The Far-Eastern Railway: History and Characteristics

The Far Eastern Railway is the main passenger and cargo artery connecting the center of Russia with the areas adjacent to the Pacific Ocean. At present, the importance of this highway is difficult to overestimate. More than a century-long history of the Far Eastern Railway is of interest not only for enthusiasts, but for all who are not indifferent to the past of our country.

A look into the past

The idea of building a new railway line arose long ago - communications were too stretched, it was difficult to deliver goods to the remote lands of the empire. In 1886, the governors-general of Eastern Siberia and the Amur Region proposed to lay several railway branches from Tomsk and Vladivostok to remote settlements. By the middle of 1887, this proposal had already been considered at a ministerial meeting, and an engineering expedition was sent to the region of South Siberia to consider the possibility of this project and study the timing of its implementation.

Pioneer and engineer

The Far Eastern Railway owes much to one of its first engineers. The name of the first builder of the Far Eastern highway turned out to be undeservedly forgotten. But it was Alexander Ivanovich Ursati who was honored to be the first to go all the way from Grafsky to Vladivostok. In various ways, making their way on off-road to small towns and deaf nomadic camps, the railway engineer built a route and studied the terrain along which the Far Eastern Railway will pass. Unfortunately, to date, none of the stations of the railway line is named in his honor.

Project implementation

Initially, the planned railway branch was called Ussuriyskaya. This name it received from a large river Ussuri, flowing through the vast territory of the Primorsky Territory - from Khabarovsk to Vladivostok. Separately, two sections of the highway were planned: the North Ussuri branch covered the area from the station. Grafskaya to Khabarovsk. The southern section was planned to lead from the same station to Vladivostok. The solemn laying of the first railroad took place in 1891, in Vladivostok, in the presence of members of the royal family and representatives of the Cabinet. The first stone in the base of the Vladivostok railway station was laid by the Tsarevich Nicholas - the future emperor of Russia, Nikolai II.

The first sites

In 1892, Russia began the direct construction of railroad tracks. O.P. Vyazemsky was appointed the project manager, an experienced builder who worked for about thirty years in various regions of Russia. On certain sections of the highway the work was entrusted to lead the graduates of the St. Petersburg Institute of Railway Engineers. For the transportation of necessary materials, auxiliary ground roads were built , which later became important transport arteries throughout the Primorsky Territory.

The first problem suddenly arose the question of ensuring the construction of labor. Local residents were too few - had to attract exiled prisoners and soldiers. By 1895, the number of people serving sentences for criminal and political reasons was about 11 thousand people. For them, stationary camps were established, consisting of barracks, security rooms, baths, canteens and supervisory towers. As for the soldiers, they were taken by sea along the long southern path from Odessa across the Atlantic and the Indian Ocean. Floating took several months, accompanied by outbreaks of tropical epidemics. The final destination was Vladivostok.

Thanks to the selfless labor of soldiers and prisoners, the South Ussuri branch of the road was commissioned by 1894, and in three years the northern section of the road was completed. The Far Eastern Railway, whose stations covered the Amur and the Far East, began to exist.

Railway stations

The old Ussuri road in the original version had 39 stations. Among them - the station Ruzhino, founded by immigrants from Ukraine, art. Manzovka (now Sibirtsevo), art. Busse, named in honor of the Russian officer and researcher of the Far Eastern region N. V. Busse. Do not forget the topographers and engineers-builders: the names of LM Rozengard, V. S. Ilovaysky, V. V. Gedik were named plots from Khabarovsk to Bikin. And now the Far Eastern Railway has 358 functioning stations on different sections of the road.

Economic and geographical characteristics of the Far Eastern Railway

Currently, the Far Eastern Railway has about 7,470 km of total length of tracks, of which over 6,000 km are in constant operation. Geographically, this highway passes through the territory of five Far Eastern regions - the Amur Region, the Jewish Autonomous Region, Primorsky, and the Khabarovsk Territory, and there are branches in the Sakha Republic. Its influence spreads to other regions of the Far East. More than 40% of the territory of the Russian Federation is located in the zone of influence of the Far Eastern Railway.

The Far Eastern Railroad borders on the Khani station with the East Siberian railway, while the Sturm and Arhara stations are linked to the Trans-Baikal Railway. Throughout its length, the roads are divided into four sections, which are supervised by various departments united under the auspices of the Far Eastern Railway. Khabarovsk - branch of GCD1, Vladivostok - NOD2, Komsomolsk - NOD3, and Tynda - GOD4. In addition, the Far Eastern Railway is conventionally divided into two main directions: the northern latitudinal route and the main course. They are interconnected by small rocky sections of the road: Komsomolsk-Volochaevka-2, Tynda-Sturm, Lime-Urgal. This logistics allows you to form trains all along the paths.

The significance of the Far Eastern Railway

The basic characteristics of the Far Eastern Railway give grounds to consider it one of the main logistics and passenger highways of the region. Over the past 2015, over 42 thousand tons of various cargoes were transported along the Far Eastern Railways, and about 5 thousand people used the services of the Far Eastern road as passengers. The highway carries out transportation of domestic and international importance - entrepreneurs in Japan, Mongolia, Korea and China are interested in its uninterrupted work, which sell their products on the territory of our country. The traffic management is conducted from the Unified Dispatch Center located in Khabarovsk.

The Far Eastern railway arena holds the leading positions in the rating of transportation of exported and imported goods, the share of which makes up about a third of the total number of freight in the Russian Federation and more than a quarter of the transit transport of imported products of other states. Thanks to the well-established logistics, the Far Eastern Railroad Administration reported that in 2016 more than 116 million tons of cargo will be transported to the ports of the Pacific Ocean via the routes of the Far Eastern Railway. Favorable trends in the growth of trade turnover with the eastern neighbors make it possible to predict with confidence the significant growth of rail transportation in the very near future.

Control

As of 2015, the number of employees of the Far Eastern Railway was over 40 thousand people engaged in servicing this highway. This highway gives local residents jobs and confidence in the future.

The Far Eastern Railway Administration is directly subordinated to JSCo «Russian Railways» and is its structural branch. The post of the head of the Far Eastern highway since 2015 is occupied by N.Maklygin. Under his leadership are all the working sites, which operate the Far Eastern Railway. The address of the Far Eastern Railway office is Komsomolsk-on-Amur, Khabarovsk Territory. Different territorial departments have their leadership.

Security

According to the head of the Khabarovsk administration of the Far Eastern Railway, the prevention of the safety of the operation of the tracks and railroads of the Far Eastern Railway is a priority. In 2015, the network of the Far East road registered 18 emergency accidents, in which three people died. All accidents occurred due to the fault of drivers driving vehicles and violating the rules of the road.

The site of the security raid was chosen as a section of the road along the Nogliki-Korsakov line. To draw attention to the consequences of non-compliance with traffic regulations, the railway workers put in a conspicuous place several cars that were damaged as a result of the accident. Thus, the railway workers tried to remind the car owners of the risks accompanying the driver when crossing the railway tracks. In addition to employees, the employees of the State Traffic Safety Inspectorate and representatives of MUP "Transport Company" took part in the action.