©Lonely Planet Publications Pty Ltd The Baikal-Amur Mainline (BAM) Why Go? Bratsk ...........................254 Most people know the Trans-Siberian Railway, but how Severobaikalsk .............255 many can say they’ve heard of the ‘other’ Trans-Sib, its poor Tynda ............................259 country cousin, the BAM (Baikal-Amur Mainline, or Baikalo- Amurskaya Magistral)? The branch line to end all branch Komsomolsk-na- Amure ........................... 261 lines, the BAM begins as a set of points at Tayshet, and ends over 4200 lonely kilometres further east at Sovetskaya Ga- van, passing through some jaw-slackeningly off -the-map places en route. As great railway journeys go, this is a Soviet epic, a rail-clanging odyssey you’ll never forget. Route Info But it’s a miracle the BAM was ever built at all. Costing billions of dollars and declared a ‘Hero Project of the Cen- » Distance: 4287km tury’, construction was fraught with seemingly insurmount- » Duration: Four days one able diffi culties. The line opened fully in 1991, just as the hour USSR collapsed. Today only a handful of trains ply the route. » Time zones: Moscow +5 to Riding the BAM’s snail-paced trains takes you to some Moscow +7 very out-of-the-way places. Only Severobaikalsk on Lake Baikal is geared up for visitors. Best Places to Stay When to Go » Baikal Trail Hostel (p 257 ) Tynda » Biznestsentr (p 263 ) °C/°F Temp Rainfall inches/mm » Zolotaya Rybka (p 257 ) 30/86 6/150 20/68 » Hotel Taiga (p 255 ) 10/50 4/100 0/32 » Hotel Olymp (p 257 ) -10/14 -20/-4 2/50 -30/-22 -40/-40 -50/-58 0 J FDNOSAJJMAM Mar Ponder the Sep–Nov Avoid Sep & Oct Watch weird shapes the crowds and larch trees around into which Lake ticket shortages Lake Baikal’s Baikal freezes of summer by tak- north fill the from the shore at ing an autumn trip landscape with Severobaikalsk. along the BAM. autumnal gold. Neryungri Yuktali To Nikolaevsk-na-Amur e r S T a Krasnoyarsky 0 500 km Khani ive tra ta RUSSIA r Territory 0 300 miles Khabarovsky it Severomuysky Verkhnezeysk Territory m ur R Novaya A Tunnel Tynda Chara Evoron Vysokogornaya Korshunikha- Irkutsk Lena Novy Kuanda Angarskaya Region Severobaikalsk Uoyan Taksim o Komsomolsk-na-Amur e Severomuysk Bamovskaya Skovorodino Fevralsk Sovetskaya Kansk Bratsk Novy Gavan Ulkan Nizhneangarsk Yerofei Pavlovich Magdagachi Urgal Amursk Frolikha Adventur e Zabaikalsk y Amur Tayshet Baikalskoe Verkhnaya Bratsk Coastline Trail Territory Reynovo Region Ekon Sea Great Baikal Trail Khakus y Nizhneudinsk Svobodny Litovko Belogorsk Tyrm a aikal Bukachacha Tulun Zavitaya Birobidzhan Khabarovsk Bureya Zim a Olkhon Chernyshevsk Blagoveshchensk ake B Buryat er Arkhara Island L Kuenga Sretensk H‰ihé Polovina Republic Poyarkovo Vyazemskaya Tuva Chita Shilka Priiskovaya Leninsk Usole-Siberskoe Ulan- Mogzon n Riv Jewish Primorsk y Republic Angarsk Ud e Tarskaya Bikin Territory Irkutsk Autonomous Onokhoi Olovannaya Argu Region Sikhote-Aline Borzya Nature Reserve Slyudyanka Tankhoy Khilok Aginsky Burya t Priargonsk Dalnerechensk Autonomous Krasnokamensk Ternei Baikalsk Petrovsky- CHINA Zavod District Zabaikalsk Lake Naushki Kyakhta Khanka Sibirtsevo Sükhbaatar Gaivaro n Spassk-Daln y Darkhan Hƒ'›rb¸n MONGOLI A Main Trans-Siberian Route Ussuriysk Baikal-Amur Mainline Nakhodka Trans-Mongolian & ULAANBAATAR Trans-Manchurian Routes Vladivostok Slavyanka Other Railway Lines NORTH Sea of Japan To B›ij¸ng To B›ij¸ng KOREA BAM Highlights 1 Getting into hot water at Coastline Trail (p 258 ), one Amure (p 261 ), with Soviet BAM Museum (p 260 ) in the the top of the Bratsk Dam northern Baikal’s mini-spas of Siberia’s most exhilarating monuments and nearby Nanai BAM capital, Tynda (p 254 ) (p 260 ) for a spot of R&R long-distance hiking routes villages 5 Looking out across the 6 Trekking a rugged section Siberian-style 3 Touring the BAM’s 4 Soaking up all things BAM Bratsk Sea from a BAM train of the Great Baikal Trail (BAM) MAINLINE BAIKAL-AMUR THE (BAM) MAINLINE BAIKAL-AMUR THE (BAM) MAINLINE BAIKAL-AMUR THE 2 Bagging up your boots nicest town, St Petersburg- at the varied and welcoming window as you trundle across between Baikalskoe (p 259 ) 251 for the Frolikha Adventure styled Komsomolsk-na- and Echo Turbaza.