Far Eastern Railway (russian: Дальневосточная железная дорога) is a

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

that crosses

Primorsky Krai Primorsky Krai (russian: Приморский край, r=Primorsky kray, p=prʲɪˈmorskʲɪj kraj), informally known as Primorye (, ), is a federal subject (a krai) of Russia, located in the Far East region of the country and is a part of the ...

Khabarovsk Krai Khabarovsk Krai ( rus, Хабаровский край, r=Khabarovsky kray, p=xɐˈbarəfskʲɪj kraj) is a federal subject (a krai) of Russia. It is geographically located in the Russian Far East and is a part of the Far Eastern Federal District ...

Amur Oblast Amur Oblast ( rus, Аму́рская о́бласть, r=Amurskaya oblast, p=ɐˈmurskəjə ˈobləsʲtʲ) is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast), located on the banks of the Amur and Zeya Rivers in the Russian Far East. The administrative ...

Jewish Autonomous Oblast The Jewish Autonomous Oblast (JAO; russian: Евре́йская автоно́мная о́бласть, (ЕАО); yi, ייִדישע אװטאָנאָמע געגנט, ; )In standard Yiddish: , ''Yidishe Oytonome Gegnt'' is a federal subject ...

, and

Yakutia Sakha, officially the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia),, is the largest republic of Russia, located in the Russian Far East, along the Arctic Ocean, with a population of roughly 1 million. Sakha comprises half of the area of its governing Far Eas ...

.Information on the official website
/ref>

Information

The railway administration is located in

Khabarovsk Khabarovsk ( rus, Хабaровск, a=Хабаровск.ogg, r=Habárovsk, p=xɐˈbarəfsk) is the largest types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and the administrative centre of Khabarovsk Krai, Russia,Law #109 located from the China ...

. The Far Eastern Railway borders with the

Transbaikal Railway The Trans-Baikal Railway (Забайкальская железная дорога) is a subsidiary of the Russian Railways headquartered in Chita and serving Zabaykalsky Krai and Amur Oblast. The mainline was built between 1895 and 1905 as part ...

Arkhara Arkhara (russian: Архара) is an Urban-type settlement and the administrative center of the Arkharinsky District in Amur Oblast, Russia. It is located at the junction of the Transbaikal Railway and the Far Eastern Railway Far Eastern Rail ...

Station and

Baikal Amur Mainline Lake Baikal (, russian: Oзеро Байкал, Ozero Baykal ); mn, Байгал нуур, Baigal nuur) is a rift lake in Russia. It is situated in southern Siberia, between the Federal subjects of Russia, federal subjects of Irkutsk Oblast, I ...

at Izvestkovaya and

Komsomolsk-on-Amur Komsomolsk-on-Amur ( rus, Комсомольск-на-Амуре, r=Komsomolsk-na-Amure, p=kəmsɐˈmolʲsk nɐɐˈmurʲə) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city in Khabarovsk Krai, Russia, located on the west bank of the Amur Rive ...

Stations. There are 365 railway stations along the Far Eastern Railway and two

border crossing Border control refers to measures taken by governments to monitor and regulate the movement of people, animals, and goods across land, air, and maritime borders. While border control is typically associated with international borders, it a ...

Grodekovo Pogranichny (russian: Пограни́чный) is an urban locality (an urban-type settlement) and the administrative center of Pogranichny District of Primorsky Krai, Russia, located east of the China–Russia border and northwest of Vladivo ...

(Russo-

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...

border) and Khasan (a border between Russia and

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu River, Y ...

). The Railway consists of four divisions: the Khabarovsk Railway Division, Vladivostok Railway Division, Komsomolskoye Railway Division, and Tynda Railway Division. The biggest points of cargo departure and arrival are Khabarovsk-2, Izvestkovaya,

Birobidzhan Birobidzhan ( rus, Биробиджа́н, p=bʲɪrəbʲɪˈdʐan; yi, ביראָבידזשאַן, ''Birobidzhan'') is a town and the administrative center of the Jewish Autonomous Oblast, Russia, located on the Trans-Siberian Railway, near th ...

, Volochayevka-2, Komsomolsk-on-Amur,

Sovetskaya Gavan Sovetskaya Gavan (russian: Сове́тская Га́вань, lit. ''Soviet harbor'') is a town in Khabarovsk Krai, Russia, and a port on the Strait of Tartary which connects the Sea of Okhotsk in the north with the Sea of Japan in the south. P ...

Sibirtsevo Sibirtsevo (russian: Сиби́рцево) is an urban locality (an urban-type settlement) in Chernigovsky District of Primorsky Krai, Russia. Population: History It was originally named Manzovka () and was renamed after Vsevolod Sibirtsev, Ser ...

