Traffic along the Baikal-Amur Mainline is launched

The Baikal-Amur Mainline, one of the largest railway lines in the world, runs through the Irkutsk, Chita, Amur regions, Buryatia and Yakutia, and the Khabarovsk Territory. Along with the Trans-Siberian Railway, the BAM serves as the country’s second through exit to the Pacific Ocean.

The idea of building the line was put forward for the first time in the 1880s. That’s when the first exploration was made along the proposed route of the trunk line. Complicated landscape and inhospitable climate were the reasons behind the decision to opt for the southern route, currently known as the Transsib.

In Soviet times, the idea of building the BAM was reanimated in the late 1920s, when the first design and survey works were conducted. The construction got underway in 1932 and exploited the forced labor of the GULAG prisoners. The outbreak of the Great Patriotic War suspended the project until it was resumed on July 8, 1974, when on the Soviet Government adopted a resolution on the construction of the BAM. Its main driving forces were volunteer Komsomol members and military builders.

The trunk line was built in eastbound and westbound directions concurrently. The eastbound and westbound sections of the BAM were linked 10 years later on September 29, 1984 at the Balbukhta passing loop (Chita region). In 1989, the State Commission signed off the completion of the BAM’s last sections for regular operations. From then onwards, the entire line was handed over to the railway workers. This, however, was not the end: the 15-km tunnel under the Severomuysky ridge yet had to be completed. Due to the collapse of the USSR, construction was delayed for almost 15 years. The longest tunnel in the country was put into operation on December 3, 2003.

As a result, the construction of the trunk line cost the state 17.7 billion rubles in 1991 prices, excluding lost profits.

As the shortest railway route to the Russia’s Pacific ports, South Yakutia and other regions, BAM reduces the distance of passenger and freight transportation to Maritime Territory, Vladivostok and Nakhodka by more than 200 km, to Vanino by almost 500 km, to Yakutia by 600 km, and for passengers and goods traveling to Sakhalin, Kamchatka and Magadan by 1000 km.