BAM: yesterday–today–tomorrow
Mainline’s milestones
Engineering surveys started back in late 1930s resume on the territories for the BAM to be laid across.
The main stage of the BAM construction – All‑Union Shock‑Work Komsomol Construction Project – commenced. From the Kremlin Palace, where the 17th All‑Union Leninist Young Communist League Congress took place in April, the first crew of 600 people departs for construction.
The tracklayer crews of Alexander Bondar and Ivan Varshavsky moving towards one another from the east and the west met and laid the ‘golden’ link.
The Baikal–Amur Mainlaine is put into continuous operation.
The linking of the Severomuysky Tunnel took place, the construction of which started back in 1977 but the work took longer than expected. After putting into operation in 2003, the tunnel made it possible to reduce the travel time from 2.5 hours, when the trains made a bypass, to 15 minutes.
The first stage of a large‑scale project to upgrade the Eastern Operating Domain (the Trans‑Siberian Railway and the BAM) was started.
The bulk of work within the second stage of upgrading the Eastern Operating Domain is for the BAM, with construction of tunnels, electrification of segments, making shunting loops for opposing rail traffic, and reconstruction of stations for accelerated marshalling and dispatching of trains. In addition, the Eastern Operating Domain now receives new powerful locomotives able to take high‑tonnage (up to 7,100 tonnes) trains along mountainous sections.
The Government of the Russian Federation approved the profile of the second stage of upgrading the Eastern Operating Domain’s railway infrastructure.
The capacity of the Eastern Operating Domain’s railways reached 158 mt.
The capacity of the Eastern Operating Domain’s railways reached 180 mt.
The capacity of the BAM per se since the start of the upgrade grew almost three times, from 14.4 mt in 2012 to 48.6 mt in 2024.
BAM’s capacity grew threefold over the recent 10 years
In 2024, the Company embarked on the third stage of the Eastern Operating Domain development, with the second Kodarsky, Severomuysky, and Kuznetsovsky Tunnels to be built, as well as a new railway bridge in Komsomolsk‑on‑Amur. The third stage of the BAM and Trans‑Siberian Mainline development envisages transportation of 210 mt in 2030.
