The Baikal–Amur Mainline (, , , ) is a
broad-gauge railway
Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...
line in
Russia
Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...
. Traversing
Eastern Siberia
Eastern Siberia is a part of Siberia that incorporates the territory located between the Yenisei River in the west and the Pacific Ocean divides in the east. Its area is equal to 7.2 million sq. km.Galina Samoylova (Г. С. Самойлова)В� ...
and the
Russian Far East
The Russian Far East ( rus, Дальний Восток России, p=ˈdalʲnʲɪj vɐˈstok rɐˈsʲiɪ) is a region in North Asia. It is the easternmost part of Russia and the Asia, Asian continent, and is coextensive with the Far Easte ...
, the -long BAM runs about 610 to 770 km (380 to 480 miles) north of and parallel to the
Trans-Siberian Railway
The Trans-Siberian Railway, historically known as the Great Siberian Route and often shortened to Transsib, is a large railway system that connects European Russia to the Russian Far East. Spanning a length of over , it is the longest railway ...
.
The
Soviet Union
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
built the BAM as a strategic alternative route to the Trans–Siberian Railway, seen as vulnerable especially along the sections close to the border with
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
. The BAM cost $14 billion, and it was built with special, durable tracks since much of it ran over
permafrost
Permafrost () is soil or underwater sediment which continuously remains below for two years or more; the oldest permafrost has been continuously frozen for around 700,000 years. Whilst the shallowest permafrost has a vertical extent of below ...
. Due to the severe terrain, weather, length and cost, Soviet general secretary
Leonid Brezhnev
Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev (19 December 190610 November 1982) was a Soviet politician who served as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1964 until Death and state funeral of Leonid Brezhnev, his death in 1982 as w ...
described BAM in 1974 as "the construction project of the century".
If the permafrost layer that supports the BAM railway line were to melt, the railway would collapse and sink into
peat bog
A bog or bogland is a wetland that accumulates peat as a deposit of dead plant materials often mosses, typically sphagnum moss. It is one of the four main types of wetlands. Other names for bogs include mire, mosses, quagmire, and muske ...
layers that cannot bear its weight. In 2016 and 2018 there were reports about climate change and damage to buildings and infrastructure as a result of thawing permafrost.
Route

The BAM departs from the Trans-Siberian railway at
Tayshet, then crosses the
Angara River at
Bratsk
Bratsk (, ; ) is a Types of inhabited localities in Russia, city in Irkutsk Oblast, Russia, located on the Angara, Angara River near the vast Bratsk Reservoir. It had population of .
Etymology
The name of the city, which is from the same ro ...
and the
Lena River
The Lena is a river in the Russian Far East and is the easternmost river of the three great rivers of Siberia which flow into the Arctic Ocean, the others being Ob (river), Ob and Yenisey. The Lena River is long and has a capacious drainage basi ...
at
Ust-Kut, proceeds past
Severobaikalsk at the northern tip of
Lake Baikal
Lake Baikal is a rift lake and the deepest lake in the world. It is situated in southern Siberia, Russia between the Federal subjects of Russia, federal subjects of Irkutsk Oblast, Irkutsk Oblasts of Russia, Oblast to the northwest and the Repu ...
, past
Tynda and
Khani, crosses the
Amur River
The Amur River () or Heilong River ( zh, s=黑龙江) is a perennial river in Northeast Asia, forming the natural border between the Russian Far East and Northeast China (historically the Outer and Inner Manchuria). The Amur ''proper'' is ...
at
Komsomolsk-on-Amur
Komsomolsk-on-Amur ( rus, Комсомольск-на-Амуре, r=Komsomolsk-na-Amure, p=kəmsɐˈmolʲsk nɐ‿ɐˈmurʲə) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city in Khabarovsk Krai, Russia, located on the west bank of the Amur R ...
and finally reaches the
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...
at
Sovetskaya Gavan
Sovetskaya Gavan () 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. Population:
It was previously known as Imperatorskaya Gavan (Им ...
. There are 21 tunnels along the line, with a total length of . There are also more than 4,200 bridges, with a total length of over .
