Proposed Russian Road That Would Connect Britain to America

[Chris]

It was a grand project for sure, but it was too expensive, with economic returns not matching it. Its strategic value has proven to be low: the idea that the Trans-Siberian Railway was too close to China for comfort. It coincided with the build-up of an outsized military, an expensive space program and the war in Afghanistan.

Russia is huge on a map, but its economy is not as big, being similar to Italy, New York state or the Benelux countries. Most wealth is accumulated in its largest cities, its oil industry, but not much else.

[Rothman]

It was a grand project for sure, but it was too expensive, with economic returns not matching it. Its strategic value has proven to be low: the idea that the Trans-Siberian Railway was too close to China for comfort. It coincided with the build-up of an outsized military, an expensive space program and the war in Afghanistan.

I'd aver that the other factors mentioned at the bottom of your paragraph were much more significant than the BAM construction (and other macroeconomic factors being more significant than those, specifically Russia's much too targeted and limited export strategies due to their ideology).  Public transportation infrastructure endeavors rarely meet expectations economic-wise or turn a profit, so to apeak, but you don't see nations totally change their system of government because of that fact.