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"The 3400 km Baikal Amur Railway (BAM) famous for its
political exiles, pristine environment, indigenous villages, Cold War secrets
and communist dreams."
Siberian BAM Railway Guide, Athol Yates, Trailblazer
Publications, UK, 1995
THE BAIKAL - AMUR MAINLINE (The BAM Railroad)
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The Baikal-Amur Mainline is one of the original destinations in Russia
to experience Siberia from inside. The railroad starts in Tayshet,
bends around lake Baikal north extremity and goes further eastward
to Sovetskaya Gavan at Pacific coast.
It runs through a vast territory, with numerous swamps, pristine taiga,
mountain ranges, over hundreds of rivers, mostly in permafrost areas.
The railway is the gateway to the rarely visited region named the
BAM Zone. Before 1970 it was virtually uninhabited taiga, dotted with
villages of indigenous people - Evenks. Now it has population of about 300.000,
with several rather big cities such as Severobaikalsk, Tynda, Komsomolsk.
The nature and climate in BAM Zone seems to be more severe than along
the Trans-Siberian railway, longer and colder winter, short summer, there are a
lot of dwarf plants, trees and white moss covering vast territory. On the other
hand, the Russian wisdom says "The colder climate is, the warmer people are". People
who live in the North are famous for their hospitality even inside Russia.
BAM Railroad Trains Timetable
Moscow time |
| Destination |
Train
No |
Departure
date / Moscow time |
Duration
of trip |
| WESTBOUND |
| Komsomolsk
- Tynda |
963 |
DAILY / 12:30 |
36,5 Hours |
| Tynda - Severobaikalsk |
75 |
EVEN / 03:25 |
30 Hours |
| Severobaikalsk
- Irkutsk |
71 |
ODD / 18:10 |
31 Hour |
| Severobaikalsk
- Moscow |
131 |
EVEN / 16:47 |
90 Hours.
Summer train |
| EASTBOUND |
| Bratsk -
Irkutsk |
88 |
DAILY / 10:31 |
18,5 Hours |
| Irkutsk - Severobaikalsk |
72 |
ODD / 18:55 |
31,5 Hours |
| Severobaikalsk
- Tynda |
76 |
ODD / 09:41 |
29 Hours |
| Tynda - Komsomolsk |
964 |
DAILY / 12:50 |
38 Hours |
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