Asia Central y Extremo Oriente: Railways

The Trans-Siberian Railway

The Trans-Siberian Railway (or Transsib) is the name given to the three rail routes that traverse Siberia from Moscow.

• The Trans-Mongolian goes from Moscow to Beijing, China via Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. 
• The Trans-Manchurian travels through Siberia and Chinese Manchuria to Beijing. 
• The Trans-Siberian proper goes from Moscow to the Pacific terminus of Vladivostok. 

The Trans-Siberian Railway is the longest railway in the world. It was built between 1891 and 1916 to connect Moscow with the Far-East city of Vladivostok. En route it passes through the cities of Perm, Yekaterinburg, Omsk, Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk, Chita and Khabarovsk. The three termini of the Trans-Siberian are Moscow, Beijing and Vladivostok. There's also a weekly connection from Moscow to Pyongyang. 

The Trans-Siberian Railway gave a positive boost to Siberian agriculture, facilitating substantial exports to central Russia and Europe. It influenced the territories it connected directly, as well as those connected to it by river transport. For instance, Altai Krai exported wheat to the railway via the Ob River. 


The Trans-Mongolian Railway
The Trans-Mongolian railway goes from Moscow to Beijing, China via Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.

Construction of the Trans-Mongolian line began in 1947, reaching Ulan Bator from the north in 1950 and the Chinese border in 1955. Before that the only railways in Mongolia had been a 43 km (27 mi) line (opened in 1938) connecting the coal mines at Nalaikh to the capital and a Soviet-built 236 km (147 mi) freight-only branch (completed in 1939) from Borzya on the Trans-Siberian Railway to Bayantümen, Dornod near Choibalsan in north-eastern Mongolia.