Russia and China signed a deal earlier this week for China to construct a high speed railway between national capital Moscow and Kazan. Capital of the Republic of Tartarstan, Kazan lies 800 kilometers to the west of the nation's capital.
Since then, it has been confirmed by both sides that the Moscow-Kazan line will be but the first step segment in an eventual 7,000 kilometer line connecting Moscow to Beijing. The high-speed Trans-Siberian will cut a week-long journey down to just two days.
The RMB 1.5 trillion project will is expected to encounter some geographical and technical obstacles and require new innovations for China-built high speed trains to withstand the extreme Siberian cold. Flights regularly serving Beijing and Moscow take only nine hours, but the rail link will enable more passengers to make the journey and, more importantly, ease cross-country logistics.
Constructed between 1891 and 1916, the Trans-Siberian Railway is a travel icon that can be found on bucket lists worldwide, but high speed technology may soon turn the once-epic passage across the Eurasian supercontinent into but a brief overnight jaunt. Sentimentalists, romantics and Luddites, better make that Trans-Siberian trip soon while the magic lasts!
Unlike the proposed trans-Pacific underwater high speed rail link between China and California, this project is actually going to happen - completion is expected within the next decade.
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