Ussuriysk Ussuriysk (russian: Уссури́йск) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city in Primorsky Krai, Russia, located in the fertile valley of the Razdolnaya River, north of Vladivostok, the administrative center of the krai, and about ...

, Baranovsky, Uglovaya,

Vladivostok Vladivostok ( rus, Владивосто́к, a=Владивосток.ogg, p=vɫədʲɪvɐˈstok) is the largest city and the administrative center of Primorsky Krai, Russia. The city is located around the Zolotoy Rog, Golden Horn Bay on the Sea ...

Nakhodka Nakhodka ( rus, Нахо́дка, p=nɐˈxotkə) is a port city in Primorsky Krai, Russia, located on the Trudny Peninsula jutting into the Nakhodka Bay of the Sea of Japan, about east of Vladivostok, the administrative center of the krai. Po ...

, Nakhodka Vostochnaya, and Vanino.

Statistics

*Total working length: *Number of employees: 50,331 *Net weight hauled: 51,736 million

tonne The tonne ( or ; symbol: t) is a unit of mass equal to 1000 kilograms. It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with SI. It is also referred to as a metric ton to distinguish it from the non-metric units of the short ton ( United State ...

s *Long-distance passenger traffic: 5 million people *Suburban traffic: 19,990 million people

History

The construction of the Far Eastern Railway commenced in May 1891 due to the economic development of the

Russian Far East The Russian Far East (russian: Дальний Восток России, r=Dal'niy Vostok Rossii, p=ˈdalʲnʲɪj vɐˈstok rɐˈsʲiɪ) is a region in Northeast Asia. It is the easternmost part of Russia and the Asian continent; and is admini ...

. In 1895, they opened regular train service between Vladivostok and Iman (today's Dalnerechenskaya railway station). In 1897, they commissioned the Khabarovsk-Vladivostok line. Direct train traffic from the Arkhara railway station to Vladivostok was launched in 1916 with the commissioning of the railroad bridge over the Amur River near Khabarovsk. More than 5,000 railmen were employed at the Far Eastern Railway in 1900. Khabarovsk-1 railway station

During the

Russian Civil War , date = October Revolution, 7 November 1917 – Yakut revolt, 16 June 1923{{Efn, The main phase ended on 25 October 1922. Revolt against the Bolsheviks continued Basmachi movement, in Central Asia and Tungus Republic, the Far East th ...

and the foreign military intervention the employees of the Far Eastern Railway had to rebuild destroyed bridges and damaged tracks and ensure stable traffic of urgent loads. Rail line restoration began in the winter of 1924-1925 from the reconstruction of the Khabarovsk Bridge due to the importance of resuming a through traffic over the

Trans-Siberian Railway The Trans-Siberian Railway (TSR; , , ) connects European Russia to the Russian Far East. Spanning a length of over , it is the longest railway line in the world. It runs from the city of Moscow in the west to the city of Vladivostok in the ea ...

. In 1929, they built the Nadezhdinskaya-Tavrichanka line for the needs of the Primorsky Krai (for the servicing of agricultural regions near the

Khanka Lake Lake Khanka (russian: о́зеро Ха́нка) or Lake Xingkai (), is a freshwater lake on the border between Primorsky Krai, Russia and Heilongjiang province, Northeast China (at ). Etymology On the Delisle map of 1706, the lake is named ...

, in particular). In 1931, they finished the construction of the Sibirtsevo-Turiy Rog line. In 1935–1936, they reconstructed the Uglovaya-

Partizansk Partizansk (russian: Партиза́нск) is a town in Primorsky Krai, Russia, located on a spur of the Sikhote-Alin Mountains, about east of Vladivostok, the administrative center of the krai. As of the 2010 census, the population is popu ...

line due to the increasing extraction of

coking coal Metallurgical coal or coking coal is a grade of coal that can be used to produce good-quality coke. Coke is an essential fuel and reactant in the blast furnace process for primary steelmaking. The demand for metallurgical coal is highly coupled ...

from the Suchansky coalfields. In 1940, they commissioned the Volochayevka-Komsomolsk-on-Amur line and Sibirtsevo-Varfolomeyevka line. In 1941, they finished the construction of the Birobidzhan-Leninsk line and Partizansk-Nakhodka section and commissioned the Smolyaninovo-Dunai, Partizansk-Sergeyevka, and Baranovsky-Gvozdevo lines. In 1940, they finished the construction of the main eastward sorting station called Khabarovsk-2 with a fully mechanized

hump yard A classification yard (American and Canadian English (Canadian National Railway use)), marshalling yard (British, Hong Kong, Indian, Australian, and Canadian English (Canadian Pacific Railway use)) or shunting yard (Central Europe) is a railway ya ...

