Facts about Trans-Siberian Railway

The railway through the Eurasian continent
Trans-Siberian railway is the railway network through the Eurasian continent, connecting the European part of the Russian Federation, the main industrial areas of the capital with the central (Siberia) and eastern regions (Far East), Mongolia, China and the Sea of Japan.

Longest railway in the world
The length of the railway is exactly 9288.2 kilometers and is the longest railway in the world. It passes through eight time zones and clocks in the train are adjusted at Moscow time. Since 2002 it has been fully electrified.

24 years construction
The construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway began in 1891 and was completed in 1916. Over the decades has fascinated many generations that consider it as special means of transport with a new perspective on travel.

Bridge and tunnel of two kilometers
The longest bridge on the Trans Siberian Railway is long 2612 meters, and the longest tunnel on the route is long as much as two kilometers.

62,000 workers
The construction of the railway was divided into seven sections. On the constructing the railway were working soldiers and prisoners, but also the workers who came from other parts of the country – a total of 62,000. Info about Trans Siberian Express

87 cities and towns and 16 big rivers

Trans-Siberian Railway passes through 87 cities and towns, and some of them are Moscow, St. Petersburg, Omsk, Irkutsk, Chita, Vladivostok … You cross the 16 big rivers like Volga, Ova, Ural, Oka, Amur and other …

153 hours and 49 minutes
The journey from Moscow to Vladivostok takes exactly 153 hours and 49 minutes, and the train is usually not delayed or delayed minimum, an hour or two. At the station in Moscow stands an obelisk that marks the prime, and in Vladivostok, the same, which means the 9288th kilometer.

Speed up to 100 kmh / 60 mph
In recent years in the railroad has invested about 11 billion dollars to help speed of freight trains increased to 100 kilometers per hour (60 mph), which would shorten the transportation of cargo by fifteen to seven days.

Golden Eagle train
Golden Eagle is a train on the route from Moscow to Vladivostok, and it’s a train that leaves no one indifferent. Every traveler has, in addition to a coupe, a separate bathroom. In the train is at any moment available doctor.

Icebreaker
One of the biggest obstacles in the construction of railways was Lake Baikal, 60 km east of Irkutsk. Lake Baikal is 640 km long and over 1,600 meters deep. The railway is ended on both sides of the lake and a special icebreaker was purchased from England to connect the railway until the part of railway is complete near the south shore of the lake.

750,000 employees in 1905
By 1905 on the Russian Railways was about 1,500 locomotives and 30,000 wagons and on the rail is employed around 750,000 people, who were receiving around 50% higher salary than the average.

30% of Russian exports
About 30% of Russian exports are transported via this railway. After the collapse of the USSR and the opening of borders of Russia, rail has become popular for foreign tourists, but also for the Russians. Today, Trans-Siberian railway transports about 20,000 containers per year in Europe, including 8,300 containers from Japan.

Church wagon
During the Russian Empire, to 1917, there was a wagon of the Russian Orthodox Church, who served in areas where residents have not yet had built a church. After the October Revolution and during communism train was removed and since April 2005, with the agreement of the Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian Railways, the train was again part of the Trans-Siberian Railway.

54 beds in one wagon
The famous Russian third class trains – Plackartni, has 54 beds upstairs in a large wagon, and this is exactly the right way for a road trip in Russia, because with so many people in one place can not be bored.

…to gulag…
From the 1930s until the 1950s transport of prisoners in gulagese performed exclusively by rail in special wagons that are easily connected to regular passenger trains, so that almost every train that was traveling from Moscow with the Trans-Siberian Railway or on the North had at the end of the composition just one such wagon with an armed escort of the KGB.

Faberge egg
In 1900 Russian jeweler Peter Carl Faberge made, for the royal family Romanov, Faberge egg with a motif of Trans-Siberian railway, called the Trans-Siberian Railway Egg.