Hmmm... Pretty interesting, but nah... not something I really am that interested in.

BREAKING: Russia has reportedly asked Elon Musk to help build a $65 billion undersea rail tunnel linking Russia and Alaska.

The tunnel would be named the “Putin-Trump Tunnel.” pic.twitter.com/TEx4oOY004

— The Kobeissi Letter (@KobeissiLetter) October 17, 2025

cryption said:

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Because Putin in playing with Trump's ego to get him to ease up on helping Ukraine.

I'd have to see the comparison but I assume it's a lot easier and faster to ship by rail and truck ; and you remove other countries from the logistics equation if you can do rail vs ocean liners.

Also then we aren't reliant on California for west coast imports. LA and Long Beach account for 31% of all US imports. (West coast as a group are 42%)

One 8.X magnitude earthquake......bye.

CDUB98 said:

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One 8.X magnitude earthquake......bye.

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The tunnel will be built from a polymer compound to withstand seismic activity. I am 100% behind this project.

CDUB98 said:

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One 8.X magnitude earthquake......bye.

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It will have YUGE shock absorbers, doofus.

Life finds a way.

A Bering Sea crossing has been discussed for decades.

Highly unlikely to ever actually happen.

SpreadsheetAg said:

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I'd have to see the comparison but I assume it's a lot easier and faster to ship by rail and truck ; and you remove other countries from the logistics equation if you can do rail vs ocean liners.

Also then we aren't reliant on California for west coast imports. LA and Long Beach account for 31% of all US imports. (West coast as a group are 42%)

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Russian railroads use a different track gauge then US and Canada (and most of the rest of the world) so freight cars from Russia could not be used on the North American railroads.

In favor

I'd also bet this would be a precursor to pipelines from Russia to the USA and Canada as well.

I'd welcome Russia wanting to change in order to become a better business partner... I'd love to see us split them off and entice them to be on our side for r at least neutral in our eventual conflict with China.

if elon's in charge of it, that means it'll be done next year for the next 50 years

I would prefer that money be spent on widening I-20 into Dallas from the East and other road projects. Traffic has grown faster than our highway's and byways have.

Rapier108 said:

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SpreadsheetAg said:

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I'd have to see the comparison but I assume it's a lot easier and faster to ship by rail and truck ; and you remove other countries from the logistics equation if you can do rail vs ocean liners.

Also then we aren't reliant on California for west coast imports. LA and Long Beach account for 31% of all US imports. (West coast as a group are 42%)

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Russian railroads use a different track gauge then US and Canada (and most of the rest of the world) so freight cars from Russia could not be used on the North American railroads.

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So they build a switching station on their end and make the whole portion from their entry to the USA using our gauge. The burden is on them to make it work.

Depending on the gauge dimension I am sure there could be hybrid cars with both gauges on their axles to accommodate both systems... this is a small thing IMO

This way Trump can kiss putins ass directly instead of just over the phone

Old McDonald said:

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if elon's in charge of it, that means it'll be done next year for the next 50 years

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SpaceX laughs at the butthurt in this comment.

pfo said:

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I would prefer that money be spent on widening I-20 into Dallas from the East and other road projects. Traffic has grown faster than our highway's and byways have.

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Or I-35 anywhere in the US.
But building a tunnel between Alaska and Russia will be faster.

So incredibly stupid.

Rapier108 said:

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A Bering Sea crossing has been discussed for decades.

Highly unlikely to ever actually happen.

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Highly alluring yet cost prohibitive.

Part of the challenge is that the crossing is so remote. Not only do you need the tunnel, but you'd also need passable rail from Korea to Vancouver.

If Alaska and Russia had large populations on opposing ends, it'd probably be worth it. But there's just so much frontier (some mountainous) to fight in these areas.

While trade volume from China has hit some natural constraints (harbor depth, terminal capacity, canal size, etc), MAGA ironically undercuts a business case in making this type of trade-expansive investment.

Still… regarding wasteful governmental spending… this would be far from the worst we've seen…

SpreadsheetAg said:

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I'd also bet this would be a precursor to pipelines from Russia to the USA and Canada as well.

I'd welcome Russia wanting to change in order to become a better business partner... I'd love to see us split them off and entice them to be on our side for r at least neutral in our eventual conflict with China.

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Nordstream47 could be built if we wanted it. No tunnel necessary.

