First train crosses the Amur via a 7 km underwater tunnel

The first test train crossed the Amur River near Khabarovsk through a tunnel in 1941. The Russia’s longest underwater tunnel, 7 km long, was put into regular operation in 1942.

The idea of building a tunnel under the Amur was put forward in the early 1900s. The surveyors came to the banks of the great Far Eastern river to explore the future construction site of the Kuenga – Khabarovsk section in 1906. Following their mission, several projects of bridges across the Amur and underwater tunnels were devised. Note that the visitors to the exhibition of the Amur region, held in 1913 in Khabarovsk, the region’s capital, could see a design drawing that depicted a train running through an underwater tunnel. However, the decision was made in favor of the project that envisaged a bridge near the village of Osipovka, 8 km off the city.

In 1936, considering the insecure situation of such a strategic facility as the Amur railway bridge, and the boost in freight traffic for the needs of defense and developing national economy in the Far East, at the instigation of the General Staff of the Red Army, the resolution was adopted to build a railway tunnel near Amur, next to the bridge. The technical design of the underwater tunnel 7198 m long was elaborated by the Soyuztransproekt institute.

From 1942 to 1964, the tunnel was mothballed as a secret facility. Westbound freight traffic through the single-track tunnel was launched in the 1960s, which boosted the throughput of railways in the Far East. Since the early 1980s, after the section west of Khabarovsk was electrified, passenger traffic through the tunnel commenced, including suburban trains.