Thanks to Skillshare for sponsoring! The first 500 people to use this link will get a 2 month free trial of Skillshare Premium Membership: skl.sh/2CihHb0
I have done the north to the south of Vietnam, they where all old Russian trains, some re-fitted and lovely, some ...... not :P. It was an amazing experience tho.
Took it in 2015, The Trans Mongolian Express, starts in Moscow But heads down in to Mongolia and leaves you in Beijing. I stopped in Omsk,, Irkutsk, Ulaanbataar and finally Beijing. Amazing Journey. This was part of a bigger journey from Dublin to Kuala Lumper. All by Trains, Busses and some boats But London to Vietnam is all very doable by just trains, Visas a fun. Also Even today you can make it to Japan across Europe and Russia by train, then get boats and busses to Japan, Its something I've been looking in to for another time.
Dont get your promo speech thb here. If I use your promo link, i can get 2 months free membership at skill share... But do I after have to pay for a year subscribsion to get the 2 months?? Or what are you meaning with 1 year subscribsion in the speech???
Enjoyed the video. In 1986 I travelled from Hong Kong to London by train, all the way, it was a 21 day tour. It was an organised tour group of 8 people + guide. We did stay in motels at various places, like Beijing, Ulaanbaatar, Irkutsk & Moscow. We also did day trip to various sights like the Great Wall & Lake Balkal. This was when the USSR was still in in charge, and gave us many stories of their determination to control everything. The crossing from East Belin to West Berlin was very memorable.
Man I wish I could've done that and witnessed the soviet union. I was born in Russia in 95, adopted by US citizens. I'm happy about my life but always wonder how different my life could've been had my biological parents kept me
I (West-German) once tried to cross from East to West Berlin. - "This border crossing is only for diplomats or citizens of the German Democratic Republic. - You cannot go through here." I had to turn back. - Very memorable indeed.
I did this trip 4 years ago, amazing. It was late winter, March, and most of the route was snow covered. Vladivostok is a great city well worth a visit. In fact i went all the way from my local station in Mid Kent, UK via London and Paris to Moscow and then on to Vladivostok by 5 different trains. The Trans Siberian is something everyone should try at least once in their life.
I think you could go London-Wladivostok fairly easily: London-Paris Eurostar Paris-Moscow Nighttrain Moscow-Wladivostok Trans-Siberian Only two changes to cross nearly all of Eurasia, thats rather impressive.
@@UberGrunk The train takes less than two days. Travel time is ~39 hours and IIRC, it is scheduled to start early in the morning in Paris and arrive late evening in Moscow. Only one night on board!
In 1903, International Harvestor sent my father, who founded the Agricultural Engineering program at U of Illinois a few years earlier, to travel the Trans Siberian Railway to its termination point at that time, Irkutsk on Lake Baikal. His job was to inform International Harvestor what agricultural machinery was in use and what opportunities for IH equipment might be. Czar Nicolas was the ruler and military a constant presence. Steam engines powered the trains same as in U.S. His trip consumed most of a summer before he returned to the University. Dad was born in 1875, was 65 when I was born, died in 1960 when I was 20.
1. My recommendation: Bring entertainment (i.e., a long book), and don't be scared to take it in mid-winter... (the route is worlds more dramatic, and considerably less crowded with tourists). 2. There is a superstition that you will add a year to your life if you wash your feet in the waters of Lake Baikal - Listvyanka is a wonderful place to do this. 3. The private train is much like your description of the early first class, and some travel agencies (like Travel All Russia) offer the option, but it is crazy expensive (I seem to recall something like $24K for a week's journey). 4. The alternative train route through Central Asia has been operating for over a decade already, but I'd imagine that you'd be heavily screened before being allowed to take it, as it passes through the middle of the police activities against Uighur "separatists" in Xinjiang. 5. Extensions also exist going up to the town just across the Lena River from Yakutsk, and then there is the Baikal Amur Magistral, or BAM (a line worthy of its own episode). Supposedly travel along these is possible to book, but it requires a bit more logistical planning than just taking the Rossiya or other Trans-Siberian route. 6. Gauge changing seen at the border of the Russian system and the Chinese can also be seen closer to Europe. When you take a train from Prague to Kyiv, for instance, you will go through a gauge changing facility at the Ukrainian border. Usually you hit it in the middle of the night. They disengage the wheel casings, jack the whole train up, replace the casings with the new gauge, and then reattach the casings. It's interesting to watch if you can stay up for it. 7. Another Megaproject episode I'd agitate for is the idea of putting a tunnel under the Bering Strait... efforts toward building this are dormant right now, but plans by some ambitious someone have caught the attention of media and dreamers from time to time since William Gilpin first proposed it in the late 19th century. (Completion of an extension of the line between Alaska and the Canadian rail system will likely spur further effort toward this ultimate railroad megaproject, one that would dwarf anything like a London to Tokyo line... I mean, imagine a London to New York or Tokyo to Los Angeles bullet train journey...) Make the effort to take the trip, Simon. It's worth it...
He should also, at least, look at the renewed plans for the building of a rail connection between mainland Russia and Sakhalin. There isn't much information that I could find of Stalin's attempt at it, but it would be quiet the endeavor if Putin should pull it off.
@@Azivegu Transpolar Mainline, or the Northern Latitudinal Railway as it's called nowadays, is far more realistic project than Sakhalin bridge. Although, regauging whole of Sakhalin island's 2500 kms of railroad to 1,520 mm is a megaproject on its own.
I did some minor research into taking this journey a few years ago. The biggest problem I found with it, is once you're on there, you're on there. Some of the stops along the way are quite short and obviously don't allow time for lunch, photography or anything else. Is there a pass you can buy so If you wanted to get off the train and spend a couple of nights in Perm for example, then catch the next East bound train on the same ticket? Instead of a seven day ass numbing trip, turn it into a two or three week long adventure.
You shouldn't give up on that dream so soon, Simon. It had been a lifelong dream of my parents (particularly my mother) to take that trip, and they had all but given up on it, until we managed to make it their thirty-years anniversary gift. I can count on one hand the number of times I saw my mother cry, and I am quite happy to say that, on this occasion, those were tears of joy. They took almost four weeks to go from Vladivostok to Moscow, in January, and they came back home with the burning desire to go back and do it again. I'm counting it as a smashing success ! :-) The photos, videos, and various stories they brought back are absolutely amazing, and maybe, one day, I will follow in their footsteps...
My wife and I were planning on going from Moscow to Vladivostok and then ferry to either Japan or South Korea for our 20th anniversary. From Atlanta, GA, a trip literally around the world! But then 2020 happened.
You should definitely do it! Vladivostok is a gorgeous city (I've lived here for 7 years). I also like Moscow, so definitely worth a few days. I convinced my dad (a hillbilly Alabama guy from Talladega) to finally visit Vladivostok last year, and he loved it!
I live in Tyumen, a Siberian city on the Trans Siberian - whenever I'm crossing one of the railway bridges I'm always amazed by how much freight this line carries. And |I've done "platzcart" - 3rd class - on a couple of sections of the line - a truly sociable experience!
I lived there for five years. Platzcart may be sociable, but the 'aroma' of those carriages in the summer is something that never leaves you. Doshik, feet, and fish!
I live in Vladivostok, and I've gone as far as Belogorsk (around 27 hours from Vlad) in both platzcart and kupe. Platzcart was.......interesting, especially for an guy from Alabama. As far as kupe, it was even worse, as I felt claustrophobic. I've also done 1st class to Birobidzhan, but it's awkward in a compartment with just 1 stranger.
@@Cocc0nuttt0 There are also situations where you do not see a point in having anything better. E.g., a 8-12 hours train from Saint Petersburg to Moscow or the other way round. Or maybe Saint Petersburg to Tver, which is 5-6 hours (I once was in a train full of middle schoolers who literally were up all night until about an hour before Tver).
I took much of this line, but in the opposite direction, in the early-mid 1980s, travelling from Beijing to Moscow on the “International Train” & joining the classic Trans-Siberian line at Ulan Ude. I had arrived in Beijing from Hong Kong (where I lived at the time) by air, the Beijing-Moscow journey took 5 1/2 days. A few days after arriving in Moscow I left again by train for London, crossing the Channel from Hook of Holland to Harwich and on to London by train, the whole Moscow/London trip took just over two days. One amazing experience was the change from Chinese gauge to Soviet gauge with the carriages being hoisted off the track so the Russian bogeys would be fitted, the whole process took about 1 1/2 hours for the lengthy multi-carriage train. The same process in reverse happened when we crossed from the USSR to Poland on the Moscow-London sector. A very interesting journey. Apart from that the longest rail journey I ever took was from Athens to Istanbul, that took about 36 hours, although for eight hours of that we stopped in no-man’s land on the Greek/Turkish border with one single carriage being shunted there by a Greek locomotive and the following morning we were pulled into Turkey by a Turkish locomotive and on to Istanbul.
EmperorJuliusCaesar At the time (1983) there was no diplomatic representation for the USSR in Hong Kong, so it my USSR visa was obtained from the Soviet embassy in Tokyo. However, when I arrived in Beijing I had to visit the rail office to get my actual tickets (the travel agency in HK could issue only travel vouchers) & luckily the lady at the railway office who exchanged the vouchers for my tickets noticed that the entry date for my Soviet visa was the arrival date in Moscow (about 4 1/2 days after we were due to cross into the USSR from Mongolia), so I would not have been allowed to cross the border, luckily I had time to visit the Soviet embassy in Beijing to get the entry date adjusted. Obviously a whole lot of things have changed since 1983, but I had to visit the Polish and East German embassies/consulates in Moscow to get the relevant visas for my onward trip to London. Good luck if you take a similar trip in either direction 😂👍
Been to Ulan Ude by accident. Was on a plant to Irkutsk but had to divert because the airport there was flooded, we landed at Ulan Ude instead and were ferried to Irkutsk in old rickety Soviet busses with wooden seats. Most uncomfortable journey ever, but stunning sights along the shores of Lake Baikal. From Irkutsk we took the trans-Siberian west for several days before catching another aircraft to I think Leningrad or Kiev. That was in the late 1980s.
I did a similar journey just before Hong Kong became part of China, in 1996. Hong Kong to London by train, so it was Guangzhou - Beijing - Irkutsk - Yekaterinburg - Moskva - Brussels Midi - London (by Eurostar to Waterloo then). The Beijing - Irkutsk service would have continued to Moskva, but me and my friend had a couple of breaks en route. One of the items that I can remember was how ‘European’ everything looked at Ulan Ude, after a period of time in China, even though it’s a long way east, as it were. On the trip from Guangzhou - Beijing, it was probably the last time I saw a pair of steam locomotives working a freight train in service. The other fact that’s not all that well understood is that one can travel ‘under the wires’ all the way from the Atlantic to the Pacific on this continent (and the little island!), with a large chunk of it being at 25 kV ac 50 Hz, as much of the Trans Sib route under Russian Railways is like that now. All right, you’d use the metro in Moscow, but that’s electric as well. Note that when I travelled though China it was on the old route via Wuhan etc; 2 nights on the train then, but there is a relatively new high speed line north - south now.
I remember the train you spoke of in Greece, it was a regular service, I think once a day, from Athens to Istanbul, a single carriage that was added to the regular "fast" train that ran from Athens to Dikaia (northernmost Greek rail station, close to the border to Bulgaria). I believe the "exchange" to Turkey happened at a station called Pythion, about 50 miles north of where I live!
We took the Trans Mongolian from Moscow all the way to Beijing, an epic journey. We got of a number of times, visited Lake Baikal and did a week in the Goby desert, to top it off we did a bit of extra highspeed train in China. I don't think we'll ever top this adventure. Nice video to give more background!
I took the train crossing from Mongolia into China in 2010. They lift you in the air inside the carriage as they change the wheels. Then off to the official border you go, with several hundred Chinese soldiers saluting the train whilst a loudspeaker says something in Chinese followed by “Welcome to China. How are you?” over and over again before they board the train and joylessly check your temperature and question you on whether you intend to sell goods inside the country. Surreal. Unforgettable.
Ten years later and many countries are welcoming those arriving by checking their temperature; which they also had the airlines do before you boarded the plane.
I'm hardly an expert on this subject, but from what I've seen and read, you can (or at least could until 2020) take the Chunnel train from London to Paris and from there use a twice-weekly, three-day service run by a private Russian company to Moscow, via Berlin and Warsaw. From Moscow, of course, it's a mere seven days to the Lord of the East. Great video, not incidentally. Loved it!
