Arctic Bridge

The Arctic Bridge or Arctic Sea Bridge is a seasonal sea route approximately 6,700 kilometres (4,200 mi; 3,600 NM) long linking Russia to Canada, specifically the Russian port of Murmansk to the Hudson Bay port of Churchill, Manitoba.

The Arctic Bridge shipping route (blue line at map) is hoped to link North America to markets in Europe and Asia using ice-free routes across the Arctic Ocean

Description

Churchill is the only principal seaport on Canada's northern coast and has no road connections to the rest of Canada. It is the northern terminus of the Hudson Bay Railway and is a useful link in the export of grain from the Canadian Prairies to European markets. The port of Murmansk on the ice-free Kola Bay is linked by the Russian gauge Murmansk Railway to Saint Petersburg and the rest of Europe. Murmansk is also linked to the rest of Russia by the M18 Kola Motorway.

Russia has shown a keen interest in developing the Arctic Bridge route. If developed (along with the Northwest Passage) it could serve as a major trade route between Europe and North America. According to the Russian Federation's Ottawa press attaché, Sergey Khuduiakov, the opening of the trade route has been enabled by the retreat of Arctic ice. Currently, the route is only easily navigable about four months of the year.[1]

History

The concept of an "Arctic Bridge", with a hub in Churchill, was proposed by Canadians in the early 1990s. In 1997 the port of Churchill was sold to Denver-based OmniTRAX, a major railroad operator. In 2004, OmniTRAX entered into talks with the Murmansk Shipping Company to promote the Arctic Bridge concept.[2] While the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) had been able to keep Churchill a viable port, exporting nearly 400,000 tons (15 million bushels) of wheat each year, OmniTRAX has had difficulty in landing imports at Churchill.[3] On 17 October 2007, the first shipment of fertilizer from Murmansk arrived at the Port of Churchill.[1][4] Two separate 9000 tonne imports of Russian fertilizer took place in 2008, purchased by the Farmers of North America cooperative of Saskatoon from Kaliningrad.[5]

The port of Churchill exported 710,000 tonnes of grain in 1977, 621,000 tonnes in 2007, and 529,000 tonnes in 2009.[6]

The CWB was sold off to Saudi Company, G3 Global Grain Group in 2015 and the Churchill Port suffered as grain shipments were slowly ceased.[7] Omnitrax then closed the rail-line and port, citing profitability of the operations. They then entered into initial talks to sell the port and rail-line to a local indigenous consortium of Manitoba First Nations, Missnippi Rail Consortium.[8]

See also

References
  1. Friesen, Joe; Gandhi, Unnati (18 October 2007). "Russian ship crosses 'Arctic bridge' to Manitoba". The Globe and Mail. Archived from the original on 20 February 2009. Retrieved 2010-03-20.
  2. "The Arctic Bridge". Benmuse.typepad.com. Retrieved 15 October 2017.
  3. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2010-01-16. Retrieved 2009-02-20.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  5. "Port of Churchill Welcomes Continued Ship Movements From Russia". Archived from the original on 24 April 2010. Retrieved 2010-03-20.
  6. "Wheat exports big in Churchill". Winnipeg Free Press. 30 October 2009. Retrieved 2010-03-20.
  7. "Ottawa closes sale of Canadian Wheat Board, name changes to G3 Canada Ltd". CBC News. July 31, 2015. Retrieved 2017-04-12.
  8. "Agreement signed for sale of Churchill port, Hudson Bay rail line". CBC News. December 22, 2016. Retrieved 2017-04-12.

Further reading
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.