Of the whole route, only the western Tayshet-
Taksimo sector of is electrified. The route is largely single-track, although the reservation is wide enough for double-tracking for its full length, in the case of eventual duplication. The unusual thing about the railway is that it is electrified with a 27.5 kV, 50 Hz catenary minimum height at above top of the rails to suit double-stacking under the overhead wires on the
Russian gauge
Russian(s) may refer to:
*Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*A citizen of Russia
*Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages
*''The Russians'', a b ...
tracks, which requires rolling stock to be modified for service on the railway.
At Tynda the route is crossed by the
Amur–Yakutsk Mainline, which runs north to
Neryungri
Neryungri ( rus, Нерюнгри, p=ˈnʲerʲʊnɡrʲɪ; , ; ) is the second largest town in the Sakha Republic, Russia and the administrative center of Neryungrinsky District. As of the 2010 Census, its population was 61,747.
Etymology
...
and
Tommot, with an extension to
Nizhny Bestyakh opened in 2019. The original section of the AYaM connecting the Trans-Siberian at Bamovskaya with the BAM at Tynda is also referred to as the "Little BAM".
During the winter the passenger trains go from
Moscow
Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...
past
Tayshet and
Tynda to
Neryungri
Neryungri ( rus, Нерюнгри, p=ˈnʲerʲʊnɡrʲɪ; , ; ) is the second largest town in the Sakha Republic, Russia and the administrative center of Neryungrinsky District. As of the 2010 Census, its population was 61,747.
Etymology
...
and
Tommot and there are also a daily trains from Tynda to
Komsomolsk-on-Amur
Komsomolsk-on-Amur ( rus, Комсомольск-на-Амуре, r=Komsomolsk-na-Amure, p=kəmsɐˈmolʲsk nɐ‿ɐˈmurʲə) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city in Khabarovsk Krai, Russia, located on the west bank of the Amur R ...
and from Komsomolsk-on-Amur to
Sovetskaya Gavan
Sovetskaya Gavan () 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. Population:
It was previously known as Imperatorskaya Gavan (Им ...
on the
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...
via
Vanino (''"Vladivostok-Sovetskaya Gavan"'' train No.351Э). Travel time from Tayshet to Tynda is 48 hours.
Travel time from Tynda to Komsomolsk-on-Amur is 36 hours.
Travel time from Komsomolsk-on-Amur to Sovetskaya Gavan is 13 hours.
There are ten tunnels along the BAM railway, totaling of route. They include:
*
Baikalsky tunnel
*
Severomuysky Tunnel
*
Kodar Tunnell
*
Dusse Alin Tunnel
*
Korshunovsky tunnel
These are among the longest tunnels in Russia.
In addition, the route crosses 11 full-flowing rivers (including the
Lena,
Amur
The Amur River () or Heilong River ( zh, s=黑龙江) is a perennial river in Northeast Asia, forming the natural border between the Russian Far East and Northeast China (historically the Outer Manchuria, Outer and Inner Manchuria). The Amur ...
,
Zeya,
Vitim,
Olyokma,
Selemdzha and
Bureya).
In total, 2230 large and small bridges were built on it.
History
Early plans and start of construction
The route of the present-day BAM first came under consideration in the 1880s as an option for the eastern section of the planned Trans-Siberian railway.
In the 1930s,
labor-camp
A labor camp (or labour camp, see spelling differences) or work camp is a detention facility where inmates are forced to engage in penal labor as a form of punishment. Labor camps have many common aspects with slavery and with prisons (especi ...
inmates, in particular from the
Bamlag camp of the
Gulag
The Gulag was a system of Labor camp, forced labor camps in the Soviet Union. The word ''Gulag'' originally referred only to the division of the Chronology of Soviet secret police agencies, Soviet secret police that was in charge of runnin ...
system, built the section from Tayshet to
Bratsk
Bratsk (, ; ) is a Types of inhabited localities in Russia, city in Irkutsk Oblast, Russia, located on the Angara, Angara River near the vast Bratsk Reservoir. It had population of .
Etymology
The name of the city, which is from the same ro ...
. In a confusing transfer of names, the label ''BAM'' applied from 1933 to 1935 to the project to double-track the Trans-Siberian east of Lake Baikal, constructed largely using forced labor.