According to "The Man in Seat 61" London to Vladivostok can be done by 3 trains. London to Paris via Eurostar, then Paris to Moscow and finally Moscow to Vladivostok. Journey takes about 10 days and cost varies depending on class of travel and cabin sleeping arrangements,
@EmperorJuliusCaesar Inverness to London would be the furthest origin point north with a single train I think (if doing it for the experience consider the caledonian sleeper for this leg). But you can get a train from the UK's northernmost station Thurso to Inverness also.
When I looked it up some years ago there were more changes than that, Paris, Zurich, Vienna, Warsaw, Minsk, Moscow was the least changes at the time. Granted I was looking for regular scheduled normal service trains there might be special services that have less changes or maybe things changed since I looked. Guess it depends on the goals of your trip though for me if I were to do something like this I'd prefer to use regular service trains local people use even if some of the tour ones do sound cool, you lose the chance to meet and share stories with local people if you do the trip on a tourist trap like that.
@@seraphina985 that Paris to Moscow train only runs once a week. If you want a daily departure, then indeed more changes are needed. The easiest route from Paris is to Koln by Thalys, then to Berlin by German ICE, then to Warsaw, and then a sleeper to Moscow.
Some friends of mine went around the world in 80 days purely by train and plane. Seattle train to Vancouver to Nova Scotia by train and flew to New York. Flight to Lisbon, trains to Madrid, Paris, Berlin and to St Petersburg. Train to Moscow and then Trans-Siberean to Vladivostock. Flight to Seoul and flight to West coast of Australia. Train across whole country to Sydney. Flight to LA and train to Seattle.
The Trans Siberian is on my bucket list which is something i'm firmly committed to fulfiling & this whole travel ban thing is rudely getting in the way of!( due to medical issues I only have about 6-8 years max left as my immune system failed a couple years back and my body is now slowly shutting down). It's not cheap to do but i'm determined to cross it off my list and your video was great. Also used your link to sign up on SkillShare so thanks for that as well. Keep up the great work.
@@Hobinator17 It's not but thanks for the assumption eh ;) I have lupus and a cascading immune system caused by the long term use of several drugs throughout my life for various other health issues which themselves need other drugs to counteract them and my body simply reached a point where it no longer knew what to do with all the drugs or which messages to ignore or act upon so unfortunately decided it would essentially stop doing anything. It's just one of those things it is what it is. On the upside every so often they will have me in hospital to cut so new piece of me out which makes for a great weight loss system. I go to sleep and wake up several pounds lighter everytime ( gallows humour is sort of how I deal with the whole things So far i've tuicked 67 countries off the map and will get through as many as I can before I cant which is why im about ready for this whole travel ban to to be done with. Even as an at risk person im done with all now.
I'm an American, but I've done it from Moscow to Novosibirsk, three times, and back. Never made it to the end of the line, but since my first trip was in 92, I've almost been knifed, I once bought the entire restaurant car for twenty bucks, and was once escorted aboard by a troop of Cossacks, in large hats, and then made to chug moonshine while biting it back with a dill pickle..
I have ridden a small part of the railway from Vladivostok to Khabarovsk. My wife and I had a first class cabin which was pretty nice. We traveled in the spring and the view was beautiful with wild flowers and birch trees everywhere... and marsh. This was not an express trip. The train stopped in every village where you could buy some bread, cheese, dried fish, kvass and, of course, vodka. My wife and I hope to take the whole trip in the near future.
Nine years ago I went from London to Saigon by train (and bus and ferry) London to Paris, Paris to Brussels, Brussels to Amsterdam, Amsterdam to Hamburg all by train. Hamburg to Copenhagen by rail replacement bus, ferry and train, Copenhagen to Stockholm by train, Stockholm to Helsinki by ferry, Helsinki to Moscow by train. Trans-mongolian to Beijing. Beijing to Nanning by train, bus to Hanoi and then a mix of trains and buses down Vietnam. Surprisingly easy if a little long-winded!
I had friends that took the Moscow-Beijing route in the early 1980s. Very frequently a conductor would come tell all the foreign passengers on their train, "Dear, friends! You must change your clocks now! Russia is biggest country in world - many time zones!" They were several hours ahead of *actual* local time when they got to the Chinese border. :-) Also, the trucks on the train-cars had to be changed at the Chinese border because the rail gauge was different in China. :-) Ha! You covered that! 16:44
In 2017 I did Vladivostok-Moscow. The train left Vladivostok at 12.00 midday Railway (Moscow) time, 7p.m. local time. Yep, 7 time zones. (Apparently since ~2019, Rzd timetables are now in local time)
Thanks for the (reinvigorated) memories Simon. I undertook this trip with 4 (5?) siblings quite some years ago travelling from Moscow to Beijing under the care of an Intreped tour leader named Baata, a lovely Mongolian woman who was 24YO at the time. Most enjoyable...overnight and several 2 day stops along the way to check out the "neighborhood" eg Ulan Baatar (also living in a Yurt). Lake Beikal was spectacular! Talk about mega; it holds about 20% of the world's fresh water! Living there are a number of species of sea animals which have evolved to live in fresh water. The trip was very worth while, particularly as it enabled you in gain knowledge of and access local peoples and cultures.
I live in Moscow and I can get back to sunny Dorset by trains. Moscow - Paris 30 hours, change Paris -london 4 hours . Then lastly London Waterloo to Gillingham Dorset 2.5 hours. Return ticket 2 class around 600 pounds. If you time it right you can leave Moscow Wednesday evening and catch the 5.50 from Waterloo.
I was very lucky to travel a large part of the route in summer 1988, when I returned from studying in Shnaghai, China for a year, and taking the Trans-Mongolian from Beijing via Ulan Baator to Moscow, and on to Berlin, Stuttgart. Wonderful memories!
The Trans-Siberian luxury train is the Golden Eagle. It's journey takes two weeks with many stops along the way including a detour to Lake Baikal and Ulaan Baatur, Mongolia. It also includes a short stay at a five-star hotel on either end.The train has its own laundry service and an English-speaking doctor. Prices begin at $18,000, higher than most luxury trains (usually around $4,000-6,000, but it's a much longer trip than most.
A number of years ago I traveled on the Trans Siberian Railway from Moscow to Abakan on my way to Tuva. It was a great trip both there and back. I have many good memories of that adventure.
"fancy train" is called the "golden eagle" (Золотой Орёл). It's very expensive, stylized to royal time train. The journey from Moscow to Vladivostok will take 14 days on it, mainly due to long stops for excursions.
2016 we went from Beijing to St. Petersburg on the train. Stopped for a week at a time along the way. In November. Loved every minute. Highly recommend traveling westerly, the accommodations improve along the way! Ulan Bator, Lake Baikal, Krasnoyarsk, Ekaterinburg, Moskow, and SP. Everyone was super friendly and helpful.
Last year 2019, I took the trans Mongolian from Moscow to Beijing . Leaving Moscow at 23.55 on a Tuesday night and arriving into Beijing on the following Monday and 14.35. I took the journey in early March so Siberia was still covered in Snow. The train was not very busy and it was an amazing journey
My room mate, the grandson of a Tombstone silver mining family told me of his grandfathers tour of duty in the American expeditionary force 7500 troops(one of many foreign armies there) in Russia's Civil war period and they were there guarding a trans section for the purpose of safeguarding the American engineers and Engines there and as the cook and an experienced prospector he was out looking for specimens and when he returned all his fellow soldiers, about twenty were dead , ambushed by red army Bolsheviks. He hiked to the next camp, reported, and later the American army force there killed about 300 red army insurgents. He brought back some amazing specimens of gold laced white quartz the size of a soccer ball. What an amazing journey. I met him , he and his wife, The Escapules were quite interesting to listen to. Think of it, a young man from Az, goes all the way around the world to guard the Trans Siberian railroad , faces unimaginable things brings back rock specimens in his duffle bags by ship, took months and they are there on his fireplace shelf.
I did this in the other direction. These were my stops: Vladivostok, Khabarovsk, Irkutsk, Krasnoyarsk, Omsk, Ekaterinburg, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Minsk, Brest(change of gauge), Warsaw, Krakow, Prague, Nuremberg, Frankfurt, Koln, Brussels, London. This was part of my “grand” project: leave Pittsburgh heading West and arrive back from the East, only using trains and ships(no airplanes). My most difficult problem was getting a ship across the Pacific. Eventually found a repositioning cruise from Vancouver to Yokohama. Entire journey was about 2 1/2 months.
When I was little, I loved looking at my earth globe. I was amazed by the sheer seize of Russia and imagined what those places looked like. That was my motivation for taking the trip later on, which I did (Mosow - Beijing), right after high school, with two friends, we had a great time. So, what did it look like? First a lot of from Moscow Birch trees, then a lot of spruce and pine, then lake Baikal, then step, then mountains, then Beijing. Totally worth it, but probably won't do it again.
For those in the US and Canada curious about trains carried by ferry boats, you can ride on the SS Badger across Lake Michigan between Manitowoc Wisconsin and Ludington Michigan, a 4-hour trip, today (summer only). I did it in 2017 and 2019. The Badger doesn't carry actual trains anymore but you can still see the rails on the docks and the main deck of the ship. The Badger is also the last passenger-carrying coal-powered steamship operating in the US. Another strange sight on the Badger to those like me who live near an ocean, is the dock setup for a location without tides.
I went from Shanghai to London by rail, pretty amazing journey. The Gobi Desert was stunning, seeing the Great Wall in silhouette against a sunset amazing, and Lake Baikal fabulous. Rather dull Irkutsk to Moscow, lots of pine trees!
In college we had Henry Rollins come by on a spoken word tour and he did about 2/3rds of his talk just retelling his recent journey on the Trans-Siberian, he did it in the winter as well.
Not so many changes required to get from London to Vladivostok. There is a direct train between Paris and Moscow that is slightly more than 2 days journey.
I’ve done Ulaanbaatar to London in 1991 using mix of train, car and ferry. The journey started Oct 10 departing from Ulaanbaatar to Moscow for 5 days on the train. Then 1 night in Moscow followed by 2 days train ride to Prague. From Prague drove to Rotterdam and then ferry ride to Dover. The most memorable part of the trip were the lunch/dinner on the Trans-Mongolian train and encountering sellers/buyers at each stop.
I've gone from Pyongyang (NK) to Beijing (China), to Ulaanbaatar (Mongolia), up to Irkutsk, on to Moscow and finished in Saint Petersburg. Quite the train journey. I wish I'd taken it to London. That would have been epic.
I love the way you end your videos. They give a meaningful reminder of how big a world we live in and how many great things can be done, all in a way that still sheds light on the topic while giving due respect to the matter. Keep it up!
I went to Siberia with a group in 1995. We flew into Khabarovsk and boarded the train there. We almost missed the train, which was a lot of fun! Some of the highlights were buying food from people at the train stops, seeing Lake Baikal, though we only passed the narrow part of it so it wasn't that impressive, and having the conductor threaten to unhook our train car when we wouldn't pay for "ticket upgrades". The dining car was also fun the one time we went there. After several weeks in Krasnoyarsk, we took the train the rest of the way Moscow. It was a really amazing experience! Also, it was summer so it was hot the entire time we were there and only rained once. Not the Siberia of popular imagination, though Krasnoyarsk is fairly south for Siberia.
I used to make a goal of riding every Eastern European and Stan line. The Trans is awe-inspiring and great for rest/relax. Start at St P, go to Irkutsk or all way to Vladivistok (West to East). Don't buy tix all at once. Instead, just plan your stops before you arrive to Russia. Then, buy your next length at each station. This gives great flexibility and takes the pressure off. Segments are rarely sold out! Ride Platzkart if you wanna meet folks, not speak ANY ENGLISH and drink a lot. Go Kupe if you want some lovely solitude, reading time, etc. Oh yeah...memorize Russian alphabet first so you can at least sound out words. Aaaaand, know counting to 100!!! This is doable in like 4 days of hard study.
Agree about 'learning' Cyrillic, and it's amazing how many Russian words have English or French origins once you can read them. 'Servis tsentr' for example. I found 'driving' through Moscow on Google Streetview and reading all the signs an excellent way to practice.
I've heard about the line, but this is the first time I've seen any video concerning the full account. I think Simon skimped a little on the history, but going into that much detail would have turned this into a 1 hour video.
