Azernews.Az

By Amina Nazarli

The history of Azerbaijani railway goes back to the 19th century. The first railway project in Azerbaijan was launched in 1878 and completed in January 1880. This was Baku-Surakhani-Sabunchu railway with 20km length, which was developed later, said Arif Askerov, the Chairman of the CJSC Azerbaijani Railways.

Today, the total length of the main country’s railways constitutes 2,899 km with 2,068 kilometers of it is now operating and 802.3 km is double-track.

Operating Highlights

Noting that the final report of 2014 has not yet been prepared Askerov gave some details about CJSC activities for January-November of 2014. According to him, 19.9 million tons of cargo was transported in the first nine month of 2014. Domestic cargo transportation constituted 5.9 million tons and export 3,8 million tons. Over this period, 6.2 million tons of cargo was transported and other 4 million tons transited.

Over 11 months, 11.5 million tons of cargo was sent from the Azerbaijani train stations including 6.1 million tons of oil and oil products (in particular, 1,8 million tons for oil transit). In January-November, 2.2 million passengers were transported from Azerbaijan.

Safety and comfort are necessary

The chairman said that CJSC pays great attention to the modernization of the passenger cars fleet. This work is carried out to improve the quality of passenger transportation and security and to create the most comfortable conditions for passengers.

Earlier, Azerbaijani Railways has received about 85 passenger trains, which were overhauled in Ukraine and Russia.

Another batch of cars is already in the Dnepropetrovsk Car Repair Plant, where they will be repaired. It is planned that these cars will arrive in Azerbaijan after overhaul by summer 2015.

Due to the lack of the necessary infrastructure in Azerbaijan for overhauling the cars, JSC "Azerbaijan Railways" is sending them abroad, particularly to Russia and Ukraine.

The company is also working with the "Stadler" company. In June this year, the sides signed a contract for the sale of 30 new passenger rail cars. The cars will be delivered to the republic for commissioning the new railway line Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK). It will connect Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey railways together. The new cars will be fitted to the automatic transition of pair wheels for movement on the European railway track.

Development of Railcar production

This year was very important in terms of rail cars production in Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan laid the ground for establishing a new carriage manufacturing plant called "Stadler". The laying ceremony was held in October 2014. The ceremony was attended by President Ilham Aliyev.

Along with meeting domestic demands, one of the main goals of the carriage manufacturing plant is to export passenger rail cars to Central Asia countries, Iran and others. The construction of the new company will take several years.

The project is very important, as it allows Azerbaijan to ensure its overhaul in the country along with the production of cars.

Integration into the international rail network

Azerbaijan actively participates in international and regional projects, including transportation projects such as the construction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway systems and the connection of the "North-South" project.

The project will opens wide opportunities to establish close relations in the transport field for the three member countries and for countries interesting in using the corridor.

Work within the framework of this project continues and the interest in it is growing. BTK commissioning will contribute to the increase of cargo transportation volumes between Europe and Asia. By the end of this year, the first working train will be dispatched to the border of Georgia and Turkey. The railway will operate by late 2015.