FarmerFran said:

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This way Trump can kiss putins ass directly instead of just over the phone

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F Russia. Let the orcs wallow in the violent culture they deserve.

Let's be a glass half full kind of guy.

deddog said:

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Old McDonald said:

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if elon's in charge of it, that means it'll be done next year for the next 50 years

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SpaceX laughs at the butthurt in this comment.

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SpaceX does great work, but let's not act like musk doesn't delay the mars mission timeline every other year

deddog said:

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Old McDonald said:

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if elon's in charge of it, that means it'll be done next year for the next 50 years

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SpaceX laughs at the butthurt in this comment.

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The left is loaded with people that can't, always criticizing those that can - and do.

FarmerFran said:

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This way Trump can kiss putins ass directly instead of just over the phone

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Premium poster sounds really upset. Why?

pfo said:

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I would prefer that money be spent on widening I-20 into Dallas from the East and other road projects. Traffic has grown faster than our highway's and byways have.

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I think the restriction on H-1Bs will solve a lot of that.

Plus, Dallas seems like it's all tollways now.

Connecting the east and west by a land route would seem to have incredible potential. Russia and the U.S could both benefit. But the roadblocks to something like this happening seem insurmountable.

On a lighter note, this discussion gives me a nostalgic desire to play Risk again. In my experience with the game, the land bridge was almost always used to invade Asia successfully from North America, not the other way around.

SpreadsheetAg said:

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Rapier108 said:

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SpreadsheetAg said:

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I'd have to see the comparison but I assume it's a lot easier and faster to ship by rail and truck ; and you remove other countries from the logistics equation if you can do rail vs ocean liners.

Also then we aren't reliant on California for west coast imports. LA and Long Beach account for 31% of all US imports. (West coast as a group are 42%)

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Russian railroads use a different track gauge then US and Canada (and most of the rest of the world) so freight cars from Russia could not be used on the North American railroads.

---

So they build a switching station on their end and make the whole portion from their entry to the USA using our gauge. The burden is on them to make it work.

Depending on the gauge dimension I am sure there could be hybrid cars with both gauges on their axles to accommodate both systems... this is a small thing IMO

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Nah - the Teamsters Union will get behind this.

Imagine all the $200k/yr jobs this will create for guys to go to super rural Alaska to repack shipping containers.

SpreadsheetAg said:

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I'd have to see the comparison but I assume it's a lot easier and faster to ship by rail and truck ; and you remove other countries from the logistics equation if you can do rail vs ocean liners.

Also then we aren't reliant on California for west coast imports. LA and Long Beach account for 31% of all US imports. (West coast as a group are 42%)

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What's the breakeven time against $65 billion though ?

Seems like most people on here are thinking primarily Imported Products from Russia. But, I think there would be a whole lot of Exported products from the USA.

Not sure if the volume both ways would be sufficient to justify the expense versus using ships. But, I have read that Elons Tunnel Building System is pretty fast and inexpensive compared to previous systems. So . . . .

will25u said:

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Hmmm... Pretty interesting, but nah... not something I really am that interested in.

BREAKING: Russia has reportedly asked Elon Musk to help build a $65 billion undersea rail tunnel linking Russia and Alaska.

The tunnel would be named the “Putin-Trump Tunnel.” pic.twitter.com/TEx4oOY004

— The Kobeissi Letter (@KobeissiLetter) October 17, 2025

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$65B for a 55 mile long tunnel.

That comes in right about the same price as California High Speed Rail.

I'd say the tunnel might have a chance of finishing but then what?

Just like the California High Speed Fail, you're in the middle of nowhere and you still need to connect to your destination.

And just for kicks, as a former Alaskan, have they conducted studies to see what this will do to the Whales?

You know there are going to be some environmentalists and Indigenous groups who need to get paid before this plan could move forward.

Old McDonald said:

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deddog said:

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Old McDonald said:

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if elon's in charge of it, that means it'll be done next year for the next 50 years

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SpaceX laughs at the butthurt in this comment.

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SpaceX does great work, but let's not act like musk doesn't delay the mars mission timeline every other year

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Musk's list of accomplishments of things people though were impossible are more impressive than any living human. He may not be perfect but I will never bet against him again. Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink, X, Starlink, the list goes on. As for Mars from everything I have seen he's hitting his markers for making that happen. It's an insanely difficult and complex task. Personally I will be surprised if we don't have a person on Mars in the next decade.