1945 saw the finalisation of plans for upgrading the BAM for diesel or electric instead of steam traction, and for the heavier axle-loads of eight-axle oil tankers to carry new-found oil from Western Siberia. The upgrading required 25 years and 3,000 surveyors and designers, although much of the redesign work (particularly as regards the central section) took place between 1967 and 1974.
[
]
Construction project of the century
In March 1974, Soviet General Secretary
Secretary is a title often used in organizations to indicate a person having a certain amount of authority, Power (social and political), power, or importance in the organization. Secretaries announce important events and communicate to the org ...
Brezhnev proposed that the BAM would be one of the two major projects in the Tenth Five Year Plan (1976–80).[ He famously stated that "BAM will be constructed with clean hands only!" and firmly rejected the suggestion to again use prison labor. A few weeks later, he challenged the Young Communist League (]Komsomol
The All-Union Leninist Young Communist League, usually known as Komsomol, was a political youth organization in the Soviet Union. It is sometimes described as the youth division of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), although it w ...
) to join in "the construction project of the century".[ The 17th ]Komsomol
The All-Union Leninist Young Communist League, usually known as Komsomol, was a political youth organization in the Soviet Union. It is sometimes described as the youth division of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), although it w ...
congress (held in April 1974) announced the BAM as a Komsomol shock construction project, created the central Komsomol headquarters of BAM construction, and appointed Dmitry Filippov the chief of the headquarters.
By the end of 1974, perhaps 50,000 young people of the 156,000 young people who applied had moved to the BAM service area. In 1975 and 1976, 28 new settlements were inaugurated and 70 new bridges, including the Amur and Lena bridges, were erected. And while of track was laid, the track-laying rate would have needed to nearly triple to meet the 1983 deadline.[
In September 1984, a "]golden spike
The golden spike (also known as the last spike) is the ceremonial 17.6-Carat (purity), karat gold final Rail spike, spike driven by Leland Stanford to join the rails of the first transcontinental railroad across the United States connecting t ...
" 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. In reality, only one third of the BAM's track was fully operational for civilians, due to military reasons.
The BAM was again declared complete in 1991. By then, the total cost to build the line was US$
The United States dollar (Currency symbol, symbol: Dollar sign, $; ISO 4217, currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and International use of the U.S. dollar, several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introdu ...
14 billion
Billion is a word for a large number, and it has two distinct definitions:
* 1,000,000,000, i.e. one thousand million, or (ten to the ninth power), as defined on the short scale. This is now the most common sense of the word in all varieties of ...
( RU₽106 trillion
''Trillion'' is a number with two distinct definitions:
*1,000,000,000,000, i.e. one million 1,000,000, million, or (ten to the twelfth Exponentiation, power), as defined on the long and short scales, short scale. This is now the meaning in bot ...
).
Crisis
Beginning in the mid-1980s, the BAM project attracted increasing criticism for having been poorly planned. Infrastructure and basic services like running water were often not in place when workers arrived. At least 60 boomtown
A boomtown is a community that undergoes sudden and rapid population and economic growth, or that is started from scratch. The growth is normally attributed to the nearby discovery of a precious resource such as gold, silver, or oil, although t ...
s developed along the route, but today many of these places are deserted ghost town
A ghost town, deserted city, extinct town, or abandoned city is an abandoned settlement, usually one that contains substantial visible remaining buildings and infrastructure such as roads. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economi ...
s and unemployment in the area is high. The building of the BAM has also been criticised for its complete lack of environmental protection.
When the Soviet Union was dissolved, numerous mining and industrial projects in the region were cancelled and the BAM was greatly underutilized until the late 1990s, running at a large operational deficit.
In 1996, the BAM as a single operational body was dissolved, with the western section from Tayshet to Khani becoming the East Siberian Railway and the rest transferred to the management of the Far Eastern Railway.
During the Russo-Ukrainian War
The Russo-Ukrainian War began in February 2014 and is ongoing. Following Ukraine's Revolution of Dignity, Russia Russian occupation of Crimea, occupied and Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, annexed Crimea from Ukraine. It then ...
, on November 30, 2023, an explosion occurred in the Severomuysky Tunnel. A second explosion happened soon thereafter on the bypass used as backup for the tunnel. The Security Service of Ukraine claimed responsibility for the explosions.
