Ваше здоровье! Let us toast the Russians and their $US65 billion Siberian-Alaskan underwater train tunnel! At 65-miles, the proposed tunnel would be twice as long as the Chunnel between France and England, and could connect New York City with London.
Unfortunately for vagabonds, the high speed rail system proposed by the Russians would be used for cargo purposes (approximately 100 millions tons/year), not passenger travel, yet even with that bummer of a caveat, its engineering chops are nevertheless indisputable.
This private- and publicly-funded project would also be very, very green reports Inhabitat (via The Times):
Proposed tidal energy plants could provide 10 gigawatts of energy and a string of wind power fields could churn a constant supply of clean energy, serving as a vital link to a worldwide energy grid. The tunnel alone would take fifteen years to complete – and an energy and railway network would take many more – but the project would significantly change the shipping and energy industry.
Fifteen years! We’ll be flying our cargo around in hovertrains by then. [The Times via Inhabitat via Autoblog – Thanks, Keith]