Dude, I flew into London and took the train from London to Moscow, then Moscow to Beijing. This was Winter 2007, passing the frozen Lake Baikal. We spent New Years Eve on the Russo-Mongolian border, eating chocolate and drinking vodka. Met a lot of great folks, never strayed too far from the train during stops, bought pumpernickel from the babooshkas on the platform and slept for hours, watched miles of train cars filled with timber, and finished writing a book. We rode in Chinese train stock with Chinese personnel. It was fantastic. I am taking my family when sanity returns to most of the world.
I live in Shanghai. I now a few friends (here in Shanghai) that have taken a train all the way from Hong Kong to London. They took a direct bullet train, the CRH, direct from Hong Kong to Beijing, then transferred to another train. I believe they had to transfer once before getting to Moscow, where they had to change at Warsaw, again at Lille, and finally arrived in London.
OK, first off, a correction -- "Standard Gage" for most railroads in the world is 4-foot, 8-1/2 inches (56-1/2 inches or 1435.1 mm) not the 4-foot, 11 inches that Simon mentioned in the video. Russian railroad gage is 5-feet (60-inches or 1524 mm). Until the Trans-Baikal and Amur valley sections of the line were completed, the Trans Siberian line went down into China at Ulan-Bator and through to Harbin, China and on to Vladivostok via a ferry from China. China was a weak country back then (...Boxer Rebellion and many civil wars back then), so Chinese concessions to Russia were a lot easier at the time. I've made 7, one-way journeys on the Trans-Siberian (Khabarovsk ...where I lived and worked for 6 years... to Moscow). I've also circumnavigated the globe almost in its entirety by train in 1997. The longest overland leg was Khabarovsk to Moscow to London (via St. Petersburg, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Belgium, across France (Flanders), and on to London via the Eurostar). Another line you might want to cover in a future episode is the BAM (or БАМ, The Baikal-Amur Magistral, a more easily, militarily defended line north of the Trans-Siberian. Also in the 1930's ...in anticipation of war with Japan and/or Germany... a secret railway tunnel was built under the Amur River into Khabarovsk ...in the event the bridge was destroyed. Also in the 1990's, road transport highway lanes had been added atop the Amur River railway bridge. Great video though. I enjoyed it very much. It was a touch of "home" (...for the 6 years I was there), and brought back many memories. Good job Simon, et al.
@EmperorJuliusCaesar -- I'm an engineer (retired), so I can use either system, but there is nothing special about the metric system -- it is just another ARBITRARY systems. "Standard Gauge Rail" is 4 ft 8 12 inches (or 1435 mm). The US won that war and even most of the metric countries use it. You can look it up on wiki, they have a good article on the different railroad gauges in use around the world and it even goes into why the decisions were made for some of the countries. I'm not saying that the US system is perfect, but it works and it's not like we are going to change anytime soon. Most people in the US think that we only have a single definition of the "foot". That would be wrong... There's the "international foot" which is what most people think of when they are referencing their rulers or tape measures and there is the "survey foot" which is what is used for surveying your property, state borders, etc. Some people know that there is a difference between the capacity measurement units for dry items vs fluid items, but a lot less know that there is an "international foot" and a "survey foot". And to make it even more interesting, some states mandate the use of the "international foot" in their surveying and others mandate the use of the "survey foot".
Grumpy OldMan Once you get accustomed to both systems it is easy, but Imperial system is “more” arbitrary than metric. At least metric system is defined by some sort of constant, unlike for example, Imperial foot ( who’s foot anyway ? ) In the beginning 1m was defined as 1/10 000 000 of the distance from the Equator to the North Pole, recently it was changed to a distance that light travels in a vacuum over time ( billionth of a second or something like that ). But depending on your perspective, you can argue that on a cosmic scale even that is arbitrary - unit of measurement selected by beings living on the 3rd rock from the Sun. Btw, did you know that 4 degrees of temperature is not double of 2 degrees of temperature ?? 🤯 I’m confused 😁
@EmperorJuliusCaesar -- And where are *you* located that it makes you think that the metric system is any different than any other arbitrary measuring standard? Just look at the history of the definition of the meter and you'll see that it is not based on any intrinsic constant, but rather a rough approximation and then a bunch of redefinitions to try to make it more uniform. I don't care what measuring system you use, it is still based on arbitrary units. Unlike you, I'm willing to recognize this and deal with whichever unit of measurement I happen to have to deal with at that time. And by the way, your 97% figure is totally crap (87.628% of all statistics are made up on the spot)... Just the US makes up a bit over 23% of the entire world and that doesn't count the other countries that use the US system. And then there is the UK which seems to use the Imperial system and the metric system, basically whichever is convenient at the time. Not that I mind since the pubs are required to sell beer in *Imperial pints* (20 Imperial ounces, which works out to be a bit over 19 US ounces). In fact, I'm sitting here right now drinking a bottle of Guinness which states that it is "22 oz". I'm not sure where that size comes from though. In Imperial Ounces, it works out to be around 22.9 and in liters, it is 0.650618, so no nice even number seems to show up. It's all arbitrary units of measurements, so just admit it, grab a cold brew, and deal with it...
The reason millimetres is used officially is just down to the precision required by the project. You can use meters, as long as you’re not an engineer working on the system.
That was really great. During the Yeltin’s years, I twice took the Trans-Siberian to Baikal, one of those trips to Ulan-Ude, the capitol of Buryatia. I also road a train to Vorkuta, beyond the Arctic Circle, at the top of the Gulag Archipelago. Russian trains are remarkable as the country itself. I lived there five years under Yeltsin. The Russians are a remarkable who are greatly misunderstood. You do great work. I really appreciate your sense of awe, curiosity & enthusiasm. Thank you.
Hi Simon. You might like reading: Ghost Train to the Eastern Star: On the Tracks of the Great Railway Bazaar by Paul Theroux The author details his journey in the early 2000's (this was his second, the first one being in the1970's) of just such a trip -- London to Tokyo, and back. Have fun!
In 2012, I accepted the challenge of travelling with my best friend and my girlfriend at the time from Madrid (Spain) to Beijing by land. We hopped on and off trains for crossing Europe, linking with this marvel at Moscow and enjoying the Transiberian until Ulan Ude, where we catched the Transmongolian to the chinese border. Unfortunately we had to go from there to Beijing itself by road, but the experience was amazing!
Several years ago I flew from LA to London and then spent the next almost 4 months traveling from London to Singapore by train except for the gap across Cambodia. That trip I took the Trans-Mongolian route. The next year I did much of the trip in reverse via the Trans-Manchurian. When the world settles down I'm going back to ride the BAM.
1:06 - it's Trans-Mongolian Railway or Manchuria Railway - only one track and no catenary. (Trans-Syberian fully elecrificated and minimum double-tracked. 1:12 - it's Circum-Baikal railway - there are more than half century not a part of Trans-Syberian. 1:45 - again Trans-Mongolian or Manchuria Railway - no catenary and single-track. 2:51 - really old photo - there are no green carriages, all Russia passenger trains have white/grey-red livery 9:15 - it's not 1903 - it's about 1980 photo. 12:15 - finally - Trans-Siberian railway... 14:18 - it's somewhere in Ukraine or Moscow region in Soviet era. Blue and yellow stripe is Ukrainian livery. 15:41 - it's private "Golden Eagle" train only for tourists and have no schedule - by order only. www.goldeneagleluxurytrains.com/trains/golden-eagle/ 15:51 - again - it's no TS raiway. 15:55 - old photo - there are no those livery, all carriages "Rossiya" train repainted in red ang grey a lot of years ago. 19:20 - Circum-Baikal railway and tourist retro train, not TS. 20:14 - it's no today, it's about 15 years ago... Today Russian Railways State company have no green carriages and Belorussian train (Blue with white stripe). 20:27 - "Belorussian" line in Moscow and Belorussian train - it not TS.
Great episode Simon. I've Done. Of these routes, including the Baikal Amur Magistral (BAM). TO answer Your question: London - Vladivostok.: I'm from the Netherlands. There was from here a direct train to Moscow from Amsterdam. Now You have to change in Minsk. So just take the Euroliner to here and then change to Minsk, there to Moscow and well... The rest is what this video was about. Can definatelt recommend it to You, you'd love it. Consider though to stop underway in some of the cities instead of just waiting in the train for a week till You get to the Pacific!
Despite what Simon says, there is no such thing as the Trans-Siberian express. there are the Trans- Siberian railway lines upon which various trains run. Even the Moscow to Vladivostok trains are not called 'the' Trans-Siberian Express...indeed most of them are far from 'express'.
I am from Vladivostok and my place was near the railway. On the railway itself they have a post every 1km with the number of kms from Moscow I believe. The number near my house read something like over 9200km, can't quite remember it now. Shame you didn't mention the tunnel under Amur river when talking about the bridge. Also, building a bridge to Sakhalin island I heard is almost impossible due to strong currents in Tatar straight.
This is something I'd very much like to do someday. How much does it generally cost? How much Russian do you need to know to not get on the wrong train? Is there much English spoken by passengers or staff? Cyrillic hurts my brain so I don't think I'll ever learn Russian. :/
@Mark Gaiennie Hey :) Yes! i loved it! i travelled a lot in my life but that one is absolutly in the top 3! Uhm well im German, and i had not been in germany for a while before so getting my visa in time was quite a pain. It depends on you wanting to do china as well, both of those countries require me to send in my passport with a clear list of where i will be staying - so i had to do one after the other and both had to happen after the reservation of the train and with me not being in germany. all a little difficult but easily doable under better circumstances haha. i have spend 1500euro in my 5 1/2 weeks on the trip. you be the judge :) any trip can be done cheap and expensive this is no different. overall i would say its very cheap if your fine with sleeping on the train and only going for night trains and then spend a day or two or three in each city you stop in :) for us the trip was the goal :) i had some work to do in Shenzhen and then took the plane back from honkong to the Netherlands. If you do this for fun i wouldnt recommend staying on the train 7 days straight :D
@@stevepittman3770 cost: see my answer a min ago :) i did the trip for fairly cheap. train is about 600+ euro but depneds alot on time of year number of stops and of course the class you want. i wouldnt recommend lowest tier if you want to have a relaxed trip. but i also dont think first class is worth unless money is no objective. I know 0 russian. my chinese is very very bad as well haha. you can do it without. but i strongly recommend getting apps for autotranslate and a camera one for translating writing. people around you wont speak english be prepared for that. again depends on class. in first class most people are foreigners and they will know english. but anywhere else there are few and far between. again time of year dependent. But i also got a tendency to not got to touristy spots so yea. Russian 95%. and some students and kids wanting to practice their school english with you :D im not dedicated enught to learn it either :) translation apps are your friend. and unless you get stranded at a train station in the middle of nowhere its 100% fine without any Russian knowledge at all :) (make sure your app can read train tickets cause you certainly wont be able to xD)
Nice video! In June, 1992 I was living in Tokyo and it was time to move back home to the US. So we took the ferry to Vladivostok, then the Trans-Siberian to Moscow. During the cold war the western terminus was in Nakhodka but in June 1992 Vladivostok was reopened - we took the second ferry from Japan and then had quite an adventure on the Trans-Siberian, including getting left behind in Novosibirsk (with our 4 month old!) We had a nice stop in Irkutsk for a couple of days too - Siberia is beautiful and friendly in June. The plans for extending to Sakhalin and then to Hokkaido sound amazing.
I know this wasn’t built but the concept is interesting to say the least. The Maga City of Germania. This mega project is something that has interested me as a historian. You think you could do a video on it please.
Took the westbound route from Vladivostok to Moscow in 2006 with Golden Eagle. It was quite dear and prices have nearly doubled since, but it was some of the best money I've ever spent. A fabulous and intense expansion of appreciation of the world we live in.
@@tiffinyharrington9307 Romance, on a train, after a night at the pub, and the end of the line just happened to be in Prague. ♥ Now he lives in his office, keeps two writers chained to his radiator, does a LOT of coffee & cocaine, and runs half the channels on TH-cam. :D
In winter, I traveled 4.5 days from Chita to Moscow by train. The Trans-Siberian Express runs this route in 3 days. A very interesting trip. And my acquaintances 10 years ago from Moscow to Vladivostok took 1.5 months by suburban trains.
