MAY 23 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan’s state-owned railway company signed an agreement with German logistics giant DHL to establish a hub in Azerbaijan to service Turkey, Russia and Europe with goods coming from China. Azerbaijan Railways’ representative Nadir Azmammadov met with a DHL delegation in Istanbul.
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(News report from Issue No. 282, published on May 27 2016)
MAY 2 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan Temir Zholy, the country’s railway operator, issued bonds for 50b tenge ($150m) with a 10-year maturity, in what has been described as the largest issue of debt in Kazakhstan in 2016. Halyk Finance, part of Halyk Bank, the second-largest lender in Kazakhstan, brokered the deal in the Kazakh Stock Exchange.
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(News report from Issue No. 279, published on May 6 2016)
APRIL 24 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Azerbaijani government said it will loan $500m to Iran to finance the completion of the Rasht-Astara railway segment, part of a rail link from Qazvin to Astara, around the southern shore of the Caspian Sea. Mahmoud Vaezi, Iran’s minister for communications told the Trend news agency that the Qazvin-Rasht section is almost complete and Iran will use the funds to complete the link to Azerbaijan.
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(News report from Issue No. 278, published on April 29 2016)
APRIL 27 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Kazakh railway authority announced the launch of a new high-speed connection between Astana and Kostanai, which will be operated by Tulpar-Talgo trains. Tulpar-Talgo is a joint venture between a subsidiary of state-owned Kazakhstan Temir Zholy and Spain’s Talgo.
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(News report from Issue No. 278, published on April 29 2016)
APRIL 22 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Swiss railway rolling stock manufacturer Stadler will send four double- decker trains to Georgia to service its most popular tourist resorts. The Georgian government plans to use the trains to connect the capital, Tbilisi, with three resort towns – Batumi, Kobuleti and Ureki. Stadler has already supplied similar trains to Azerbaijan.
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(News report from Issue No. 278, published on April 29 2016)
APRIL 15 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Uzbek government said its high-speed train link from Tashkent to Bukhara, one of its headline projects, will be completed in August. The government has said that the rail link will cost around $400m to complete. It has partnered with European businesses such as Spain’s Talgo and France’s Alstom to build it. Once completed, the railway line will halve the travel time from Tashkent to Bukhara to around 3-1/2 hours.
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(News report from Issue No. 277, published on April 22 2016)
FEB. 25 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbek officials said that work on a $1.63b railway section in the Fergana Valley had been completed, meaning that trains can now travel from Tashkent without having to pass through Tajikistan.
Although the cost of the 123km track is high, driven up by kilometres of tunnels and bridges that were needed to breach the mountainous terrain, for Uzbekistan cutting out the irritation of having to deal with Tajikistan makes it worth it.
Uzbekistan and Tajikistan have been at loggerheads since the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991.
At its core, Uzbekistan worried about Tajik plans to build hydropower dams across rivers that feed Uzbekistan’s cotton crops. Tajikistan doesn’t like Uzbekistan’s unilateral stance.
This impacted rail traffic, which steadily dropped off.
The World Bank estimated the route will transport 600,000 people and 5 tonnes of freight every year. The project also underlines the financial might of China in the region. It paid $350m of the cost of the project, the World Bank paid $190m and the Uzbek government covered the rest.
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(News report from Issue No. 269, published on Feb. 26 2016)
FEB. 26 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – At 19.2km, the Kamchik Pass railway tunnel may be the longest in Central Asia and might also be a great engineering achievement, but it is also a sign of Uzbekistan’s further isolation from world politics and markets.
Uzbekistan said it completed a World Bank and China-backed railway bypass in the Ferghana Valley that will allow its trains to run to the east of the country without having to transit through Tajikistan.
The World Bank support is important because it shows international endorsement for a mega project that Uzbekistan was eager to achieve despite the economic downturn rolling through Central Asia.
Chinese money and workers were key to the success of the project, as China has growing interest in building infrastructure in Central Asia to support its ambitious project to connect with Europe via rail and road.
Tajikistan is the main loser in this game. It will no longer receive the in- kind payment of $25m worth of gas shipments from Uzbekistan in exchange for the railway transit. And it also lost an important diplomatic chip in its endless row with Tashkent.
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(Editorial from Issue No. 269, published on Feb. 26 2016)
FEB. 12 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – French train-maker Alstom has bought another 25% stake in EKZ, its joint-venture in Kazakhstan with Kazakh state railway company Temir Zholy and Russia’s Transmashholding, media reported. The deal means that Alstom is now the majority partner in EKZ. It may also show Kazakhstan’s willingness to sell off part of its most cherished companies to foreigners so that it can raise cash during the worsening economic downturn.
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(News report from Issue No. 268, published on Feb. 19 2016)
DEC. 26 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — A Chinese consortium has supplied 11 locomotives to Uzbekistan as part of an ongoing partnership. CNTIC and CNR Dalian fulfilled a $44.39m contract they signed with Uzbekistan’s railway company in 2011. A loan from China EximBank financed 95% of the cost.
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(News report from Issue No. 262, published on Jan. 8 2016)