THE SIBERIAN RAILWAY,

Otago Witness, Issue 2358, 4 May 1899, Page 23

THE SIBERIAN RAILWAY,

A HUGE UNDERTAKING.

ST. PETERSBURG, April 27. The Siberian railway has been opened to Irkutsk.

The Railway connection between Russia and Siberia forms the greatest railway scheme in the. world. Its length will be over 4-700 miles. The total cost, including rolling stock, has been variously estimated at between £53,000,000 and £55,000,000. The first sod was cut at Yladivostock on the Pacific on May 24-, 1891. The line was divided into three parts. The fir3t starts from the European f ion tier in the Ural and runs eastward: the second from Vladivostock, on the Pacific, running westward; and the third is the middle section to join the other two. In 1886 some 389 miles had been opened. On April 1, 1898, the first Trans-Siberian express train left Moscow for TomWc. On June 8 a telegram in the Times stated that the line was practically completed to the Tjfeniaei River, a distance of 2000 versts, while on the other -side 650 versts were then complete. The director of the railway expected it would be completed in 1904, when it will be possible for a traveller* to go rotind the world in 30 days. The line from Tomsk to Irkutsk, near the Chinese frontier, was- opened for partial traffic in September last; year. Since Russia has acquired concessions in Manchuria it has been decided to make the line to Vladivostock practically a branch line, the main line terminating at Port Arthur. Between September 28 and" October 6, Mr" Reid, of the Straits Times, Singapore, journeyed from Irkutsk to Moscow, and gave a. description thereof in the London Times. He journeyed from Pekin by the tea caravan route, and struck the railway works at Masova, on the eastern side of Lake Baikal. The announcement that the railway has been opened to Irkutsk made 'above evidently means that portion of it from Vladivostok to Irkutsk, so that communication by rail and steamer is now established between Moscow and the Pacific.