To answer the question at the end of your video: You can get from London to Vladivostok and only change trains twice: Amsterdam and Moscow. 5 hours from London to Amsterdam 1,5 days from Amsterdam to Moscow 6,5 days from Moscow to Vladivostok I personally took the train from Amsterdam to Vladivostok (with a few days break in Moscow and Irkutsk). Even people are considering making the journey, here is my advise: - make more stops along the line (but do keep in mind the train only goes every other day, so your stop will be at least 2 days) - either travel in the other direction or take the Trans Mongolian (to Beijing) instead as the landscape between Irkutsk and Vladivostok becomes pretty repetitive - bring a good book or two to read during your journey - bring something to clean the dirty outside of your carriage window with to enjoy the views more Don't expect cell phone reception outside of city limits and it often will take a few hours to get to the next city (just like the train stop in a city). We took the trip in April. Walking on frozen Lake Baikal was something to never forget.
@@marcvandyck8052 I am sorry, but you are wrong. There was at least one (that we took) in April 2010. Amsterdam - Arnhem - Berlin - Warsaw - Minks - Moscow (plus other stops). The train switches engines a few times and some cars were split off and added along the way, but our car went all the way, including the change of wheels at the border between Poland and Belarus (gauge break). So maybe there is no train today, but there sure has been one and less then 15 years ago.
When Simon speaks history and says, “but you already/probably know that”, I feel like he is speaking to me/us about how we more-likely-than-not have seen his many, many, MANY ither channels where he speaks about such things... I really like this Simon guy! Keep on going my man!
Is it just me or has Simon kind of 'loosened up' since he started doing Business Blaze? I feel like he used to be a lot more solemn and professional. I.e. soulless. Certainly a welcome change.
I'm an ex-BR signalman, and am now an English teacher. In 2008 I got a job in Tianjin for the academic year. I was given the fare of an airline ticket home to the UK in July 2009, and got the Trans-Siberian through Mongolia instead, influenced by my work-history. Such fun! I wanted to get trains all the way home, but the visa through Belarus was too difficult to get in the two days I had left on my Russian visa, So I flew back from Moscow. People in Beijing on tourist visas couldn't get visas for Russia. I only got one because I had a Z-visa (residence permit) for China. I was too daring on the journey as when we stopped in a city station like Omsk, for example, I would run out of the station to take pictures. Got away with it though, and really enjoyed a full day in Moscow at journey's end. You know, Red Square, St Basil's and Russian women. Oh yeah, caviar tastes too fishy, but borscht is incredibly delicious.
@@GM-xk1nw I'm an American nationalist (which isn't a bad thing) and not only did I give this a thumbs up if I had the chance I'd LOVE to take this trip. Just because I believe the US to be the best doesn't mean I can't appreciate the accomplishments of other countries, and this railroad is an amazing accomplishment.
Back in October 2019, I did the Trans-Siberian Railway as part of a three week trip from the UK back to Australia. By rail, I managed to go from Gloucester, UK (where I was living at the time) to Vladivostok. Along the way, I had multi-day stopovers at London, Cologne, Sulechów (Poland, near where my great, great, great grandfather Tschirpig was born) and Moscow. The Trans-Siberian Railway portion of the trip was done in a first class cabin, which I shared with a friendly Russian lady. Each day by rail offered a different set of scenery; with a mix of farmland, forest, mountains, waterways and snow. The highlight of the Trans-Siberian Railway trip was passing along the storefront of Lake Baikal between Irkutsk and Ulan-Ude. Once in Vladivostok, I had an overnight stay in the city before catching a flight home to family in Brisbane (via an layover in Toyko).
Also, I did a blog to chronicle my international adventures. The post for my day traveling around Lake Baikal is: barryoperationuk2019.wordpress.com/2020/04/12/nightly-roundup-15-10-19/
Yes, you could go from London to Vladivostok/Beijing by train: London - Amsterdam - Moscow - Vladivostok/Beijing. You could probably go via Kiev too, instead of Moscow.
Paris instead of Amsterdam. There's a direct weekly Paris - Moscow train, but obviously it will resume only after the pandemic situation is settled more or less.
I did the trip Yokohama (Tokyo's port city) - boat - Nakhodka (near Vladivostok) - train (with overnight stops in Khabarovsk, Irkutsk) - Moscow (3 days) - train (East-West Express Moscow-London) - Hannover (Germany) back in August 1983. A great experience. With an appropriate ticket, I could have stayed on board until London. Tokyo-London would have been possible with just 2 changes: Nakhodka from boat to train, and Moscow from Transsiberian train to East-West-Express Moscow-London. They made us walk the Soviet-Polish border while the train got wheels changed for the different gauge, but we boarded the same train coachon the Polish side. Hoek-van-Holland to Harwich would have been by boat (this was before the Channel tunnel).
2:20 that's nothing, I now a guy who went on a plane trying to go see pretty beaches and kangaroos in australia and when he woke up and the plane had landed everyone was shouting in German because hed wound up in Austria
When I worked in Russia in 1993 the economy was in ruff shape. Our client company asked if we would mind taking the train and if we truly wanted to fly , they would get aircraft tickets! Myself and another advisor named Dean were adventurous and wanted to save our client a few rubles so we chose train. We took the transiberian railroad from Irkutsk thru Krasnoyarsk and to Novosibirsk! It was a multi track railroad outfitted with electric grid and most trains where electric! Any communication poles of wood are lashed to precast concrete poles imbedded in the perma frost! The car wher quite interesting maintained and dirt during that time , because of the economics of the time. Traveling with our Russian coworkers was a wonderful time and an awesome adventure! We seen so many communities and some beautiful land! After we did our first trip, we chose to make the trip several times! Would of never wanted to miss the experience!! Oh yes we had 2nd class rooms with two beds and we all would congregate to one room drink vodka peva(beer) and play cards . And we eta in a dining car! Was a blast!
That proposal has seen decades in planning, and the Russians, at the very least the current gov showed signs of interest and even started extending the line to reach the farthest city in that direction. To be decided if its a bridge or a tunnel or a combination, similar to the one connecting UK and France, or the impressive ocean bridges made by China and elsewhere. In America they would need to make a line from there into south Alaska and Canada. Its literally a "megaproject", I think it was covered in one of those tv shows bearing that name... But perhaps the current US administration isn't that interested in opening yet more routes to foreign imports (exporting is overrated), so there might be a delay on this side... It will probably be just cargo route, alternative to sea shipping, because moving passengers over there would take a lot of time. Not impossible, but not cheap. Think of a "hotel on wheels" which why its so "expensive". In a way, its connecting the last piece of what used to be Russia, and in another, the last continent to connect directly by rail with the rest of the planet; so its not just north america but south america as well possibly wanting to move cargo across all continents and back.
Yep I've done it! In my Gap year about 17 years ago! Oxford to London (1 hour), Eurostar London to Brussels (4 Hours), Brussels to Moscow (36 hours), then Trans-Siberian to Vladivostok. The plan was then to get the Ferry across to Japan, but unfortunetly we didn't account for the fact it would take over a day to leave Russian waters, and our Visa's would run out before we left Russian waters, so we had to hurredly book a Plane ticket to get out of the country. We then proceeded to travel all over Japan for the next two months on their rail system using the awesome visitors Japan rail pass which was around £600 for 6 weeks of unlimited travel.
Technically, you can start your train journey from anywhere in europe. You could start your journey to Vladivostok in Madrid, Edinburgh or Rome. If you live in London, Kings Cross is as good a place to start as any. If you start from the UK, you can plan your journey to include the three most iconic high speed rail systems in europe: Eurotunnel, TGV and ICE. On your way to Moscow, you'll also experience a change of rail gauge.
Formally it's a truce I believe. So it can be considered over, the peace treaty is more like a ceremonial gesture but I doubt it will ever be signed, the demands of the sides are contradicting literally on the *constitutional* level.
I rode the Trans-Siberian in February of 2006, Vladivostock to Moscow, and another to St Petersburg, and then to Helsinki, and what I found most interesting was the fact that on long clear curves, you could see the train ahead of yours, and the one behind. It is a crowded railroad. Also, if you take a train from Copenhagen to Amsterdam, somewhere along the way, the train drives onto a boat and crosses the north sea.
Hi Simon, can you cover a Megaproject from India: "Polavaram Project" - the largest irrigation project in the world. It would be great if you can cover megaprojects from India as well.
Thanks to Skillshare for sponsoring! The first 500 people to use this link will get a 2 month free trial of Skillshare Premium Membership: skl.sh/2CihHb0
I have done the north to the south of Vietnam, they where all old Russian trains, some re-fitted and lovely, some ...... not :P. It was an amazing experience tho.
Took it in 2015, The Trans Mongolian Express, starts in Moscow But heads down in to Mongolia and leaves you in Beijing. I stopped in Omsk,, Irkutsk, Ulaanbataar and finally Beijing. Amazing Journey. This was part of a bigger journey from Dublin to Kuala Lumper. All by Trains, Busses and some boats But London to Vietnam is all very doable by just trains, Visas a fun. Also Even today you can make it to Japan across Europe and Russia by train, then get boats and busses to Japan, Its something I've been looking in to for another time.
Thanks for the 2 month free trial! :)
@@andljoy Amazing website
Dont get your promo speech thb here. If I use your promo link, i can get 2 months free membership at skill share... But do I after have to pay for a year subscribsion to get the 2 months?? Or what are you meaning with 1 year subscribsion in the speech???
Enjoyed the video. In 1986 I travelled from Hong Kong to London by train, all the way, it was a 21 day tour. It was an organised tour group of 8 people + guide. We did stay in motels at various places, like Beijing, Ulaanbaatar, Irkutsk & Moscow. We also did day trip to various sights like the Great Wall & Lake Balkal. This was when the USSR was still in in charge, and gave us many stories of their determination to control everything. The crossing from East Belin to West Berlin was very memorable.
Man I wish I could've done that and witnessed the soviet union. I was born in Russia in 95, adopted by US citizens. I'm happy about my life but always wonder how different my life could've been had my biological parents kept me
That is an amaazibg story. Wish I could have experienced it! Very memorable indeed
I (West-German) once tried to cross from East to West Berlin. - "This border crossing is only for diplomats or citizens of the German Democratic Republic. - You cannot go through here."
I had to turn back. - Very memorable indeed.
I did this trip 4 years ago, amazing. It was late winter, March, and most of the route was snow covered. Vladivostok is a great city well worth a visit. In fact i went all the way from my local station in Mid Kent, UK via London and Paris to Moscow and then on to Vladivostok by 5 different trains. The Trans Siberian is something everyone should try at least once in their life.
How did you travel from vladivostok?
2 days and the worst traveling experience of my life, by FAR
@@Lyle-xc9pg cool story. Russia is shut down for travel for several months and you couldn't finish this journey in 2 days no matter what.
@@LouisHansell I flew to Japan, then on to the USA. Travelled across the USA by train and then flew home to the UK from NYC
@@DannStephen Nice trip!
I think you could go London-Wladivostok fairly easily:
London-Paris Eurostar
Paris-Moscow Nighttrain
Moscow-Wladivostok Trans-Siberian
Only two changes to cross nearly all of Eurasia, thats rather impressive.
Don't Eurostar run a service from London, stopping at Ashford, Brussels and Vlladivostok? lol
You won't get from Paris to Moscow in one night, more like 2-nights-and-1½-day-train :P
@@UberGrunk The train takes less than two days. Travel time is ~39 hours and IIRC, it is scheduled to start early in the morning in Paris and arrive late evening in Moscow. Only one night on board!
Start your journey with Aberdeen - London on Caledonian Sleeper ;)
Turns out Google maps can do it. Apparently 3 changes and 8 days 13 hours travel
In 1903, International Harvestor sent my father, who founded the Agricultural Engineering program at U of Illinois a few years earlier, to travel the Trans Siberian Railway to its termination point at that time, Irkutsk on Lake Baikal. His job was to inform International Harvestor what agricultural machinery was in use and what opportunities for IH equipment might be. Czar Nicolas was the ruler and military a constant presence. Steam engines powered the trains same as in U.S. His trip consumed most of a summer before he returned to the University. Dad was born in 1875, was 65 when I was born, died in 1960 when I was 20.
What equipemt was sold?
@Robert Crane thank you for sharing that! maybe you could do a video on that or some oral history?
Amazing story thanks for sharing.
My take away is that your dad was still makin babies at 65. Absolute legend.
