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Railway coverage widens in Azerbaijan

5 June 2015 15:24 (UTC+04:00)
Railway coverage widens in Azerbaijan

By Nigar Orujova

The railway coverage of the capital city, Baku will expand as Baku’s Railway Station and the Heydar Aliyev International Airport will be linked by a railroad.

A preliminary project for the railway’s construction has already been developed, Head of the Azerbaijan Railways, Javid Gurbanov said on June 4.

“Talks were carried out in this area and an agreement was reached, including with the leadership of Azerbaijan Airlines, as it is first necessary to consider the safety of air transport,” he said.

Gurbanov added: “Our engineers are currently examining this issue. We are considering the construction of a new railway, which will be laid along a bridge [across the highway] towards the lower part of the airport.”

The length of this railway, which will connect Baku Railway Station with the Heydar Aliyev International Airport, is expected to rich 25 kilometers, he noted.

Gurbanov also said the new electric trains, purchased by the Azerbaijan Railways from Stadler’s plant in Minsk, will run on the Baku-Absheron-Sumgayit circular route, and then in the Novkhani-Pirshagi-Zabrat direction.

The electric trains will arrive back in Baku through the Koroglu Metro Station, he said.

He said the electric trains will run on a new route to the airport in the direction of Bina township via a station near the Koroglu Metro Station.

The project has already been submitted for government’s consideration, and its realization will entirely depend on the funding, the head of the company said.

Bright expectations

Azerbaijan Railways and Switzerland’s Stadler Rail Group signed a contract on the purchase of five KISS double-decker trains at the 14th International Transport, Transit and Logistics Exhibition, TransCaspian 2015 in Baku this May.

The contract is worth about 60-70 million euros, which are to be paid to Stadler Rail Group within 20 years with the help of revenues generated from passenger transportation.

KISS double-decker electric railcar was produced at Stadler Minsk factory of Stadler Rail Group company. The train has 396 seats, including 84 business class seats, and has a total capacity of 919 passengers.

The railway line is expected to carry 30,000-35,000 passengers on a daily basis.

Two of the trains were already brought to Baku to begin work during the inaugural European Games in Baku on June 12-28.

The trains are equipped with air-conditioning systems, and in the future will have Wi-Fi access points.

These trains will be firstly used between the Baku Railway Station and the Koroglu Metro Station, near Baku Olympic Stadium.

Following, they will start the route on the Baku-Sumgayit railway, which is under reconstruction now. The railway will open up access to the industrial city located some 30 km north of the capital in 40 minutes.

As for the fare in the new trains, press representative of the Azerbaijan Railways, Nadir Azmammadov said the rates will not be high, adding that the social situation of the population will be taken into account.

The rates are determined by the Tariff Council, where the company intends to submit proposals, he added.

Azmammadov went on to add that earlier the electric trains on the Baku-Bilajari-Sumgayit line arrived at destination in 1 hour 22 minutes, while after the reconstruction time will be reduced to 40 minutes.

Trains on the Baku-Zabrat-Sumgayit line now arrive at destination in 1 hour 29 minutes, and after the reconstruction time will be reduced to 52 minutes.

He added, the circular railway will have 23 stations and stops.

Moreover, the company will soon launch on the inner lines the rail cars that were repaired in Riga.

New trains to come

In addition, Azerbaijan Railways held talks with Stadler on the purchase of 30 cars that will be delivered to Baku in 2016. These cars are expected to be used for passenger transportation to Turkey via the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars.

Azerbaijan will soon produce rail cars itself, as the country discusses this possibility with the Swiss company.

“At the same time, we are implementing another project with the Swiss Stadler Rail Group. It is about building a plant to produce rail cars in Ganja. To date, work on the design of the plant has been completed," said the spokesman.

There is more to come, as a loan agreement is expected to be signed in the coming days which provisions for Azerbaijan to purchase about 50 electric locomotives produced by the French company, Alstom Transport.

Alstom Transport is a subsidiary of the French holding company Alstom, which manufactures equipment for electric locomotives, electric trains, trams and infrastructure.

Head of Azerbaijan Railways, Javid Gurbanov said that with the help of the attracted funds the work will also be carried out for railway, railway infrastructure and communications reconstruction.

He added that upon the completion of a work to launch a railway service between the cities of Baku and Sumgayit, high-speed trains are planned to run to the city of Ganja, and then in a northerly direction.

Gurbanov also said the overhaul of the railway between Baku and Sumgayit is being carried out with the help of internal funds of the Azerbaijan Railways.

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Nigar Orujova is AzerNews’s staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @o_nigar

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz

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