Russia and Japan discuss bridge across 28 miles of sea

The Times ^ | September 6 2017 | Tom Parfitt

[TigerLikesRooster]

Russia and Japan discuss bridge across 28 miles of sea

Tom Parfitt, Moscow September 6 2017, 5:00pm, The Times

Russia and Japan are in “serious discussions” to link the two countries via a bridge that could allow rail travel all the way from London to Tokyo.

The proposed 28-mile bridge would join Cape Crillon on the Russian island of Sakhalin to Cape Sōya at the northern tip of Japan’s Hokkaido island.

A shorter bridge or tunnel that has been mooted from Khabarovsk region on the Russian mainland to Sakhalin would eventually allow an uninterrupted rail journey of about 6,000 miles from western Europe to Hokkaido.

Speaking at an economic forum in Vladivostok, Igor Shuvalov, Russia’s deputy prime minister, said that modern technology made the Sakhalin-Hokkaido bridge a realistic proposal.

“We are seriously proposing to Japanese partners to look at the construction of a mixed…

[TigerLikesRooster]

Russia pulled out of rail project to link Russia to N. Korea(and eventually to S. Korea) recently.

Business wise, N. Korea has all downsides and no upsides.

[TigerLikesRooster]

P!

[Gay State Conservative]

Hard to see this benefiting Japan.It's not as if Russia a warm and cuddly neighbor.

[Puppage]

The Sushi to Borscht bridge?

[HonkyTonkMan]

Waiting for Elon Musk to exploit this opportunity and get more govt money

[EagleUSA]

A missle target for Kin-Jun-Unhinged ???

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

Probably still smarting from that ass-kicking Japan gave them back in 1905.

[Olog-hai]

Aside from the political issues, Russia’s track gauge is still mostly 5 feet even. Japan’s mainline gauge is 3 feet 6 inches, too; only the Shinkansen and some regional lines are standard gauge (4 feet 8½ inches). Wouldn’t be any trains running from London to Tokyo even with something like this; and that whole “Brexit” thingy will probably preclude trains from London through that tunnel under the English Channel eventually, the way the EU is acting.

[TigerLikesRooster]

They have been circling around and sizing up each other for a while. The issue was the development project for Siberia. Russia needs money to develop oil and gas in Siberia and Japan needs extra energy sources. Japanese investment could benefit both, except long-standing diplomatic stand-off over four islands Soviet Union took from Japan after WWII.

[DoughtyOne]

Petty good when you can get your enemy to pay half the cost of the bridge you’ll be rolling tanks over.

[bgill]

Building a big red target for the fat boy.

[Red Badger]

N. Korea has a different rail gage than other countries.............

[TigerLikesRooster]

It would be Japanese money mostly.

[TigerLikesRooster]

Well, that could be worked out somehow, but the biggest problem is that NK railways are so broken down that they have to be rebuilt from scratch. Russia has to pay out of their pocket the money to fix them. Furthermore, N. Koreans are not reliable business partners, habitually breaking contracts and extorting foreign business at every turn.

[Red Badger]

IOW, Not a good atmosphere for business growth.................

[chajin]

The train gauges are all different, but a shinkansen (bullet train) extension to Yuzhno would make Japanese investment in Sakhalin/Karafuto more likely, and the Japanese need to counterbalance their Korea-and-China connections in the NE Asia area.

[Jagermonster]

Hard to see this benefiting Japan.It's not as if Russia a warm and cuddly neighbor. ?

I don't know - rail to all of Asia and Europe might be cheaper than by ship for Japanese goods.

[Kickass Conservative]

One word, CATAPULT!

[ReformedBeckite]

Russia’s track gauge is still mostly 5 feet even. Japan’s mainline gauge is 3 feet 6 inches

Could be a problem but I could see a shipping yard with cranes picking up shipping containers off of Russia's train cars and moving them onto Japan's train cars or vice versa in some shipping yard with Russia's train tracks running parallel to Japan's train tracks.

[ReformedBeckite]

Russia’s track gauge is still mostly 5 feet even. Japan’s mainline gauge is 3 feet 6 inches

Could be a problem but I could see a shipping yard with cranes picking up shipping containers off of Russia's train cars and moving them onto Japan's train cars or vice versa in some shipping yard with Russia's train tracks running parallel to Japan's train tracks.