RLL Container Report - 07 December 2016
From: John Keir, Ross Learmont Ltd. Email: john.keir@telia.com Date: 07 December 2016
A bridge over troubled waters.
By the beginning of December, Russian Railway engineers had re-laid 619 km of a total 806 km of rail track on the Island of Sakhalin. Since the end of the war, when the USSR re-united the two halves of the island, Sakhalin boasted both a broad gauge line in the north of the island and a Japanese gauge (1067 mm) line in the southern half. Interestingly, RZD intends to continue using rolling stock on the narrower gauge network for the foreseeable future.
The Russian government has talked of eventually linking the Sakhalin rail network to the mainland. The ferry traffic between Vanino and Kholmsk is often cut off during high winds, as occurred on the 2nd of December. In February 2013, the officials announced plans to link Sakhalin Railway to the Baikal-Amur Magistral at Komsomolsk-na-Amur. The link would require some 540–580 km of new construction on the mainland, as well as a bridge across the Strait of Nevelskoy plus an additional 100 km of new track to connect the line to the existing network on Sakhalin. At first glance, connecting the Island to the mainland seems like a luxury the country could ill-afford, especially as there is the little matter of the Kerch Strait Bridge to be funded.
This major project is eating up much of the country’s road building budget. However, there is another important consideration – Japan, a stratovolcanic archipelago of 6,852 islands, none of which is connected to Eurasia. The inhabitants of the Land of the Rising Sun noted that Britain did not become less British after an Anglo-French consortium constructed the Eurotunnel under the English Channel. At 54 km, the Seikan Tunnel linking Hokkaido with the main Japanese islands is no longer than the proposed tunnel to Sakhalin, so Tokyo could just dust down the old engineering drawings and economic arguments to convince prospective investors to come up with the cash.
The major advantage for the Japanese is the direct access it would give them to the broad gauge rail network stretching as far as Europe, the Middle East and, of course, the rest of Asia. Japanese tourists could just board a train in Tokyo, then after a change on the mainland find themselves crossing Siberia and the Urals before finally arriving at Yaroslavsky Vokzal in Moscow at the eastern end of the European continent. Joining up with the rest of Asia, while at the same time having a direct rail link all the way from Sakhalin into mainland Russia, the CIS and the whole of Europe should be incentive enough for Japanese industry.
Japanese agriculturalists are already busy exploiting the rich farming around Vladivostok and this successful co-operation could be extended in other sectors of Russian industry, including forestry and mining. However, the major attraction for all those weary travellers crammed sardine-like on Tokyo underground might simply be the peace and tranquillity of a small wooden “izba” on the shore of a remote Russian lake.
Grab a beer, sit back, take in the scenery and chill out big time, Takahashi san! Welcome to the party!
John Keir, Ross Learmont Ltd.
07 December 2016
Copyright ©, 2016, John Keir