Siberia conjures images of vast, snow-covered wilderness and endless forests stretching to the horizon. While the Trans-Siberian Railway gets all the glory, the region holds numerous lesser-known rail journeys that offer authentic glimpses into Russia’s remote heartland.
These hidden train routes take adventurous travelers through landscapes and communities largely untouched by mass tourism. Here is a list of 20 remote Siberian train rides that even seasoned travelers rarely discover.
The Baikal-Amur Mainline
The BAM line runs roughly 2,000 miles north of the more famous Trans-Siberian route, crossing through some of the most isolated terrain in Russia. Unlike its southern counterpart, you’ll find mostly locals and few foreign tourists aboard these trains that traverse seven mountain ranges and 11 major rivers.
The line was built as a strategic alternative to the Trans-Siberian in case of Chinese invasion, creating settlements frozen in Soviet-era times.
The Circum-Baikal Railway
This engineering marvel hugs the southwestern shore of Lake Baikal through 39 tunnels and over 200 bridges and viaducts. The vintage trains move slowly enough for passengers to absorb the magnificent views of the world’s deepest lake on one side and sheer cliffs on the other.
Local guides often share stories of the thousands of workers who perished during its construction in the early 1900s, making it as historically significant as it is beautiful.
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The Tuva Line
Running from Abakan toward Kyzyl, this developing line aims to connect Siberia to the autonomous republic of Tuva, famous for its throat singers and shamanic traditions. The journey crosses the rugged Western Sayan mountains, which have presented significant engineering challenges, requiring numerous bridges and tunnels.
While not yet complete to Kyzyl, the operational sections already provide access to areas where local Tuvans maintain their unique cultural heritage and musical traditions.
The Yamal Peninsula Route
This northbound train ventures above the Arctic Circle to Novy Urengoy, home to Russia’s largest natural gas fields. Through the windows, you’ll witness the transition from taiga forest to flat, treeless tundra where the indigenous Nenets still herd reindeer.
The winter journey offers chances to see the Northern Lights, while summer travelers experience the midnight sun that keeps the landscape bathed in golden light around the clock.
The Mogochа-Kholbon Line
This single-track line cuts through the remote Zabaikalsky region, where Russia meets Mongolia and China. Locals use it to access villages that remain completely disconnected from road networks, bringing supplies and carrying everything from livestock to furniture.
The train’s antiquated carriages have barely changed since Soviet times, offering an authentic experience of how most Siberians travel rather than the tourist-oriented Trans-Siberian.
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The Tommot-Yakutsk Connection
This recently completed line reaches into the Sakha Republic, home to some of the coldest inhabited places on Earth. Engineers had to develop special techniques to build tracks on permafrost that wouldn’t buckle during the extreme temperature fluctuations, which range from -60°F in winter to 85°F in summer.
The train passes through small Yakut communities, where passengers can glimpse indigenous Siberian cultures that have maintained their traditions despite centuries of Russian influence.
The Norilsk Workers’ Line
This restricted industrial route serves the isolated mining city of Norilsk, which remains closed to foreigners without special permits. The train carries workers through a stark landscape scarred by some of the world’s most intensive nickel mining operations that have created severe pollution issues.
Despite environmental concerns, the settlements along this line offer fascinating glimpses into the lives of communities that exist solely to support Russia’s mineral extraction industry.
The Ob River Valley Track
This meandering route follows Siberia’s mighty Ob River through landscapes that transform dramatically with the seasons. During spring thaws, the train seems to float above vast flood plains that stretch for miles, while winter brings scenes of ice fishermen dotting the frozen river surface.
Local babushkas (grandmothers) often board at village stops and sell homemade pies, pickled vegetables, and forest berries to passengers.
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The Barguzin Valley Branch
This single-track branch line runs east of Lake Baikal through the remote Barguzin Valley, sacred to Buryat shamans. The train moves at a leisurely pace, allowing passengers to spot wild horses roaming the steppes and eagles soaring overhead.
Villagers along the route maintain traditional lifestyles, with wooden houses decorated with intricate blue window frames that stand out against the golden grasslands.
The Amur River Border Line
This strategic railway runs along the Amur River for hundreds of miles, marking Russia’s border with China. The left windows reveal Russian territory, while the right side reveals glimpses of Chinese villages and farms across the water.
Border guards occasionally board for passport checks, adding a sense of Cold War intrigue to a journey through beautiful riverine landscapes dotted with fishing communities.
