BAM Timeline

1911 Western Segment from Taishet to Ust-Kut planned but not started because of WWI.

1937 “Little BAM” connecting Bamovskaya on the Trans-Siberian and Tynda completed

1938 Construction of line from Taishet to Ust-Kut underway

1940 Construction of Komsomolsk-Sovietskaya Gavan started

1942 Completed BAM sections, including “Little BAM,” removed to Stalingrad to help in the battle

1945 Section Pivan-Sovietskaya Gavan opened for service

1946 Postwar construction of western BAM resumed

1950 Taishet-Ust-Kut section opened

1953 Stalin’s death halts work on the line

1972 Little BAM relaid

1974 Brezhnev declares BAM a Komsomol Shock Project; work on Ust-Kut-Komsomolsk section started

1984 September 24: Golden Spike connecting eastern and western BAM sections driven near Balbukhta

1988 Gorbachev questions need for BAM

1989 With the exception of the Severomuysk Tunnel, the BAM line is fully operational, from Taishet to the Pacific

2001 Severomuysk Tunnel breakthrough

2003 Severomuysk Tunnel officially opened

Distances

(in miles)

Moscow-Kazan 493 

Kazan-Yekaterinburg 544 

Yekaterinburg-Novosibirsk 947 

Novosibirsk-Abakan 644 

Abakan-Bratsk 642.5 

Bratsk-Severobaikalsk 449 

Severobaikalsk-Noyaya Chara 435 

Novaya Chara-Tynda 391 

Tynda-Komsomolsk-na-Amure 1005 

Komsomolsk-na-Amure-Khabarovsk 276.5 

Khabarovsk-Vladivostok 476 

Moscow-Vladivostok (via BAM) 6,303