A magnetic-levitation train leaves Shanghai. The proposed US rail line would take two days, with the train travelling at an average of 350km/h. Photograph: Aly Song/Reuters
- 'China-Russia-Canada-America
line' would run for 13,000km across Siberia and pass under Bering Strait
through 200km tunnel
The Guardian
By Jonathan Kaiman
8 May 2014
China is considering plans to build a high-speed railway line to the US, the country's official media reported on Thursday.
The proposed line would begin in north-east China and run up through Siberia, pass through a tunnel underneath the Pacific Ocean then cut through Alaska and Canada to reach the continental US, according to a report in the state-run Beijing Times newspaper.
Crossing the Bering Strait in between Russia and Alaska would require about 200km (125 miles) of undersea tunnel, the paper said, citing Wang Mengshu, a railway expert at the Chinese Academy of Engineering.
"Right now we're already in discussions. Russia has already been thinking about this for many years," Wang said.
The project – nicknamed the "China-Russia-Canada-America" line – would run for 13,000km, about 3,000km further than the Trans-Siberian Railway. The entire trip would take two days, with the train travelling at an average of 350km/h (220mph).
