Baikal-Amur Mainline in green; Trans-Siberian line in red
The Baikal-Amur Mainline (Russian Байкало-Амурская Магистраль,
Baikalo-Amurskaya Magistral’, BAM) is a railway line in Russia. Traversing Eastern Siberia and the Russian Far East, the 4,234 km (2,305
mile) long BAM runs about 610 to 770 km (380 to 480 miles) north of and parallel to the Trans-Siberian railway.
The BAM was built as a strategic alternative route to the Trans-Siberian Railway, especially along the vulnerable sections
close to the border with China. BAM's costs were estimated at $14 billion, and it was built with
special, durable tracks since much of it was built over permafrost.
History
The route of the present-day BAM was first considered in the 1880s as an option for the eastern section of the Trans-Siberian
railway.
The section from Tayshet to Bratsk was built in the 1930s.
Most of the Far Eastern section was built during the years of 1944-1946, mainly by gulag prisoners, including German
and Japanese prisoners of war, of whom possibly as many
as 150,000 died.[citation needed] In 1953, following Stalin's death, virtually all construction work on the BAM stopped and the line was abandoned to the
elements for more than twenty years. However, interest in the project never waned in part because of strained relations with China - a Chinese attack on the border-tracing Trans-Siberian railway would
have cut off transportation to the Russian far east[citation needed].
In March 1974, Soviet General Secretary
Leonid Brezhnev stated that a new BAM project would become a huge Komsomol undertaking. Brezhnev famously stated that "BAM will be constructed with clean hands only!" and firmly
rejected the suggestion to use prison labor again. The Soviet Union described BAM as "the construction project of the century." In September 1984, a "golden spike", akin to one used in Utah in 1869, was hammered into place, connecting the eastern and western
sections of the BAM. The Western media was not invited to attend this historic event as Soviet officials did not want any
comments about the line's operational status and working conditions of the construction workers. In reality, only one third of
the BAM's track was fully operational for civilians, due to military reasons.
The BAM and its creators have been criticised for their bad planning. Infrastructure and basic services like running water
were often not in place when workers arrived. The abuse of alcohol was extremely high and a lot workers left after a year, when
their contracts expired. At least 60 boomtowns developed around the route, but nowadays a lot
of these places are deserted and unemployment in the area is high. The building of the BAM has also been criticised for its
complete lack of environmental protection.
BAM was again declared complete in 1991. By then, the total cost to build the line was
US$14 billion.
A recent major improvement was the opening of the 15.343 km (9.534 mile) Severomuisk
Tunnel on December 5, 2003. It is up to 1.5 km (nearly 1
mile) deep. Construction took twenty-seven years to complete. Prior to this, the corresponding route segment was 54 km (34 miles)
long, with heavy slopes necessitating the use of auxiliary locomotives.
The railway now attracts thousands of Western railway enthusiasts each year.
Route
The BAM departs from the Trans-Siberian railway at Tayshet, then crosses the Angara River at Bratsk, crosses the Lena river, proceeds past Severobaikalsk at the northern tip of
Lake Baikal, past Tynda and Khani, crosses the Amur River at Komsomolsk-na-Amure and finally reaches the Pacific Ocean at
Sovetskaya Gavan. Of the whole route, the Tayshet-Taksimo sector of 1,469 km (913
miles) is electrified. There are 21 tunnels along the line, with a total length of 47 km (29 miles). There are also more than
4,200 bridges, with a total length of over 400 km (about 260 miles).
References
- Yates, Athol & Zvegintzov, Nicholas Siberian BAM Guide: Rail, Rivers & Road (1995, 2nd edition 2001,
Trailblazer Publications, England) ISBN 1-873756-18-6 (see excerpt)
- Brown, Dale M. and Mann, Martin, editors. Library of Nations: The Soviet Union. 1985. Time Life Books. Alexandria,
Virginia. ISBN 0-8094-5327-4
- Ward, C.J., ‘Selling the “Project of the Century”: Perceptions of the Baikal-Amur Mainline Railway (BAM) in the Soviet Press,
1974-1984’, Canadian Slavonic Papers (2001), 75-95.
- Victor L. Mote, ‘BAM after the fanfare: the unbearable ecumene’, in: John M. Steward, (ed.), The Soviet environment:
problems, policies and politics (Cambridge 1990), 40-54.
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