Current situation and future prospects
A major improvement was the opening of the Severomuysky Tunnel on 5 December 2003. It is up to 1.5 kilometres (nearly 1 mile) deep. Construction took 27 years to complete. Prior to this, the corresponding route segment was long, with heavy slopes necessitating the use of auxiliary bank engine
A bank engine (United Kingdom/Australia) (colloquially a banker), banking engine, helper engine or pusher engine (North America) is a railway locomotive that temporarily assists a train that requires additional power or traction to climb a grad ...
locomotives.
With the resources boom of recent years and improving economic conditions in Russia, use of the line is increasing. Plans exist for the development of mining areas such as '' Udokanskoye'' and ''Chineyskoye'' near Novaya Chara, as well as one of Eurasia
Eurasia ( , ) is a continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. According to some geographers, Physical geography, physiographically, Eurasia is a single supercontinent. The concept of Europe and Asia as distinct continents d ...
's largest coal deposits at Elginskoye (Elga) in the Sakha Republic
Sakha, officially the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), is a republics of Russia, republic of Russia, and the largest federal subject of Russia by area. It is located in the Russian Far East, along the Arctic Ocean, with a population of one million ...
(Yakutia). In connection with this, a number of branch lines have been built or are under construction.
In January 2012 the Russian mining company Mechel
Mechel () is one of Russia's mining and metals companies, comprising producers of coal, iron ore in concentrate, steel, rolled steel products. Headquartered in Moscow, it sells its products in Russia and overseas, and is formally known as ''Public ...
completed the construction of the 320-kilometre-long branch line to Elginskoye, branching from the BAM station Ulak, west of the Zeya River
The Zeya (; from indigenous Evenki word "djee" (blade); zh, 结雅; mnc, m= , Mölendroff: jingkiri bira) is a northern, left tributary of the Amur in Amur Oblast, Russia. It is long, and has a drainage basin of . The average flow of the rive ...
crossing in northwestern Amur Oblast
Amur Oblast () is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast), located on the banks of the Amur and Zeya rivers in the Russian Far East. The oblast borders Heilongjiang province of the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the south.
The administrati ...
. The branch line connects the Elginskoye coal mine to the Russian railroad network.
Currently under discussion is the construction of a bridge or tunnel under the Strait of Tartary
Strait of Tartary or Gulf of Tartary (; ; ; ) is a strait in the Pacific Ocean dividing the Russian island of Sakhalin from mainland Asia (South-East Russia), connecting the Sea of Okhotsk ( Nevelskoy Strait) on the north with the Sea of Japan ...
to Sakhalin Island
Sakhalin ( rus, Сахали́н, p=səxɐˈlʲin) is an island in Northeast Asia. Its north coast lies off the southeastern coast of Khabarovsk Krai in Russia, while its southern tip lies north of the Japanese island of Hokkaido. An islan ...
, with the possibility of the further construction of a bridge or tunnel from Sakhalin to Japan. A tunnel from the mainland to Sakhalin was previously begun under Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...
, but was abandoned after his death. A second attempt in 2003 was also postponed during construction. Current economic conditions make the short-term completion of the tunnel doubtful, although Russian president Dmitry Medvedev
Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev (born 14 September 1965) is a Russian politician and lawyer who has served as Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of Russia since 2020. Medvedev was also President of Russia between 2008 and 2012 and Prime Mini ...
announced in November 2008 his support for a revival of this project.
The BAM now also attracts the interest of Western railway enthusiasts, with some tourist activity on the line.[
Also, the BAM itself extension from Komsomolsk-on-Amur to Magadan (Okhotsk coastal route), full length electrification, full length track doubling, and double-stacking under the overhead wires on the Russian gauge tracks (with well cars to make 6.15m height) are proposed.
]
Along the BAM
Tayshet to Lake Baikal :[
Lake Baikal to Tynda :
Tynda to Komsomolsk :
Komsomolsk to Sovetskaya Gavan :
This section was completed by prisoners during ]World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, except for the section east of Komsomolsk which was completed in 1974.
