this post was submitted on 18 Oct 2025
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Given the distance required, what kind of economic payoff could be possible from such an expensive project? It's not like overland would be a cheaper transport option than Pacific shipping routes or anything. It's not just the Bering Strait being the problem with connecting the two after all, but the fact that there's nothing in NE Siberia or NW Alaska to bother connecting together. Are we making it for the polar bears maybe? Or are people going to drive the thousands of miles from Juneau to Vladivostok to sightsee?
I wouldn't be so sure. Shipping routes may be cheaper, but I bet they would still be longer. I think it takes the better part of a month to get goods from China to the US. I bet this takes more like a week.
this article article estimates the distance at 8000 miles to the "lower 48", presumably to Seattle. It proposes high-speed rail service to do the trip in 2 days, but I don't think that will compete at all with air passenger service . Rather, I think freight traffic will be the real winner, and 7 days is doable at 50 mph the whole way.
This is "space elevators" levels of unreasonable.