Top shagger
1. My recommendation: Bring entertainment (i.e., a long book), and don't be scared to take it in mid-winter... (the route is worlds more dramatic, and considerably less crowded with tourists).
2. There is a superstition that you will add a year to your life if you wash your feet in the waters of Lake Baikal - Listvyanka is a wonderful place to do this.
3. The private train is much like your description of the early first class, and some travel agencies (like Travel All Russia) offer the option, but it is crazy expensive (I seem to recall something like $24K for a week's journey).
4. The alternative train route through Central Asia has been operating for over a decade already, but I'd imagine that you'd be heavily screened before being allowed to take it, as it passes through the middle of the police activities against Uighur "separatists" in Xinjiang.
5. Extensions also exist going up to the town just across the Lena River from Yakutsk, and then there is the Baikal Amur Magistral, or BAM (a line worthy of its own episode). Supposedly travel along these is possible to book, but it requires a bit more logistical planning than just taking the Rossiya or other Trans-Siberian route.
6. Gauge changing seen at the border of the Russian system and the Chinese can also be seen closer to Europe. When you take a train from Prague to Kyiv, for instance, you will go through a gauge changing facility at the Ukrainian border. Usually you hit it in the middle of the night. They disengage the wheel casings, jack the whole train up, replace the casings with the new gauge, and then reattach the casings. It's interesting to watch if you can stay up for it.
7. Another Megaproject episode I'd agitate for is the idea of putting a tunnel under the Bering Strait... efforts toward building this are dormant right now, but plans by some ambitious someone have caught the attention of media and dreamers from time to time since William Gilpin first proposed it in the late 19th century. (Completion of an extension of the line between Alaska and the Canadian rail system will likely spur further effort toward this ultimate railroad megaproject, one that would dwarf anything like a London to Tokyo line... I mean, imagine a London to New York or Tokyo to Los Angeles bullet train journey...)
Make the effort to take the trip, Simon. It's worth it...
I really want to do this :) Thank you so much for the information
Yeeees Listvyamka. Baikal. Lake fish. Nature. Quiet. Loved that too yes. Also Irkutsk is a nice city!
He should also, at least, look at the renewed plans for the building of a rail connection between mainland Russia and Sakhalin. There isn't much information that I could find of Stalin's attempt at it, but it would be quiet the endeavor if Putin should pull it off.
@@Azivegu Transpolar Mainline, or the Northern Latitudinal Railway
as it's called nowadays, is far more realistic project than Sakhalin bridge. Although, regauging whole of Sakhalin island's 2500 kms of railroad to 1,520 mm is a megaproject on its own.
I did some minor research into taking this journey a few years ago. The biggest problem I found with it, is once you're on there, you're on there. Some of the stops along the way are quite short and obviously don't allow time for lunch, photography or anything else. Is there a pass you can buy so If you wanted to get off the train and spend a couple of nights in Perm for example, then catch the next East bound train on the same ticket? Instead of a seven day ass numbing trip, turn it into a two or three week long adventure.
You shouldn't give up on that dream so soon, Simon. It had been a lifelong dream of my parents (particularly my mother) to take that trip, and they had all but given up on it, until we managed to make it their thirty-years anniversary gift. I can count on one hand the number of times I saw my mother cry, and I am quite happy to say that, on this occasion, those were tears of joy.
They took almost four weeks to go from Vladivostok to Moscow, in January, and they came back home with the burning desire to go back and do it again. I'm counting it as a smashing success ! :-)
The photos, videos, and various stories they brought back are absolutely amazing, and maybe, one day, I will follow in their footsteps...
My wife and I were planning on going from Moscow to Vladivostok and then ferry to either Japan or South Korea for our 20th anniversary. From Atlanta, GA, a trip literally around the world! But then 2020 happened.
Don't use 2020 as an excuse to not do something you planned dude! Let it be for 21st anniversary, what a big deal :)
@EmperorJuliusCaesar What's wrong. Did Simon make fun of Trumpf? Poor baby.
You should definitely do it! Vladivostok is a gorgeous city (I've lived here for 7 years). I also like Moscow, so definitely worth a few days. I convinced my dad (a hillbilly Alabama guy from Talladega) to finally visit Vladivostok last year, and he loved it!
@EmperorJuliusCaesar There's a video clarifying where his finances are coming from. It's not from NTD. Where are your finances coming from, wumao?
Feels bad my man hope you get to do it eventually :)
Can I say, ever since you started "Business Blaze", your mood has become more playful on your other channels and I love it. 👍
I'm enjoying laid back Simon
Yes he seems a lot happier being able to make the videos he wants to make
JJ Legend
playful on your other channels???
What is it you do here, why the weirdo profile????? You sell cars here??????
I love the sarcasm, it’s great.
No, no you can not say it!!
I live in Tyumen, a Siberian city on the Trans Siberian - whenever I'm crossing one of the railway bridges I'm always amazed by how much freight this line carries. And |I've done "platzcart" - 3rd class - on a couple of sections of the line - a truly sociable experience!
I lived there for five years. Platzcart may be sociable, but the 'aroma' of those carriages in the summer is something that never leaves you. Doshik, feet, and fish!
Platzkart is only ever used by people who can't afford anything better. Nothing like having smelly middle-aged men socks in your face, mmm.
I live in Vladivostok, and I've gone as far as Belogorsk (around 27 hours from Vlad) in both platzcart and kupe. Platzcart was.......interesting, especially for an guy from Alabama. As far as kupe, it was even worse, as I felt claustrophobic. I've also done 1st class to Birobidzhan, but it's awkward in a compartment with just 1 stranger.
@@Cocc0nuttt0 There are also situations where you do not see a point in having anything better. E.g., a 8-12 hours train from Saint Petersburg to Moscow or the other way round. Or maybe Saint Petersburg to Tver, which is 5-6 hours (I once was in a train full of middle schoolers who literally were up all night until about an hour before Tver).
Worst traveling experience of my life, by FAR
1:50 - Chapter 1 - The lines
2:45 - Chapter 2 - The routes
4:30 - Chapter 3 - History
6:20 - Chapter 4 - Construction
10:45 - Mid roll ads
12:20 - Chapter 5 - Effects
14:20 - Chapter 6 - Trains
17:05 - Chapter 7 - War
20:20 - Chapter 8 - Today
21:30 - Chapter 9 - A mammoth extension to a mammoth line
I took much of this line, but in the opposite direction, in the early-mid 1980s, travelling from Beijing to Moscow on the “International Train” & joining the classic Trans-Siberian line at Ulan Ude. I had arrived in Beijing from Hong Kong (where I lived at the time) by air, the Beijing-Moscow journey took 5 1/2 days. A few days after arriving in Moscow I left again by train for London, crossing the Channel from Hook of Holland to Harwich and on to London by train, the whole Moscow/London trip took just over two days. One amazing experience was the change from Chinese gauge to Soviet gauge with the carriages being hoisted off the track so the Russian bogeys would be fitted, the whole process took about 1 1/2 hours for the lengthy multi-carriage train. The same process in reverse happened when we crossed from the USSR to Poland on the Moscow-London sector. A very interesting journey. Apart from that the longest rail journey I ever took was from Athens to Istanbul, that took about 36 hours, although for eight hours of that we stopped in no-man’s land on the Greek/Turkish border with one single carriage being shunted there by a Greek locomotive and the following morning we were pulled into Turkey by a Turkish locomotive and on to Istanbul.
EmperorJuliusCaesar At the time (1983) there was no diplomatic representation for the USSR in Hong Kong, so it my USSR visa was obtained from the Soviet embassy in Tokyo. However, when I arrived in Beijing I had to visit the rail office to get my actual tickets (the travel agency in HK could issue only travel vouchers) & luckily the lady at the railway office who exchanged the vouchers for my tickets noticed that the entry date for my Soviet visa was the arrival date in Moscow (about 4 1/2 days after we were due to cross into the USSR from Mongolia), so I would not have been allowed to cross the border, luckily I had time to visit the Soviet embassy in Beijing to get the entry date adjusted. Obviously a whole lot of things have changed since 1983, but I had to visit the Polish and East German embassies/consulates in Moscow to get the relevant visas for my onward trip to London. Good luck if you take a similar trip in either direction 😂👍
Wow you travelled
Been to Ulan Ude by accident.
Was on a plant to Irkutsk but had to divert because the airport there was flooded, we landed at Ulan Ude instead and were ferried to Irkutsk in old rickety Soviet busses with wooden seats.
Most uncomfortable journey ever, but stunning sights along the shores of Lake Baikal.
From Irkutsk we took the trans-Siberian west for several days before catching another aircraft to I think Leningrad or Kiev.
That was in the late 1980s.
I did a similar journey just before Hong Kong became part of China, in 1996. Hong Kong to London by train, so it was Guangzhou - Beijing - Irkutsk - Yekaterinburg - Moskva - Brussels Midi - London (by Eurostar to Waterloo then). The Beijing - Irkutsk service would have continued to Moskva, but me and my friend had a couple of breaks en route. One of the items that I can remember was how ‘European’ everything looked at Ulan Ude, after a period of time in China, even though it’s a long way east, as it were. On the trip from Guangzhou - Beijing, it was probably the last time I saw a pair of steam locomotives working a freight train in service.
The other fact that’s not all that well understood is that one can travel ‘under the wires’ all the way from the Atlantic to the Pacific on this continent (and the little island!), with a large chunk of it being at 25 kV ac 50 Hz, as much of the Trans Sib route under Russian Railways is like that now. All right, you’d use the metro in Moscow, but that’s electric as well.
Note that when I travelled though China it was on the old route via Wuhan etc; 2 nights on the train then, but there is a relatively new high speed line north - south now.
I remember the train you spoke of in Greece, it was a regular service, I think once a day, from Athens to Istanbul, a single carriage that was added to the regular "fast" train that ran from Athens to Dikaia (northernmost Greek rail station, close to the border to Bulgaria). I believe the "exchange" to Turkey happened at a station called Pythion, about 50 miles north of where I live!
We took the Trans Mongolian from Moscow all the way to Beijing, an epic journey. We got of a number of times, visited Lake Baikal and did a week in the Goby desert, to top it off we did a bit of extra highspeed train in China. I don't think we'll ever top this adventure. Nice video to give more background!
I took the train crossing from Mongolia into China in 2010. They lift you in the air inside the carriage as they change the wheels. Then off to the official border you go, with several hundred Chinese soldiers saluting the train whilst a loudspeaker says something in Chinese followed by “Welcome to China. How are you?” over and over again before they board the train and joylessly check your temperature and question you on whether you intend to sell goods inside the country.
Surreal. Unforgettable.
Ten years later and many countries are welcoming those arriving by checking their temperature; which they also had the airlines do before you boarded the plane.
I'm hardly an expert on this subject, but from what I've seen and read, you can (or at least could until 2020) take the Chunnel train from London to Paris and from there use a twice-weekly, three-day service run by a private Russian company to Moscow, via Berlin and Warsaw. From Moscow, of course, it's a mere seven days to the Lord of the East. Great video, not incidentally. Loved it!
According to "The Man in Seat 61" London to Vladivostok can be done by 3 trains. London to Paris via Eurostar, then Paris to Moscow and finally Moscow to Vladivostok. Journey takes about 10 days and cost varies depending on class of travel and cabin sleeping arrangements,
@EmperorJuliusCaesar Inverness to London would be the furthest origin point north with a single train I think (if doing it for the experience consider the caledonian sleeper for this leg). But you can get a train from the UK's northernmost station Thurso to Inverness also.
When I looked it up some years ago there were more changes than that, Paris, Zurich, Vienna, Warsaw, Minsk, Moscow was the least changes at the time. Granted I was looking for regular scheduled normal service trains there might be special services that have less changes or maybe things changed since I looked. Guess it depends on the goals of your trip though for me if I were to do something like this I'd prefer to use regular service trains local people use even if some of the tour ones do sound cool, you lose the chance to meet and share stories with local people if you do the trip on a tourist trap like that.
EmperorJuliusCaesar yes, but it’ll cost more to get to London than it will to get to China. We take the piss in this country
@@seraphina985 that Paris to Moscow train only runs once a week. If you want a daily departure, then indeed more changes are needed. The easiest route from Paris is to Koln by Thalys, then to Berlin by German ICE, then to Warsaw, and then a sleeper to Moscow.
Some friends of mine went around the world in 80 days purely by train and plane.
