London to New York rail journey on horizon It was first mooted as long ago 1905 by Tsar Nicholas 11, but this week the Kremlin finally gave the green light for a 65 mile (106 km) tunnel linking Asia and North America, taking the epic project a step nearer reality. The conference in Yakutsk was hosted by Yegor Borisov the Governor and the project was ratified by President Medvedev's top officials including Aleksander Levinthal the deputy federal representative for the Russian far East. It's been hailed as the greatest railway project of all time but admittedly, there are still a small few details outstanding such as funding to iron out but Russia is determined to pursue its claim to the huge fossil fuel and mineral wealth in the arctic and develop its trading ties with China. Experts forecast that the completed service could carry 3% of the world's freight and earn £7billion GBP per year. Engineers have said the project could reach break-even in seven years. A 500 mile, £900m GBP link from the Trans-Siberian railway to Yakutsk is already in construction and will be completed in 2013, nudging towards the Russian goal of a further 2360 miles by 2030. This will provide strategic links from the mineral rich territory in the north to key freight lines in Russia and China. Michael Hammond