This is an extensive NY Times travel piece about a journey aboard the Baikal-Amur Mainline railroad. The author's companion opines at one point, "Amtrak should only be this smooth." In contrast to travel pieces that use train riding as a cheap subterfuge for prattling about everything but, this one devotes much of its attention to the train as an end in itself, much the way many AU members regard Amtrak long distance trains.
The Other Siberian Railroad
"Begun under Joseph Stalin as a northern alternative to the Trans-Siberian, the BAM was finished only in 1991 though it's still being tinkered with to meet growing Asian demand for Siberian lumber, gas and oil. 'Stalin built BAM because he thought the Chinese might zip across their border and seize the Trans-Siberian, and that didn't happen,' Mila [fellow passenger] said. 'Brezhnev built more of BAM to make a pioneer utopia, and that never happened. Now,' she said, shrugging in her bulky homemade sweater, 'who knows what will happen other than a beautiful trip?'"
"The BAM doesn't offer all the plush comforts of the Trans-Siberian. After all, there's hardly any tourism in the BAM region. This line was built for freight and people who have business in the wilderness. The dozen cars on the first leg of our trip were half-filled with workers and managers destined for Siberia's lumber camps and oil and gas fields, as well as people working on the train line itself. As such, it is more of a utilitarian train, with a nothing-fancy dining car that served essentially as a round-the-clock bar, a couple of packed third-class wagons with clothes draped across bunk beds crowding dormitory-like spaces, and a few second-class cars with four comfortable berths in separate minivan-size cabins."
The Other Siberian Railroad
"Begun under Joseph Stalin as a northern alternative to the Trans-Siberian, the BAM was finished only in 1991 though it's still being tinkered with to meet growing Asian demand for Siberian lumber, gas and oil. 'Stalin built BAM because he thought the Chinese might zip across their border and seize the Trans-Siberian, and that didn't happen,' Mila [fellow passenger] said. 'Brezhnev built more of BAM to make a pioneer utopia, and that never happened. Now,' she said, shrugging in her bulky homemade sweater, 'who knows what will happen other than a beautiful trip?'"
"The BAM doesn't offer all the plush comforts of the Trans-Siberian. After all, there's hardly any tourism in the BAM region. This line was built for freight and people who have business in the wilderness. The dozen cars on the first leg of our trip were half-filled with workers and managers destined for Siberia's lumber camps and oil and gas fields, as well as people working on the train line itself. As such, it is more of a utilitarian train, with a nothing-fancy dining car that served essentially as a round-the-clock bar, a couple of packed third-class wagons with clothes draped across bunk beds crowding dormitory-like spaces, and a few second-class cars with four comfortable berths in separate minivan-size cabins."
Soviet-era (1976) postcard from blogspot.com: "BAM -- the track of courage and heroism." How commie can you get!?
