south of Western Siberia, in a shallow basin between the mountain ranges of the Kuznetsk Alatau. The balance reserves of coal—54.5 billion tons, brown coal—34 billion tons.
- Meridional communication paths are :
-
communication routes built from north to south, i.e., along the meridian.
- North Siberian Railway (SevSib) is :
-
the project of a railway with a length of about 2 thousand kilometers, which should connect the railway network of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug—Yugra with the Baikal–Amur mainline.
- Northern latitudinal course :
-
is the railway under construction in Siberia with the route Ob-Salekhard–Nadym–Novy Urengoy–Korotchaevo.
- The Northern Sea Route :
-
is a sea route in the North Polar Sea along the northern coast of Russia, connecting the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans.
- The South Siberian Railway (YuzhSib) :
-
is a partially electrified railway line in Russia and Kazakhstan. The route is a part of the Trans-Siberian Railway network. The South Siberian Railway runs from Magnitogorsk via Northern Kazakhstan (Nur-Sultan–Ekibastuz–Pavlodar), Barnaul, and Abakan to Taishet.
- Transpolar railway is a :
-
project from the shores of the Barents Sea to the coast of the Sea of Okhotsk and to Chukotka; it was developed in the 1930s. The road was never completed, and the sections were built in 1947–1953 were connected to the country's railway network through the Pechora Railway.
- Trans-Siberian Railway (Transsib) :
-
is the railway between Chelyabinsk and Vladivostok, connecting the European part of Russia with the largest East Siberian and Far Eastern industrial cities (Perm, Yekaterinburg, Omsk, Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk, Chita, and Khabarovsk). It was built in 1891–1916. The length of the highway at the end of construction was 8.3 thousand km, it is the longest railway in the world.
- Vanino :
-
is the largest transport hub of the Khabarovsk Territory, located on the northwestern shore of the Tatar Strait and the Baikal–Amur railway. The Vanino seaport carries out operations with containers, bulk, oil, timber, and general cargo, including dangerous goods.
- Yakutsk :
-
is the world's largest city built on permafrost. It is the capital of the Sakha Republic. The region is rich in natural resources: gold, diamonds, oil, and gas, as well as many precious stones and minerals, are mined here.
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Acknowledgements
This Study was supported by IEIE SB RAS Project (№ 121040100262– 7), Fundamental Research Fund for the Central Universities (Harbin Engineering University) (GK2090260229, GK2090260236), Heilongjiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation Project (LHG2021009, 2021/07-2024/06) and China ministry of science and technology high-end foreign expert introduction project (DL2021180001L).
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Kotov, A.V., Efimova, O.V., Mingye, A., Steblyanskaya, A.N., Wang, Q. (2022). Future of Siberia: Development of Railway Infrastructure. In: Bocharnikov, V.N., Steblyanskaya, A.N. (eds) Humans in the Siberian Landscapes. Springer Geography. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-90061-8_10
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