. By the outbreak of the

Great Patriotic War The Eastern Front of World War II was a theatre of conflict between the European Axis powers against the Soviet Union (USSR), Poland and other Allies, which encompassed Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Northeast Europe (Baltics), and Sout ...

, the Far Eastern Railway had already had a well-developed infrastructure. It was put on a war footing in a very short period of time and began supplying the Eastern Front with military equipment, ammunition, and provisions. The railway management provided frontline railroads with staff,

rolling stock The term rolling stock in the rail transport industry refers to railway vehicles, including both powered and unpowered vehicles: for example, locomotives, freight and passenger cars (or coaches), and non-revenue cars. Passenger vehicles can b ...

, spare parts, and materials. Also, the Far Eastern Railway played an important role in assisting the

Soviet Army uk, Радянська армія , image = File:Communist star with golden border and red rims.svg , alt = , caption = Emblem of the Soviet Army , start_date ...

in defeating the Imperial Japanese Army and seizing Southern Sakhalin and the

Kuril Islands The Kuril Islands or Kurile Islands (; rus, Кури́льские острова́, r=Kuril'skiye ostrova, p=kʊˈrʲilʲskʲɪjə ɐstrɐˈva; Japanese: or ) are a volcanic archipelago currently administered as part of Sakhalin Oblast in the ...

In 1947, the Komsomolsk-on-Amur—

line was commissioned, providing the second (after the Trans-Siberian Railway) railroad access to the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

and cutting the distance in 1000 km for maritime transportation to Sakhalin, Kamchatka, and Magadan Oblast. Due to the lack of bridge crossing over the Amur River near Komsomolsk-on-Amur, railcars crossed the river on a

train ferry A train ferry is a ship (ferry) designed to carry railway vehicles. Typically, one level of the ship is fitted with railway tracks, and the vessel has a door at the front and/or rear to give access to the wharves. In the United States, train f ...

in the summertime and with special train platforms during the winter. In 1963, the gauge South Sakhalin Railway was incorporated into the Far Eastern Railway. In 1973, Vanino-Kholmsk train ferry started operating, improving transportation service in Sakhalin. In 1975, a unique railway river crossing over the Amur River near Komsomolsk-on-Amur was commissioned, providing a continuous year-round railway service between Volochayevka and Sovetskaya Gavan. New

rail yard A rail yard, railway yard, railroad yard (US) or simply yard, is a series of tracks in a rail network for storing, sorting, or loading and unloading rail vehicles and locomotives. Yards have many tracks in parallel for keeping rolling stock or u ...

s, such as Toki, Komsomolsk-Sortirovochniy, Nakhodka Vostochnaya etc. were opened.

Future plans

The Far Eastern Railway management is hoping to implement the idea of constructing the

Trans-Korean Main Line The Trans-Korean Main Line is a project to build railway infrastructure in North Korea, and allow rail freight to travel between South Korea and Russia; it is hoped to halve the time taken to transport freight from eastern Asia to Europe and ear ...

and then connect it with the Trans-Siberian Railway one day. Indeed, further development of the Khasan—

Tumangang Tumangang-rodongjagu ( ko, 두만강로동자구) is a neighbourhood in Sonbong, Rason, North Korea, near the China–North Korea–Russia tripoint where the borders of the three countries converge. It is also the closest town in North Korea to ...

border crossing may provide additional 10 million tonnes of cargo per year, according to some forecasts, let alone a potential two-way traffic of up to 200,000 cargo containers per year from the port of

Busan Busan (), officially known as is South Korea's most populous city after Seoul, with a population of over 3.4 million inhabitants. Formerly romanized as Pusan, it is the economic, cultural and educational center of southeastern South Korea, w ...

. The

—

Suifenhe City Suifenhe () is a county-level city in southeastern Heilongjiang province, People's Republic of China, located where the former Chinese Eastern Railway crosses the border with Russia's town of Pogranichny, Primorsky Krai. In January 2014, Suife ...

border crossing in Primorsky Krai also plays an important role in the Russo-Chinese economic relations. The freight traffic between the two countries increases by one million tonnes per year. Strong ties with the ports and the neighboring Harbin Railway and coordination of joint efforts in restoring and modernizing railway stations allows to forecast an almost two-fold increase of freight traffic by 2010 in South

Primorye Primorsky Krai (russian: Приморский край, r=Primorsky kray, p=prʲɪˈmorskʲɪj kraj), informally known as Primorye (, ), is a federal subject (a krai) of Russia, located in the Far East region of the country and is a part of the ...

References

External links