Obskaya–Bovanenkovo Line

The railway line Obskaya - Karskaja (Russian Железная дорога Обская - Карская ) is a single-track railway line in the north- west of the Asian part of Russia that leads from the lower reaches of the Ob on the Yamal Peninsula. You will consistently been used since the 10th January 2010 to the originally planned end point Bovanenkovo ​​, since February 15, 2011 and up to the present terminus Karskaja. It is the most northerly in operation railway in the world.

Routing and operation

The route is operated by Gazprom subsidiary Gazpromtrans not public [A 1] and was built by the controlled also by Gazprom Jamaltransstroj. The route with a track width of 1520 mm ( Russian broad gauge ) branches off at the station Obskaya of the " Arctic Circle Railway ", today's route Chum - Labytnangi the Russian North Railroad. The station Obskaya is about 10 kms as the crow flies from the Ob River with 15 kilometers to the route endpoint Labytnangi, near the settlement of Obskoi.

The route initially mainly in a northeasterly direction along the northwestern edge of the West Siberian lowlands and foothills of the eastern Polar Urals. They reached the Yamal Peninsula and approaching the Baidarazkaja Bay Kara Sea, whose shores it follows in about 30 miles away. The railway line then swings into northern to north-north- westerly direction and crosses the tundra plains of the Yamal peninsula, until it is about 50 kilometers north of the settlement Bovanenkovo ​​(originally called Bowanenkowski ) reaches its current end point Karskaja.

The settlement Bovanenkovo ​​, logistic center of a natural gas field, located in the western central part of the Yamal Peninsula at 70 ° 22'70 .37194444444468.650555555556 north latitude. Thus, the route is the most northerly in operation (the former coal train at Ny -Ålesund on Svalbard has for decades been out of service ) and also the northernmost ever built uninsulated railway. A further extension of Karskaja to 105 kilometers to a point to be erected on the west coast of the peninsula harbor at Charassawei is configured.

In its course, the route crosses a number of major rivers, so that the construction of 70 bridges was necessary with a total length of 12 kilometers. The longest of the bridges Yuribei Bridge crosses the river of the same name and has a length of 3893 meters, the longest bridge north of the Arctic Circle. Along the route to 2009 five stations and twelve passing places (Russian rasjesd ) were built, later more. Some used during the construction phase passing places are now degraded or inoperative again.

The railway used to transport materials and workers to develop new gas fields in the catchment area of the track to build a pipeline to Uchta and to enable gas condensate transport to the south.

Purchased or leased by the State Russian Railways diesel locomotives of different ranges are used are used, 2TE10, 2TE116, TEM2, TEM7 and TEM18. The use of new Russian diesel locomotives 2TE25K " Peresvet " series is under discussion. Last 20 Kazakh TE33A were purchased, manufactured since 2009 in Astana after the modification ES44ACI the Evolution Series of GE Transportation Systems under license.

History

The railway line was planned in the first half of the 1980s, after huge oil and gas deposits on the Yamal peninsula had been discovered, particularly the oil and gas condensate deposit Bowanenkowskoje. This is one of the richest in Russia. The path should be mainly used to transport the exploitation of deposits of necessary equipment and supplies and the removal of subsidized commodities, next to open up different forecast ore deposits of the Polar Urals. The latter example Nowogodneje - Monto, a gold - silver - cobalt -copper deposit in the area of ​​today's route kilometer 18 with gold reserves of seven tons heard.

In 1986 the then government Jamaltransstroi ( Jamalverkehrsbau ) with the construction. The project should - similar to the Baikal - Amur Mainline (BAM ) in the 1970s - be made an " All-Union Komsomolobjekt ", for which however no longer came through the beginning of perestroika. Originally, the completion was planned by the early 1990s. With the political and economic crisis in the period of the disintegration of the Soviet Union, because of difficulties in Streckenbau by virtually uninhabited region and the shift of the dates for the development of oil and gas fields, the construction Jamal gradually came to a virtual standstill.

1992 Jamaltransstroi was converted into a public limited company, which initially preserved the achieved by the by this time work carried out state of the project. By 1997, over 300 km were traced out, laid the tracks to about 250 kilometers and temporary goods and passengers to the station Pajuta (km 189 ) is possible.

Resumption of construction

When the plans of Gazprom to develop Jamal concretized after the turn of the millennium, the Group 2003 decided together with the Russian Ministry of Railways (MPS ) and the administration of the Autonomous Okrug Yamal-Nenets, on whose territory runs the entire distance, the further construction. This was funded as a result mainly of Gazprom and promoted; Gazprom took over his daughter Gazpromtrans over the operation of the completed sections.

For the establishment of the sub - and superstructure of bridges as well as special new freezing technologies have been applied to prevent the permafrost is warmed as far as during the construction that he thaws and thus is unstable.

In September 2009, Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller expressed willingness that stretch for 130 billion rubles ( about 3 billion euros ) to sell to the Russian Railways, which to date invested in the construction of agents correspond to what was advocated by the then Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. This declined railway chief Vladimir Yakunin, because this amount of almost half of the total annual investment of railway correspond and thus exceeded the means available. Also, a cost-effectiveness of the operation of the route could not be expected in the long term.

On 24 September 2009, at the opening of Yuribei Bridge, Gazprom announced that the route should be extended in extension of the initial planning through to September 2010 to 47 km further north station Karskaja ( kilometer 572), where there is another significant natural gas field is located. In July 2010, the provisional operation was taken up to kilometer 557, the temporary operation to Karskaja in January 2011. The official opening of the section to Karskaja took place on 15 February 2011.

Perspectives

For the future expansion of the route is planned in three directions:

• Extension of the main line of Karskaja after Charassawei on the west coast Jamal the Kara Sea, where a port is to build ( about 100 km )
• Route to the port of Pajuta Nowy Port on Obbusen on the east coast Jamal; there is a deposit ( Nowoportowskoje ) hochparaffinösen valuable oil, its transportation is not possible through pipelines; the track would allow year-round removal ( about 200 miles)
• Distance of Bovanenkovo ​​after Tambei and newly built harbor Sabetta on Obbusen on the northeast coast Jamal; there are also several natural gas deposits ( approximately 200 km)