In April 2008 the state-owned Bamtonnelstroy corporation started work on the new single-track Kuznetsovsky Tunnel to bypass an older tunnel built in 1943–1945. It was opened in December 2012. The old tunnel had difficult gradients; building the new tunnel relieved a bottleneck on the BAM. The 59.8 bn roubles (about $1.93 bn) project included of new track. In 2010, Yakunin had said, the stretch between Komsomolsk and Sovetskaya Gavan was the weakest link on the BAM, which, he said, could be carrying 100 million tons of freight a year in 2050.
Branches
* 575: Khrebtovaya to Ust-Ilimsk, : opened in 1970, it runs northeast to serve the Ust-Ilimsk Dam.
*1,257: Novy Uoyan: possible start of line south on east side to Lake Baikal.
*2,364: Tynda to the Trans-Siberian at Bamovskaya, (the 'Little BAM'): this branch was built by prisoners in 1933–37, torn up in 1942 and its rails shipped to the front and rebuilt in 1972–75.
*2,364: Tynda to Yakutsk: see Amur–Yakutsk Mainline.
*3,315: Novy Urgal to the Trans-Siberian at Izvestovskaya, : in the Bureya River basin, it was built mostly by Japanese POWs. There is a branch north from Novy Urgal to the Chegdomyn coal fields.
*3,837: Komsomolsk south to Khabarovsk, ; on east side (flood plain) of the Amur. south: Lake Bolon
Lake Bolon () is a large freshwater lake in the Khabarovsk Krai, Russia. It has an area of 338 km²; it is 70 km long and 20 km wide, and has a maximum depth of about 4 m. It is located on the broad west-bank flood plain of the Amur ...
.
* 51 (line km restart at Komsomolsk): Selikhin to Cherny Mys, : north along the Amur. Built 1950–53, it was planned to extend this to a tunnel to Sakhalin Island. There is talk of restarting it.
The BAM road
Running approximately alongside the railway track is the BAM road, a railway service track. It is said to be in a very poor state, with collapsed bridges, dangerous river crossings, severe potholes and "unrelenting energy-sapping bogs". The narrow, dilapidated Vitim River Bridge (aka Kuandinsky Bridge) that crosses the Vitim river has attracted attention since its first appearance on social media in 2009. The passage of the bridge is forbidden since 2016 but remains a common road for individuals to reach the town of Koanda.
The road is passable only by the most extreme off-road vehicle
An off-road vehicle (ORV), also known as an off-highway vehicle (OHV), overland vehicle or adventure vehicle, is a type of transportation specifically engineered to navigate unpaved roads and surfaces. These include trails, forest roads, and ...
s and adventure motorcycles. In 2009, a group of three experienced motorcycle riders took a whole month to travel from Komsomolsk (in the east) to Lake Baikal
Lake Baikal is a rift lake and the deepest lake in the world. It is situated in southern Siberia, Russia between the Federal subjects of Russia, federal subjects of Irkutsk Oblast, Irkutsk Oblasts of Russia, Oblast to the northwest and the Repu ...
.
Honors
Main belt asteroid 2031 BAM, discovered in 1969 by Soviet
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
astronomer Lyudmila Chernykh
Lyudmila Ivanivna Chernykh (; ; June 13, 1935 – July 28, 2017) was a Ukrainian- Russian-Soviet astronomer, wife and colleague of Nikolai Stepanovich Chernykh, and a prolific discoverer of minor planets.
Professional career
Chernykh was bo ...
, is named in honor of the builders of the BAM.
Gallery
File:Tynda rail.jpg, Railway station at Tynda
File:Vikhorevka.jpg, Railway station at Vikhorevka
File:Fevralsk_train_station,_Amur_region,_Russia.jpg, Railway station at Fevralsk
File:Tayshet_old.jpg, Old station building at Tayshet
File:Railway troops on the construction of BAM-2. July 2022.png, Railway troops on the construction of BAM-2. July 2022
References
External links
*
Construction history of the BAM
Private homepage about the BAM (section in English)
BAM Guide on Trailblazer Publications website
The Baikal Amur Mainline is a popular adventure motorcycle travel route
{{DEFAULTSORT:Baikal-Amur Mainline
Gulag industry
Railway lines in Russia
Rail transport in the Soviet Union
Rail transport in Siberia
Rail transport in the Russian Far East
1520 mm gauge railways in Russia
Chief Directorate of Railroad Construction Camps
Megaprojects
Rail transport in the Jewish Autonomous Oblast