The Other Siberian Railway, how The New York Times writer saw it

It's a new name for the Baikal-Amur Mainline (BAM) railway journey - 'a 2,500-mile all-you-can-eat buffet' - but this is a delightful account of a few days on 'the other Siberian railroad'.  

Many people crossing Russia on the main Trans-Siberian routing do not even think of the more northerly BAM which, as Finn-Olaf Jones, writer for The New York Times, says, 'inexplicably darts north through a blank spot on the map with few towns or even paved roads, a mysterious and enormous railroad loop through nowhere'. 

Soviet post stamp, marking the opening of Baikal-Amur Mainline

But this is part of the excitement and this traveller - like others taking this less trodden route - found 'an undeniable romance riding through Siberia's vast wilds', going for hours without seeing a living soul.  

There was also a typically warm welcome for this foreigner from the train attendant who, typically, cares for her passengers in a style that has been lost on many Western railways.  

'Once she realised that I was her only foreign passenger she became almost maternal, doling out tea bags, mineral water and candy from her closet-size kiosk next to the bathroom. At sunset, to add to the train's living room ambience, she hauled out curtains on long rods that she fitted over the corridor windows.'  

The train may have had 'a nothing-fancy dining car that served essentially as a round-the-clock bar'; yet still this travel article is likely to whet your appetite to try the BAM. Soon, too, this line will have an even more exotic offshoot - a link northwards to the permafrost diamond capital of Yakutsk - for the more adventurous rail travellers. 

See more on Finn-Olaf Jones Siberian journey http://travel.nytimes.com/2012/08/12/travel/the-other-siberian-railroad.html?pagewanted=all