In the three decades following the construction of Nicholas I's private railway, several lines were laid to connect the main cities and towns of European Russia. Nevertheless, a railway to Siberia did not deserve serious consideration. Traditional methods of transportation kept the tsar supplied with all the gold and furs he needed and most who went to Siberia were exiles.
Earliest plans for long distance railways in Siberia came from a number of foreigners in the 1850s. It was also suggested to join the great Siberian rivers so that travelers could cross the country by a combination of rail and ship. But it took another 20 years before serious consideration of these proposals merited sending surveyors to investigate their feasibility.
The first positive step came with the construction of a line from Perm over the Urals to Ekaterinburg in 1878. Then in 1881 [I 004 / Alexander III] became tsar. He saw a railway as the key to developing Siberia, and as a strategic link that would consolidate the Amur region and prevent [M 014 / Vladivostok] from being cut off by the Chinese. Anxious to see some progress, he gave sanction to the Trans-Siberian project in 1886 with the words: "I have read many reports of the Governors-General of Siberia and must own with grief and shame that until now the government has done scarcely anything towards satisfying the needs of this rich, but neglected country! It is time, high time!"
Alexander hoped for an expeditious conclusion to the project and declared: "I hope the Ministry (of Ways of Communication) will practically prove the possibility of the quick and cheap construction of the line." In 1891 it was announced the project would go ahead, but it was to be constructed using thinner rails and shorter rail ties. Timber rather than stone was to be used for most of the [V 006 / bridges].