Seattle train to Vancouver to Nova Scotia by train and flew to New York.
Flight to Lisbon, trains to Madrid, Paris, Berlin and to St Petersburg. Train to Moscow and then Trans-Siberean to Vladivostock.
Flight to Seoul and flight to West coast of Australia. Train across whole country to Sydney.
Flight to LA and train to Seattle.
The Trans Siberian is on my bucket list which is something i'm firmly committed to fulfiling & this whole travel ban thing is rudely getting in the way of!( due to medical issues I only have about 6-8 years max left as my immune system failed a couple years back and my body is now slowly shutting down).
It's not cheap to do but i'm determined to cross it off my list and your video was great.
Also used your link to sign up on SkillShare so thanks for that as well. Keep up the great work.
That's a great bucket list.
What is wrong with your body, if you don't mind me asking?
Just curious.
@@terriesmith8219 it's AIDS dummy
Good luck! Keep us posted
hope you get your wish 🙏🏽
@@Hobinator17 It's not but thanks for the assumption eh ;)
I have lupus and a cascading immune system caused by the long term use of several drugs throughout my life for various other health issues which themselves need other drugs to counteract them and my body simply reached a point where it no longer knew what to do with all the drugs or which messages to ignore or act upon so unfortunately decided it would essentially stop doing anything.
It's just one of those things it is what it is. On the upside every so often they will have me in hospital to cut so new piece of me out which makes for a great weight loss system. I go to sleep and wake up several pounds lighter everytime ( gallows humour is sort of how I deal with the whole things
So far i've tuicked 67 countries off the map and will get through as many as I can before I cant which is why im about ready for this whole travel ban to to be done with. Even as an at risk person im done with all now.
I'm an American, but I've done it from Moscow to Novosibirsk, three times, and back. Never made it to the end of the line, but since my first trip was in 92, I've almost been knifed, I once bought the entire restaurant car for twenty bucks, and was once escorted aboard by a troop of Cossacks, in large hats, and then made to chug moonshine while biting it back with a dill pickle..
I have ridden a small part of the railway from Vladivostok to Khabarovsk. My wife and I had a first class cabin which was pretty nice. We traveled in the spring and the view was beautiful with wild flowers and birch trees everywhere... and marsh. This was not an express trip. The train stopped in every village where you could buy some bread, cheese, dried fish, kvass and, of course, vodka. My wife and I hope to take the whole trip in the near future.
Nine years ago I went from London to Saigon by train (and bus and ferry)
London to Paris, Paris to Brussels, Brussels to Amsterdam, Amsterdam to Hamburg all by train. Hamburg to Copenhagen by rail replacement bus, ferry and train, Copenhagen to Stockholm by train, Stockholm to Helsinki by ferry, Helsinki to Moscow by train. Trans-mongolian to Beijing. Beijing to Nanning by train, bus to Hanoi and then a mix of trains and buses down Vietnam. Surprisingly easy if a little long-winded!
I had friends that took the Moscow-Beijing route in the early 1980s. Very frequently a conductor would come tell all the foreign passengers on their train, "Dear, friends! You must change your clocks now! Russia is biggest country in world - many time zones!" They were several hours ahead of *actual* local time when they got to the Chinese border. :-) Also, the trucks on the train-cars had to be changed at the Chinese border because the rail gauge was different in China. :-) Ha! You covered that! 16:44
In 2017 I did Vladivostok-Moscow. The train left Vladivostok at 12.00 midday Railway (Moscow) time, 7p.m. local time. Yep, 7 time zones. (Apparently since ~2019, Rzd timetables are now in local time)
i need to support this man's channels instead of wasting so much money paying for crap i never watch like amazon prime, and HBOmax.
You definitely need to do that...!!!
Simon approves this message, also who pays for stuff like that? Don’t you have friends or relatives?
Thanks for the (reinvigorated) memories Simon. I undertook this trip with 4 (5?) siblings quite some years ago travelling from Moscow to Beijing under the care of an Intreped tour leader named Baata, a lovely Mongolian woman who was 24YO at the time. Most enjoyable...overnight and several 2 day stops along the way to check out the "neighborhood" eg Ulan Baatar (also living in a Yurt). Lake Beikal was spectacular! Talk about mega; it holds about 20% of the world's fresh water! Living there are a number of species of sea animals which have evolved to live in fresh water. The trip was very worth while, particularly as it enabled you in gain knowledge of and access local peoples and cultures.
I live in Moscow and I can get back to sunny Dorset by trains. Moscow - Paris 30 hours, change Paris -london 4 hours . Then lastly London Waterloo to Gillingham Dorset 2.5 hours. Return ticket 2 class around 600 pounds. If you time it right you can leave Moscow Wednesday evening and catch the 5.50 from Waterloo.
Just get a plane ticket dude
I was very lucky to travel a large part of the route in summer 1988, when I returned from studying in Shnaghai, China for a year, and taking the Trans-Mongolian from Beijing via Ulan Baator to Moscow, and on to Berlin, Stuttgart. Wonderful memories!
The Trans-Siberian luxury train is the Golden Eagle. It's journey takes two weeks with many stops along the way including a detour to Lake Baikal and Ulaan Baatur, Mongolia. It also includes a short stay at a five-star hotel on either end.The train has its own laundry service and an English-speaking doctor. Prices begin at $18,000, higher than most luxury trains (usually around $4,000-6,000, but it's a much longer trip than most.
Great video.
Suggestions for future videos:
1. Development of the Boeing 747
2. Haussmann’s renovation of Paris
3. Edwardian castles in Wales
A number of years ago I traveled on the Trans Siberian Railway from Moscow to Abakan on my way to Tuva. It was a great trip both there and back. I have many good memories of that adventure.
"fancy train" is called the "golden eagle" (Золотой Орёл). It's very expensive, stylized to royal time train. The journey from Moscow to Vladivostok will take 14 days on it, mainly due to long stops for excursions.
2016 we went from Beijing to St. Petersburg on the train. Stopped for a week at a time along the way. In November. Loved every minute. Highly recommend traveling westerly, the accommodations improve along the way! Ulan Bator, Lake Baikal, Krasnoyarsk, Ekaterinburg, Moskow, and SP. Everyone was super friendly and helpful.
$617 for a 7 day first class ticket. That is unbelievable value compared to rail in the UK.
Thanks man! I was curious about the costs...
UK can fit into Russia 70.62 times. How much is $15.4 for the 1st class in UK?
You should do Tokyo's flood prevention system. It's truly amazing!
there is already a video made saw it last monday.
Does the Trans-Siberian Orchestra ever ride on the Trans-Siberian Railway?
They God damned better or im calling bullshit!!!!
These are the real questions we should be asking
They take the trans Siberian road (road of bones)! LOL
I also came searching for this
Chuckle chuckle!!
Last year 2019, I took the trans Mongolian from Moscow to Beijing . Leaving Moscow at 23.55 on a Tuesday night and arriving into Beijing on the following Monday and 14.35. I took the journey in early March so Siberia was still covered in Snow. The train was not very busy and it was an amazing journey
I was waiting for this one. Just knew it had to be coming. Cheers Simon.
My room mate, the grandson of a Tombstone silver mining family told me of his grandfathers tour of duty in the American expeditionary force 7500 troops(one of many foreign armies there) in Russia's Civil war period and they were there guarding a trans section for the purpose of safeguarding the American engineers and Engines there and as the cook and an experienced prospector he was out looking for specimens and when he returned all his fellow soldiers, about twenty were dead , ambushed by red army Bolsheviks. He hiked to the next camp, reported, and later the American army force there killed about 300 red army insurgents. He brought back some amazing specimens of gold laced white quartz the size of a soccer ball. What an amazing journey. I met him , he and his wife, The Escapules were quite interesting to listen to. Think of it, a young man from Az, goes all the way around the world to guard the Trans Siberian railroad , faces unimaginable things brings back rock specimens in his duffle bags by ship, took months and they are there on his fireplace shelf.
I just love seeing Simon in such a fun and casual setting
You'd like Business Blaze then
You should check out Business Blaze
I'll be the 3rd, Business Blaze. I wonder how many more will reply...
Just gunna slide in and be the 3rd person to tell you to check out Business Blaze. MegaProjects is business casual and BB is real slap-stick.
Hey bud, business blaze is a complete shit show of zero prep and memes. 11/10 do recommend.
I did this in the other direction. These were my stops:
Vladivostok, Khabarovsk, Irkutsk, Krasnoyarsk, Omsk, Ekaterinburg, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Minsk, Brest(change of gauge), Warsaw, Krakow, Prague, Nuremberg, Frankfurt, Koln, Brussels, London.
This was part of my “grand” project: leave Pittsburgh heading West and arrive back from the East, only using trains and ships(no airplanes). My most difficult problem was getting a ship across the Pacific. Eventually found a repositioning cruise from Vancouver to Yokohama. Entire journey was about 2 1/2 months.
When I was little, I loved looking at my earth globe. I was amazed by the sheer seize of Russia and imagined what those places looked like. That was my motivation for taking the trip later on, which I did (Mosow - Beijing), right after high school, with two friends, we had a great time. So, what did it look like? First a lot of from Moscow Birch trees, then a lot of spruce and pine, then lake Baikal, then step, then mountains, then Beijing. Totally worth it, but probably won't do it again.
Very cool.
And a hell of a lot of trees :)
For those in the US and Canada curious about trains carried by ferry boats, you can ride on the SS Badger across Lake Michigan between Manitowoc Wisconsin and Ludington Michigan, a 4-hour trip, today (summer only). I did it in 2017 and 2019. The Badger doesn't carry actual trains anymore but you can still see the rails on the docks and the main deck of the ship. The Badger is also the last passenger-carrying coal-powered steamship operating in the US. Another strange sight on the Badger to those like me who live near an ocean, is the dock setup for a location without tides.
These videos are some of the coolest on the platform
I went from Shanghai to London by rail, pretty amazing journey. The Gobi Desert was stunning, seeing the Great Wall in silhouette against a sunset amazing, and Lake Baikal fabulous. Rather dull Irkutsk to Moscow, lots of pine trees!
In college we had Henry Rollins come by on a spoken word tour and he did about 2/3rds of his talk just retelling his recent journey on the Trans-Siberian, he did it in the winter as well.
Not so many changes required to get from London to Vladivostok. There is a direct train between Paris and Moscow that is slightly more than 2 days journey.
War and Peace was written to be read on this train!
Introduction in Moscow, epilogue in Vladivostok.
I’ve done Ulaanbaatar to London in 1991 using mix of train, car and ferry. The journey started Oct 10 departing from Ulaanbaatar to Moscow for 5 days on the train. Then 1 night in Moscow followed by 2 days train ride to Prague. From Prague drove to Rotterdam and then ferry ride to Dover. The most memorable part of the trip were the lunch/dinner on the Trans-Mongolian train and encountering sellers/buyers at each stop.
I've gone from Pyongyang (NK) to Beijing (China), to Ulaanbaatar (Mongolia), up to Irkutsk, on to Moscow and finished in Saint Petersburg. Quite the train journey. I wish I'd taken it to London. That would have been epic.
I love the way you end your videos. They give a meaningful reminder of how big a world we live in and how many great things can be done, all in a way that still sheds light on the topic while giving due respect to the matter. Keep it up!
I was just about to click on another video but, "I like trains!"
I really enjoyed the Geographics one on the Orient Express as well. 🙂
Nyoom
why you like trains, can't drive?
I went to Siberia with a group in 1995. We flew into Khabarovsk and boarded the train there. We almost missed the train, which was a lot of fun! Some of the highlights were buying food from people at the train stops, seeing Lake Baikal, though we only passed the narrow part of it so it wasn't that impressive, and having the conductor threaten to unhook our train car when we wouldn't pay for "ticket upgrades". The dining car was also fun the one time we went there.
After several weeks in Krasnoyarsk, we took the train the rest of the way Moscow. It was a really amazing experience!
Also, it was summer so it was hot the entire time we were there and only rained once. Not the Siberia of popular imagination, though Krasnoyarsk is fairly south for Siberia.
Tsar Nicolas: "Build my train"
Soviets: "...our train"
I used to make a goal of riding every Eastern European and Stan line. The Trans is awe-inspiring and great for rest/relax. Start at St P, go to Irkutsk or all way to Vladivistok (West to East). Don't buy tix all at once. Instead, just plan your stops before you arrive to Russia. Then, buy your next length at each station. This gives great flexibility and takes the pressure off. Segments are rarely sold out! Ride Platzkart if you wanna meet folks, not speak ANY ENGLISH and drink a lot. Go Kupe if you want some lovely solitude, reading time, etc.
