Route
The line is single-track, excepting the double-track section from Tynda to Bestuzhevo, which shared with the Baikal-Amur Mainline (BAM). The full length of the line is not electrified.
As in most of Siberia, construction and operation of the railway is complicated by the large temperature variations, ranging from under -50°C in winter to over +30°C in summer, as well as the challenges of building on permafrost in difficult terrain.
The line currently has an official length of 1213 km, branching from the Trans-Siberian railway at Bamovskaya station, near Skovorodino in Amur Oblast. The line continues north, joining the Baikal Amur Mainline near Tynda and continuing along the BAM for 27 kilometers before branching northwards at Bestuzhevo. The line in this section crosses the Gilyuy River twice. Shortly after entering the Sakha Republic, the line passes through the 1,300 meter-long Nagorny tunnel under the Stanovoy Range.
In the highlands of southern Sakha Republic, the line crosses numerous further rivers, including the Iyengra and Chulman, before reaching the coal-mining area around Neryungri at around kilometer 400. The settlement of Berkakit, situated 9 km south of Neryungri, was founded in 1977 as the base for the railway's operations in the south of the Sakha Republic. Berkakit is the official starting point for the current project to construct the railway to Yakutsk (officially referred to as the Berkakit-Tommot-Yakutsk Line), and the majority of the town's workforce is employed either in management or maintenance of the railway.
To the north of Neryungri, the railway crosses the Aldan Highlands, before reaching Aldan at kilometer 686, where the main offices of the Yakutia Railways are located. The current terminus of the operating section of line is Tommot, on the right bank of the Aldan River at kilometer 767.
Beyond Tommot station, the railway crosses the Aldan on a 350 meter long bridge, the longest on the line (except for the planned bridge over the Lena). From here, the line continues to the settlement of Verkhnyaya Amga (station simply named Amga), where it crosses the Amga River. Provisional goods services began to Amga in 2006, with construction trains travelling as far as Kharbykan.
Construction reached the settlement of Kyordyom, on the Lena River opposite the town of Pokrovsk, by 2008. From here, it was planned to start construction of a 3 km-long combined road and rail bridge across the Lena in 2009, in the area of the settlement Tabaga. The line was to continue to the city of Yakutsk, with a passenger terminal to be built, and an extension to the river port.
With the expected difficulties in building a bridge across the more than 2 km-wide Lena, prone to massive flooding in spring and with moving ice during autumn, there has been much discussion of the rail head remaining on the east bank of the river, terminating in Nizhny Bestyakh, across the river from Yakutsk. This section has been built, the connection over the river to Yakutsk city being postponed. The route via Nizhny Bestyakh will now form the beginning of any further extensions towards Magadan.
Read more about this topic: Amur Yakutsk Mainline
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