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November 30, 2023

 November 30th, the last  day of autumn, my friend’s birthday and 645th day of war. 


Every morning I watch news on YouTube, and learn the exact # of the days of the war. YouTube channels and bloggers  (the ones that are not shown on the government tv) provide lots of info. 

Today I learned of the explosion on BAM (the Baikal-Amur Mainline (BAM).


Train, probably in Kazan. I didn't have another picture, LOL. 




In Buryatia, a train carriage caught fire during movement in the tunnel, this is reported by the railway transport news portal Railway Supply, citing the Transport Bulletin.

As reported by Censor.NET (website I found online),  SBU operatives were responsible for an explosion. 

The tunnel where it happened was 15 km long, the longest between the others in BAM.

 But what is BAM anyway?


The Baikal–Amur Mainline ( Байкало-Амурская магистраль, БАМ, Baikalo-Amurskaya magistral', BAM) is a railway line in Russia that traversing Eastern Siberia and the Russian Far East, the 4,324 km (2,687 mi)-long BAM runs about 610 to 770 km (380 to 480 miles) north of and parallel to the Trans-Siberian Railway.


The Soviet Union built the BAM as a strategic alternative route to the Trans–Siberian Railway, seen as vulnerable especially along the sections close to the border with China. The BAM's costs were estimated at $14 billion, and it was built with special, durable tracks since much of it ran over permafrost. 

There are 21 tunnels along the line, with a total length of 47 km (29 mi). 

These are among the longest tunnels in Russia.

There are also more than 4,200 bridges, with a total length of over 400 kilometers (250 mi).


The good article about it there

https://www.midnight-trains.com/post/the-baikal-amur-mainline-a-railway-made-in-the-gulag


While I was writing this post, there was a second explosion on BAM.

https://www.the-sun.com/news/9759813/second-ukraine-bomb-putin-railway-north-korea/




Interestingly, the Internet information about BAM is slightly different in different sources. Unfortunately, I don't have time to double-check everything, I mean the length of all bridges and tunnels. If I don’t publish this post today, I wouldn’t do it at all. The blog and my mood about the blog will be outdated. 


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