Oh yeah...memorize Russian alphabet first so you can at least sound out words. Aaaaand, know counting to 100!!! This is doable in like 4 days of hard study.
Agree about 'learning' Cyrillic, and it's amazing how many Russian words have English or French origins once you can read them. 'Servis tsentr' for example. I found 'driving' through Moscow on Google Streetview and reading all the signs an excellent way to practice.
always wanted to learn about the trans-Siberian railway!
I don't believe you.
I've heard about the line, but this is the first time I've seen any video concerning the full account. I think Simon skimped a little on the history, but going into that much detail would have turned this into a 1 hour video.
What a strange thing to want.
Or buy a ticket.
Wonder no more! Crack on!
Dude, I flew into London and took the train from London to Moscow, then Moscow to Beijing. This was Winter 2007, passing the frozen Lake Baikal. We spent New Years Eve on the Russo-Mongolian border, eating chocolate and drinking vodka. Met a lot of great folks, never strayed too far from the train during stops, bought pumpernickel from the babooshkas on the platform and slept for hours, watched miles of train cars filled with timber, and finished writing a book. We rode in Chinese train stock with Chinese personnel. It was fantastic. I am taking my family when sanity returns to most of the world.
The Czech Legion's control of the Trans-Siberian Railway during the Russian Civil War. If you haven't covered this already, it's an incredible story.
I live in Shanghai. I now a few friends (here in Shanghai) that have taken a train all the way from Hong Kong to London. They took a direct bullet train, the CRH, direct from Hong Kong to Beijing, then transferred to another train. I believe they had to transfer once before getting to Moscow, where they had to change at Warsaw, again at Lille, and finally arrived in London.
OK, first off, a correction -- "Standard Gage" for most railroads in the world is 4-foot, 8-1/2 inches (56-1/2 inches or 1435.1 mm) not the 4-foot, 11 inches that Simon mentioned in the video. Russian railroad gage is 5-feet (60-inches or 1524 mm).
Until the Trans-Baikal and Amur valley sections of the line were completed, the Trans Siberian line went down into China at Ulan-Bator and through to Harbin, China and on to Vladivostok via a ferry from China. China was a weak country back then (...Boxer Rebellion and many civil wars back then), so Chinese concessions to Russia were a lot easier at the time.
I've made 7, one-way journeys on the Trans-Siberian (Khabarovsk ...where I lived and worked for 6 years... to Moscow). I've also circumnavigated the globe almost in its entirety by train in 1997. The longest overland leg was Khabarovsk to Moscow to London (via St. Petersburg, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Belgium, across France (Flanders), and on to London via the Eurostar).
Another line you might want to cover in a future episode is the BAM (or БАМ, The Baikal-Amur Magistral, a more easily, militarily defended line north of the Trans-Siberian. Also in the 1930's ...in anticipation of war with Japan and/or Germany... a secret railway tunnel was built under the Amur River into Khabarovsk ...in the event the bridge was destroyed. Also in the 1990's, road transport highway lanes had been added atop the Amur River railway bridge.
Great video though. I enjoyed it very much. It was a touch of "home" (...for the 6 years I was there), and brought back many memories. Good job Simon, et al.
Yeah, but how many barleycorn is that? Actually, can you list it off in twip, please? Thank you good sir.
@EmperorJuliusCaesar -- I'm an engineer (retired), so I can use either system, but there is nothing special about the metric system -- it is just another ARBITRARY systems. "Standard Gauge Rail" is 4 ft 8 12 inches (or 1435 mm). The US won that war and even most of the metric countries use it. You can look it up on wiki, they have a good article on the different railroad gauges in use around the world and it even goes into why the decisions were made for some of the countries.
I'm not saying that the US system is perfect, but it works and it's not like we are going to change anytime soon. Most people in the US think that we only have a single definition of the "foot". That would be wrong... There's the "international foot" which is what most people think of when they are referencing their rulers or tape measures and there is the "survey foot" which is what is used for surveying your property, state borders, etc. Some people know that there is a difference between the capacity measurement units for dry items vs fluid items, but a lot less know that there is an "international foot" and a "survey foot". And to make it even more interesting, some states mandate the use of the "international foot" in their surveying and others mandate the use of the "survey foot".
Grumpy OldMan Once you get accustomed to both systems it is easy, but Imperial system is “more” arbitrary than metric.
At least metric system is defined by some sort of constant, unlike for example, Imperial foot ( who’s foot anyway ? )
In the beginning 1m was defined as 1/10 000 000 of the distance from the Equator to the North Pole, recently it was changed to a distance that light travels in a vacuum over time ( billionth of a second or something like that ).
But depending on your perspective, you can argue that on a cosmic scale even that is arbitrary - unit of measurement selected by beings living on the 3rd rock from the Sun.
Btw, did you know that 4 degrees of temperature is not double of 2 degrees of temperature ?? 🤯 I’m confused 😁
@EmperorJuliusCaesar -- And where are *you* located that it makes you think that the metric system is any different than any other arbitrary measuring standard? Just look at the history of the definition of the meter and you'll see that it is not based on any intrinsic constant, but rather a rough approximation and then a bunch of redefinitions to try to make it more uniform. I don't care what measuring system you use, it is still based on arbitrary units. Unlike you, I'm willing to recognize this and deal with whichever unit of measurement I happen to have to deal with at that time.
And by the way, your 97% figure is totally crap (87.628% of all statistics are made up on the spot)... Just the US makes up a bit over 23% of the entire world and that doesn't count the other countries that use the US system. And then there is the UK which seems to use the Imperial system and the metric system, basically whichever is convenient at the time. Not that I mind since the pubs are required to sell beer in *Imperial pints* (20 Imperial ounces, which works out to be a bit over 19 US ounces). In fact, I'm sitting here right now drinking a bottle of Guinness which states that it is "22 oz". I'm not sure where that size comes from though. In Imperial Ounces, it works out to be around 22.9 and in liters, it is 0.650618, so no nice even number seems to show up.
It's all arbitrary units of measurements, so just admit it, grab a cold brew, and deal with it...
In 1992 I went by Russian cruise ship from Yokohama to Vladivostok , and then by rail all of the way to Madrid in Spain.
The reason millimetres is used officially is just down to the precision required by the project.
You can use meters, as long as you’re not an engineer working on the system.
in America, it would be dubbed in feet and inches.
@@nortonhatfield7312 personally, I prefer feet and inches - they make more sense mathematically and can be divided more precisely.
Honestly never seen you so animated. Your enthusiasm for this topic made it that much more interesting.
The Napoleon cut was genius! 😉😂😂😂
That was really great. During the Yeltin’s years, I twice took the Trans-Siberian to Baikal, one of those trips to Ulan-Ude, the capitol of Buryatia. I also road a train to Vorkuta, beyond the Arctic Circle, at the top of the Gulag Archipelago. Russian trains are remarkable as the country itself. I lived there five years under Yeltsin. The Russians are a remarkable who are greatly misunderstood.
You do great work. I really appreciate your sense of awe, curiosity & enthusiasm. Thank you.
Hi Simon. You might like reading:
Ghost Train to the Eastern Star: On the Tracks of the Great Railway Bazaar
by Paul Theroux
The author details his journey in the early 2000's (this was his second, the first one being in the1970's) of just such a trip -- London to Tokyo, and back.
Have fun!
In 2012, I accepted the challenge of travelling with my best friend and my girlfriend at the time from Madrid (Spain) to Beijing by land. We hopped on and off trains for crossing Europe, linking with this marvel at Moscow and enjoying the Transiberian until Ulan Ude, where we catched the Transmongolian to the chinese border. Unfortunately we had to go from there to Beijing itself by road, but the experience was amazing!
Holy shit, never been this early. Cheers mate. Keep up the great content.
Several years ago I flew from LA to London and then spent the next almost 4 months traveling from London to Singapore by train except for the gap across Cambodia. That trip I took the Trans-Mongolian route. The next year I did much of the trip in reverse via the Trans-Manchurian. When the world settles down I'm going back to ride the BAM.
1:06 - it's Trans-Mongolian Railway or Manchuria Railway - only one track and no catenary. (Trans-Syberian fully elecrificated and minimum double-tracked.
1:12 - it's Circum-Baikal railway - there are more than half century not a part of Trans-Syberian.
1:45 - again Trans-Mongolian or Manchuria Railway - no catenary and single-track.
2:51 - really old photo - there are no green carriages, all Russia passenger trains have white/grey-red livery
9:15 - it's not 1903 - it's about 1980 photo.
12:15 - finally - Trans-Siberian railway...
14:18 - it's somewhere in Ukraine or Moscow region in Soviet era. Blue and yellow stripe is Ukrainian livery.
15:41 - it's private "Golden Eagle" train only for tourists and have no schedule - by order only. www.goldeneagleluxurytrains.com/trains/golden-eagle/
15:51 - again - it's no TS raiway.
15:55 - old photo - there are no those livery, all carriages "Rossiya" train repainted in red ang grey a lot of years ago.
19:20 - Circum-Baikal railway and tourist retro train, not TS.
20:14 - it's no today, it's about 15 years ago... Today Russian Railways State company have no green carriages and Belorussian train (Blue with white stripe).
20:27 - "Belorussian" line in Moscow and Belorussian train - it not TS.
You forgot to say that he is Gay ! hahaha...
Great episode Simon. I've Done. Of these routes, including the Baikal Amur Magistral (BAM). TO answer Your question: London - Vladivostok.: I'm from the Netherlands. There was from here a direct train to Moscow from Amsterdam. Now You have to change in Minsk. So just take the Euroliner to here and then change to Minsk, there to Moscow and well... The rest is what this video was about. Can definatelt recommend it to You, you'd love it. Consider though to stop underway in some of the cities instead of just waiting in the train for a week till You get to the Pacific!
Despite what Simon says, there is no such thing as the Trans-Siberian express. there are the Trans- Siberian railway lines upon which various trains run. Even the Moscow to Vladivostok trains are not called 'the' Trans-Siberian Express...indeed most of them are far from 'express'.
The story of the Czech Legion on the Trans Siberian is amazing too.
Great video! The history of rail transportation for both goods and people ha a always been super interesting to me! Thanks!
This railway is the beginning of Snowpiercer.
I am from Vladivostok and my place was near the railway. On the railway itself they have a post every 1km with the number of kms from Moscow I believe. The number near my house read something like over 9200km, can't quite remember it now. Shame you didn't mention the tunnel under Amur river when talking about the bridge. Also, building a bridge to Sakhalin island I heard is almost impossible due to strong currents in Tatar straight.
AMA: I Took the Railway from The Netherlands, all the way to trough russia, mongolia and china to Hongkong.
This is something I'd very much like to do someday. How much does it generally cost? How much Russian do you need to know to not get on the wrong train? Is there much English spoken by passengers or staff? Cyrillic hurts my brain so I don't think I'll ever learn Russian. :/
@Mark Gaiennie Hey :) Yes! i loved it! i travelled a lot in my life but that one is absolutly in the top 3! Uhm well im German, and i had not been in germany for a while before so getting my visa in time was quite a pain. It depends on you wanting to do china as well, both of those countries require me to send in my passport with a clear list of where i will be staying - so i had to do one after the other and both had to happen after the reservation of the train and with me not being in germany. all a little difficult but easily doable under better circumstances haha.
i have spend 1500euro in my 5 1/2 weeks on the trip. you be the judge :)
any trip can be done cheap and expensive this is no different. overall i would say its very cheap if your fine with sleeping on the train and only going for night trains and then spend a day or two or three in each city you stop in :)
for us the trip was the goal :) i had some work to do in Shenzhen and then took the plane back from honkong to the Netherlands. If you do this for fun i wouldnt recommend staying on the train 7 days straight :D
@@stevepittman3770 cost: see my answer a min ago :) i did the trip for fairly cheap. train is about 600+ euro but depneds alot on time of year number of stops and of course the class you want. i wouldnt recommend lowest tier if you want to have a relaxed trip. but i also dont think first class is worth unless money is no objective.
