Chinese Eastern Railway Liaodong from China in 1898. Officially, traffic on the line started in November 1901, but regular passenger traffic from St. Petersburg to Vladivostok across the Trans-Siberian railway did not commence until July 1903. In 1898, construction of a 550-mile (880 km) spur line, most of which later formed the South Manchuria Railway, began at Harbin, leading southwards through Eastern Manchuria, along the Liaodong Peninsula, to the ice-free deep-water port at Lüshun, which Russia was fortifying and developing into a first-class strategic naval base and marine coaling station for its Far East Fleet and Merchant Marine. This town was known in
Tomsk–Tayga railway line Tomsk–Tayga railway line The Tomsk–Tayga railway line is the railway branch connecting the Trans-Siberian Railway with Tomsk. The line is a single track throughout. Construction started in summer 1895 and completed in the end of 1896. Had at that time a length of 89 miles (95 kilometers). The need for the branches associated with the decision to build the Trans-Siberian Railway to bypass Tomsk, which was adopted in 1893. The beginning of the branches was a 213-mile (227-th kilometer or about) the Medium-Siberian railway from nameless settlement of the Trans-Siberian Railway. Later the station became known as Tomsk–Tayga, and later