The Chulym River Route
This little-used line follows the winding Chulym River through western Siberia’s dense taiga forest. The area is home to the Chulym people, among the smallest ethnic groups in Russia, with fewer than 1,000 members still maintaining elements of their traditional hunter-gatherer lifestyle.
Station stops often last longer than scheduled, allowing time to stretch your legs in villages where wooden houses tilt at odd angles due to the shifting permafrost beneath them.
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The Tunguska Impact Zone Line
This obscure branch line passes near the site of the mysterious 1908 Tunguska Event, in which something—possibly a meteor or comet fragment—exploded in the atmosphere with the force of approximately 15 megatons of TNT. The forests you’ll see through the train windows have regrown since the blast flattened an estimated 80 million trees across 830 square miles of remote taiga.
The railway provides one of the few reliable access routes to this isolated region, where occasional scientific expeditions still study the century-old impact site.
The Sikhote-Alin Range Crossing
This engineering feat cuts through the rugged mountain range that separates the Sea of Japan from Siberia’s interior. Through spectacular mountain passes, the train traverses terrain home to the endangered Amur tiger, of which fewer than 500 remain in the wild.
Clusters of Korean and Chinese settlements along the route reflect the complex multicultural history of Russia’s Far East, with distinctive architecture and cuisine available at longer station stops.
The Bureya Reservoir Route
This line skirts the massive Bureya hydroelectric reservoir that flooded numerous villages when it was completed in 2009. At times, the train runs along narrow isthmuses with water visible on both sides, creating the surreal impression of traveling across the lake’s surface.
Former residents sometimes serve as unofficial guides, pointing out where their ancestral villages lie submerged beneath hundreds of feet of water.
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The Kolyma Highway Parallel
This railway runs alongside sections of the infamous Kolyma Highway, known as the ‘Road of Bones’ because the remains of gulag prisoners who died building it were incorporated into the roadbed. The train passes abandoned labor camps where visitors can still see crumbling watchtowers and barracks from one of the darkest chapters in Soviet history.
The contrast between the brutal human history and the breathtaking wilderness creates a journey of profound contradictions.
The Magadan Approach
The final stretch of track approaching Magadan offers spectacular coastal views of the Sea of Okhotsk. This city was once the administrative center of the Gulag system, though its troubled history is barely noticeable beneath its colorful contemporary buildings.
Fishermen’s villages dot the coastline, and locals still use traditional methods to catch and dry fish, constituting a major part of the regional diet.
The Kamchatka Volcanic Line
This relatively new line traverses the wild Kamchatka Peninsula, home to 29 active volcanoes and immense geothermal activity. Steam often rises from vents alongside the tracks while the train passes near geysers and bubbling mud pools rarely seen by outside visitors.
Indigenous peoples, even the Koryak people, sometimes board with handcrafts incorporating volcanic materials and designs representing the powerful forces shaping their homeland.
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The Sakhalin Island Circuit
This unique railway on Russia’s largest island uses a gauge different from that of mainland Russian trains, a legacy of Japanese occupation before World War II. The line passes through tunnels built by Japanese engineers and later expanded by Korean laborers during Soviet times.
Coastal sections offer views of seas rich with marine life, including whales that passengers occasionally spot breaching just offshore.
The Ussuri Taiga Track
This line penetrates the Ussuri taiga, one of Earth’s most biodiverse temperate forests. The dense woodland visible through the windows harbors species found nowhere else, including the Siberian tiger and Amur leopard.
Local hunters and gatherers occasionally board with wild herbs, mushrooms, and ginseng roots that fetch high prices in Chinese markets just across the nearby border.
The Kuzbass Mining Connections
This network of tracks links the intensively mined Kuzbass coal basin, which supplies much of Russia’s energy needs. Despite the industrial setting, the journey offers surprising natural beauty, as reclaimed former mining areas have transformed into lakes and new forests.
The train passes through company towns where generations of families have worked the mines, creating unique communities with strong labor traditions and solidarity.
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Hidden Wonders Revealed By Rail
These remote Siberian train routes offer windows into worlds few outsiders ever witness. Beyond the standard tourist paths lie these authentic rail journeys that showcase Siberia’s true character through its landscapes, peoples, and industries.
The trains become time capsules, preserving aspects of Soviet and Russian life that continue to evolve yet remain distinctively connected to this vast and enigmatic land.
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