Yakutia To Revive Skovorodino Railway With Connections Through To North China

Yakutia Railways has proposed the restoration of the Skovorodino – Reinovo railway, which would connect with the Russian Railways network and the Russia-China border crossing at Dzhalinda and Mohe in China’s Heilongjiang Province. That in turn links directly to the provincial capital Harbin, with onward links to Beijing and the Chinese national rail system. Mohe also runs services to Shenyang, an industrial city near North Korea, and Qiqihar, closer to Inner Mongolia. Shenyang is the provincial capital of Liaoning province and the largest city in Northeast China after Harbin.

Skovorodino is the administrative centre of Russia’s Skovorodinsky District, in the Amur Oblast. It is turn is linked by rail to Tynda, which is an important regional rail hub with connections to the main Baikal-Amur Mainline (BAM), which traverses Eastern Siberia and the Russian Far East. It is 4,324 km long and runs about 700km north, and parallel to the Trans-Siberian Railway.

According to Yakutia railway estimates, the reconstruction of the link, which would provide a cargo flow of up to 10 million tons per annum, would cost ₽4.2 billion (US$48.2 million). This can be provided by the Yakutia government in the form of cash and Russian Railways in the form of infrastructure. The thinking is that trade with China will continue to grow, and a new border crossing will be in demand.

The Dzhalinda border crossing with Mohe, which was operational until 2008, is not currently in use. Its restoration and development will open up new China market access for and to Siberia. For China, linking to the BAM railway through Mohe provides Heilongjiang, which is landlocked, with access to Russia’s Far Eastern ports with access to the Pacific Ocean.