I know 0 russian. my chinese is very very bad as well haha. you can do it without. but i strongly recommend getting apps for autotranslate and a camera one for translating writing. people around you wont speak english be prepared for that.
again depends on class. in first class most people are foreigners and they will know english. but anywhere else there are few and far between. again time of year dependent.
But i also got a tendency to not got to touristy spots so yea. Russian 95%. and some students and kids wanting to practice their school english with you :D
im not dedicated enught to learn it either :) translation apps are your friend. and unless you get stranded at a train station in the middle of nowhere its 100% fine without any Russian knowledge at all :) (make sure your app can read train tickets cause you certainly wont be able to xD)
Nice video! In June, 1992 I was living in Tokyo and it was time to move back home to the US. So we took the ferry to Vladivostok, then the Trans-Siberian to Moscow. During the cold war the western terminus was in Nakhodka but in June 1992 Vladivostok was reopened - we took the second ferry from Japan and then had quite an adventure on the Trans-Siberian, including getting left behind in Novosibirsk (with our 4 month old!) We had a nice stop in Irkutsk for a couple of days too - Siberia is beautiful and friendly in June. The plans for extending to Sakhalin and then to Hokkaido sound amazing.
I know this wasn’t built but the concept is interesting to say the least. The Maga City of Germania. This mega project is something that has interested me as a historian. You think you could do a video on it please.
Took the westbound route from Vladivostok to Moscow in 2006 with Golden Eagle. It was quite dear and prices have nearly doubled since, but it was some of the best money I've ever spent. A fabulous and intense expansion of appreciation of the world we live in.
Simon, did you fall asleep on a train and ended up in the Czech Republik this way?
It was romance, I believe, that landed him in Prague. I only know this through his old vlog channel.
@@tiffinyharrington9307 Romance, on a train, after a night at the pub, and the end of the line just happened to be in Prague. ♥
Now he lives in his office, keeps two writers chained to his radiator, does a LOT of coffee & cocaine, and runs half the channels on TH-cam. :D
Czech Republik, Sars? bad job? it killed him?
In winter, I traveled 4.5 days from Chita to Moscow by train. The Trans-Siberian Express runs this route in 3 days. A very interesting trip. And my acquaintances 10 years ago from Moscow to Vladivostok took 1.5 months by suburban trains.
"Can't I just say meters instead of mm?" lol...story of my life as physicist
To answer the question at the end of your video: You can get from London to Vladivostok and only change trains twice: Amsterdam and Moscow.
5 hours from London to Amsterdam
1,5 days from Amsterdam to Moscow
6,5 days from Moscow to Vladivostok
I personally took the train from Amsterdam to Vladivostok (with a few days break in Moscow and Irkutsk). Even people are considering making the journey, here is my advise:
- make more stops along the line (but do keep in mind the train only goes every other day, so your stop will be at least 2 days)
- either travel in the other direction or take the Trans Mongolian (to Beijing) instead as the landscape between Irkutsk and Vladivostok becomes pretty repetitive
- bring a good book or two to read during your journey
- bring something to clean the dirty outside of your carriage window with to enjoy the views more
Don't expect cell phone reception outside of city limits and it often will take a few hours to get to the next city (just like the train stop in a city).
We took the trip in April. Walking on frozen Lake Baikal was something to never forget.
There are no direct trains from Amsterdam to Moscow, at least for the last 15 years. The farthest you can get from Amsterdam is Berlin.
@@marcvandyck8052 I am sorry, but you are wrong. There was at least one (that we took) in April 2010. Amsterdam - Arnhem - Berlin - Warsaw - Minks - Moscow (plus other stops). The train switches engines a few times and some cars were split off and added along the way, but our car went all the way, including the change of wheels at the border between Poland and Belarus (gauge break).
So maybe there is no train today, but there sure has been one and less then 15 years ago.
Could you imagine going to the pub with Simon and falling asleep on the train and ending up in Pyongyang
When Simon speaks history and says, “but you already/probably know that”, I feel like he is speaking to me/us about how we more-likely-than-not have seen his many, many, MANY ither channels where he speaks about such things... I really like this Simon guy! Keep on going my man!
Is it just me or has Simon kind of 'loosened up' since he started doing Business Blaze? I feel like he used to be a lot more solemn and professional. I.e. soulless.
Certainly a welcome change.
I find his personality changing between his different channels.
Beard is slowly changing
Allegedly.
@@holdadoor722 I think it's changed overall. Seems a lot more playful. Sure, not to the same extent on TIFO and Bio/geographics, but still.
Torkil he understands his audience better, the audience will accept the Whistler banter even on the serious channels
I'm an ex-BR signalman, and am now an English teacher. In 2008 I got a job in Tianjin for the academic year. I was given the fare of an airline ticket home to the UK in July 2009, and got the Trans-Siberian through Mongolia instead, influenced by my work-history. Such fun! I wanted to get trains all the way home, but the visa through Belarus was too difficult to get in the two days I had left on my Russian visa, So I flew back from Moscow. People in Beijing on tourist visas couldn't get visas for Russia. I only got one because I had a Z-visa (residence permit) for China. I was too daring on the journey as when we stopped in a city station like Omsk, for example, I would run out of the station to take pictures. Got away with it though, and really enjoyed a full day in Moscow at journey's end. You know, Red Square, St Basil's and Russian women. Oh yeah, caviar tastes too fishy, but borscht is incredibly delicious.
One thumbs down, really? Musta been a disgruntled gulag worker...
Really, who would thumb down this awesomeness?
@@holdadoor722 a ukrainian nationalist
@@artur7301 or an American nationalist
@@GM-xk1nw I'm an American nationalist (which isn't a bad thing) and not only did I give this a thumbs up if I had the chance I'd LOVE to take this trip. Just because I believe the US to be the best doesn't mean I can't appreciate the accomplishments of other countries, and this railroad is an amazing accomplishment.
Back in October 2019, I did the Trans-Siberian Railway as part of a three week trip from the UK back to Australia. By rail, I managed to go from Gloucester, UK (where I was living at the time) to Vladivostok. Along the way, I had multi-day stopovers at London, Cologne, Sulechów (Poland, near where my great, great, great grandfather Tschirpig was born) and Moscow. The Trans-Siberian Railway portion of the trip was done in a first class cabin, which I shared with a friendly Russian lady. Each day by rail offered a different set of scenery; with a mix of farmland, forest, mountains, waterways and snow. The highlight of the Trans-Siberian Railway trip was passing along the storefront of Lake Baikal between Irkutsk and Ulan-Ude. Once in Vladivostok, I had an overnight stay in the city before catching a flight home to family in Brisbane (via an layover in Toyko).
Also, I did a blog to chronicle my international adventures. The post for my day traveling around Lake Baikal is: barryoperationuk2019.wordpress.com/2020/04/12/nightly-roundup-15-10-19/
Yes, you could go from London to Vladivostok/Beijing by train:
London - Amsterdam - Moscow - Vladivostok/Beijing. You could probably go via Kiev too, instead of Moscow.
Why on earth would anyone skip Moscow in favor of Kiev ?
I think he’s saying go to kiev before moscow..right?!
I don't think there is direct train from Amsterdam to Moscow. There was Paris-Moscow (via Berlin and Warsaw), but it canceled due virus.
Paris instead of Amsterdam. There's a direct weekly Paris - Moscow train, but obviously it will resume only after the pandemic situation is settled more or less.
I did the trip Yokohama (Tokyo's port city) - boat - Nakhodka (near Vladivostok) - train (with overnight stops in Khabarovsk, Irkutsk) - Moscow (3 days) - train (East-West Express Moscow-London) - Hannover (Germany) back in August 1983. A great experience. With an appropriate ticket, I could have stayed on board until London. Tokyo-London would have been possible with just 2 changes: Nakhodka from boat to train, and Moscow from Transsiberian train to East-West-Express Moscow-London. They made us walk the Soviet-Polish border while the train got wheels changed for the different gauge, but we boarded the same train coachon the Polish side. Hoek-van-Holland to Harwich would have been by boat (this was before the Channel tunnel).
2:20 that's nothing, I now a guy who went on a plane trying to go see pretty beaches and kangaroos in australia and when he woke up and the plane had landed everyone was shouting in German because hed wound up in Austria
When I worked in Russia in 1993 the economy was in ruff shape. Our client company asked if we would mind taking the train and if we truly wanted to fly , they would get aircraft tickets! Myself and another advisor named Dean were adventurous and wanted to save our client a few rubles so we chose train. We took the transiberian railroad from Irkutsk thru Krasnoyarsk and to Novosibirsk! It was a multi track railroad outfitted with electric grid and most trains where electric! Any communication poles of wood are lashed to precast concrete poles imbedded in the perma frost! The car wher quite interesting maintained and dirt during that time , because of the economics of the time. Traveling with our Russian coworkers was a wonderful time and an awesome adventure! We seen so many communities and some beautiful land! After we did our first trip, we chose to make the trip several times! Would of never wanted to miss the experience!! Oh yes we had 2nd class rooms with two beds and we all would congregate to one room drink vodka peva(beer) and play cards . And we eta in a dining car! Was a blast!
We need a bridge between Russia and Alaska imagine being able to go from South Africa to Argentina on a train.
Its technically possible to bridge. The Bering strait reaches 160 feet depth, but it would connect with a remote part of Alaska.
@@timothykeith1367 aka bridge from nowhere into nothing
It would be fascinating but possibly dangerous as well. Plus, the section of Alaska this railway would bridge is in icy remote areas.
That proposal has seen decades in planning, and the Russians, at the very least the current gov showed signs of interest and even started extending the line to reach the farthest city in that direction. To be decided if its a bridge or a tunnel or a combination, similar to the one connecting UK and France, or the impressive ocean bridges made by China and elsewhere. In America they would need to make a line from there into south Alaska and Canada. Its literally a "megaproject", I think it was covered in one of those tv shows bearing that name... But perhaps the current US administration isn't that interested in opening yet more routes to foreign imports (exporting is overrated), so there might be a delay on this side...
It will probably be just cargo route, alternative to sea shipping, because moving passengers over there would take a lot of time. Not impossible, but not cheap. Think of a "hotel on wheels" which why its so "expensive". In a way, its connecting the last piece of what used to be Russia, and in another, the last continent to connect directly by rail with the rest of the planet; so its not just north america but south america as well possibly wanting to move cargo across all continents and back.
@@MarloSoBalJr Ah! Climate change!
Yep I've done it! In my Gap year about 17 years ago! Oxford to London (1 hour), Eurostar London to Brussels (4 Hours), Brussels to Moscow (36 hours), then Trans-Siberian to Vladivostok.
The plan was then to get the Ferry across to Japan, but unfortunetly we didn't account for the fact it would take over a day to leave Russian waters, and our Visa's would run out before we left Russian waters, so we had to hurredly book a Plane ticket to get out of the country.
We then proceeded to travel all over Japan for the next two months on their rail system using the awesome visitors Japan rail pass which was around £600 for 6 weeks of unlimited travel.
Business Blaze is leaking into Simon's other channels, and I'm perfectly fine with that.
Technically, you can start your train journey from anywhere in europe. You could start your journey to Vladivostok in Madrid, Edinburgh or Rome. If you live in London, Kings Cross is as good a place to start as any.
If you start from the UK, you can plan your journey to include the three most iconic high speed rail systems in europe: Eurotunnel, TGV and ICE. On your way to Moscow, you'll also experience a change of rail gauge.
Russia and Japan have yet to sign a peace treaty from the hostilities of WWII. So technically the war is not completely over.
Not sure I agree with you. No trade agreement yes, but Japan surrendered in September 1945 to the allies including USSR. Both signed
Formally it's a truce I believe. So it can be considered over, the peace treaty is more like a ceremonial gesture but I doubt it will ever be signed, the demands of the sides are contradicting literally on the *constitutional* level.
I’ve traveled from Beijing to Moscow and then to St Petersburg on the train. I loved it and would do it again.
"I happened to doze off on the train and ended up at the opposite end of Russia."
I rode the Trans-Siberian in February of 2006, Vladivostock to Moscow, and another to St Petersburg, and then to Helsinki, and what I found most interesting was the fact that on long clear curves, you could see the train ahead of yours, and the one behind. It is a crowded railroad. Also, if you take a train from Copenhagen to Amsterdam, somewhere along the way, the train drives onto a boat and crosses the north sea.
Hi Simon, can you cover a Megaproject from India: "Polavaram Project" - the largest irrigation project in the world. It would be great if you can cover megaprojects from India as well.