China is leading in the trains sector with one of the most expansive and impressive high-speed rail networks on the planet. Its network spans the country’s far corners already, but it has plans of expanding even further – under the ocean, across Canada, and down the United States.
China has expressed the desire to build a high-speed, 13,000-kilometer (8,078-mile) international bullet train. It will begin in mainland China, then travel up through Siberia in Eastern Russia, go under the sea through the Bering Strait into Alaska, transverse the rocky peaks of Canada’s Yukon and British Columbia, and commence making its way across the USA.
The project (called the “China-Russia-Canada-America” line), first proposed in 2014, would cost $200 billion. It would connect four nations, potentially delivering a trade, economic, and tourism boom for all.
The underwater tunnel to stretch across the Bearing Strait would need to be four times larger and far more high-tech to boot than the Channel Tunnel. When the proposal was first made, reports claimed that engineers from China were already in talks with Russia about beginning the line and that they were very confident it was possible with the current technology.
And while it all sounds far-fetched, it could be feasible. China already approved the world’s first underwater bullet train in 2018. It’s to extend nationally from a port city near Shanghai called Ningbo to an archipelago of islands off the East coast called Zhoushan.
The new route covers a 77-kilometer (47.8-mile) stretch of nearly entirely newly-built railway and includes a 16.2-kilometer underwater section. Construction is well underway and involves a Maglev train that levitates above a magnetic track as it is propelled along at ultra-high speeds.
Granted, this tunnel is still significantly smaller than the Channel Tunnel. However, the novelty of a bullet train passing through it brings new challenges to the construction.
Some reports have postulated that the Ningbo-Zhoushan line might be a test run of sorts for the China-Russia-Canada-America line. But, little is known about that ambitious project to this day.
Although, as impressive as it would be, critics slam the proposal for being illogical, pointing out that cargo ships and flights are a far cheaper option and less complex.
