DEC. 17 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Swiss railway manufacturer Stadler will deliver two high-speed electric trains to Azerbaijan in the next two months, Javid Gurbanov, head of Azerbaijani Railways, told reporters. Both trains will be used on the 30km Baku-Sumgayit route. In May, Stadler said it had also won a €70m contract to deliver five double decker carriages to Azerbaijan.
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(News report from Issue No. 261, published on Dec. 20 2015)
DEC. 15 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Manila-based Asian Development Bank (ADB) cut funding for a railway project that would have linked Tajikistan and Turkmenistan via Afghanistan because of a deterio- ration in security.
The decision will be a blow to various infrastructure projects in Central Asia that involve Afghanistan, including the high profile TAPI gas pipeline from Turkmenistan to India and the CASA-1000 power transmission route running from Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to Pakistan.
“Although Turkmenistan has completed construction of its section of the railway, we would not like to construct a railway where security is not guaranteed. It’s very risky,” ADB’s country director C.C.Yu told media.
This year, the Taliban has increased its attacks in northern Afghanistan, at one point capturing the town of Kunduz near Tajikistan. Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan have all warned that security is worsening although, previously, infrastructure projects have not been postponed or delayed.
The railway route in question was supposed to run over 440km and bypass Uzbekistan, often considered a troublesome neighbour by Tajikistan in particular and Turkmenistan to a lesser extent.
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(News report from Issue No. 261, published on Dec. 20 2015)
DEC. 2 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia has completed its 178km section of the revamped Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway that links the Caspian Sea with the Turkish border, media reported. Georgia, Azerbaijan and Turkey agreed to upgrade the railway line 10 years ago to boost trade. The upgrade work has been delayed and has overrun its budget.
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(News report from Issue No. 259, published on Dec. 4 2015)
DEC. 4 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — From Iran to Lithuania, several countries have tried to impose their agenda to lay out transit routes across the South Caucasus and Central Asia.
Iran, which will soon be no longer cut off from international trade by Western sanctions, said it wants to become a road and rail transport link between Pakistan and the South Caucasus.
The link, which would run through Afghanistan and Tajikistan, would also connect Central Asia to Azerbaijan, said Iranian minister of roads and urban development Abbas Akhoundi.
In Klaipeda, Lithuania, thousands of kilometres away from the region, representatives from Lithuanian, Kazakh and Georgian railway and maritime companies met with large transport companies — among which were Britain-based DBSchenker and Germany-based InterRail Logistics — to design a China-Europe Trans-Caspian International Transport Route.
Georgia and Turkey also want to be included in the project, which could compete with the EU- sponsored TRACECA corridors spanning from Central Asia to Europe and the Beijing-funded One
Belt One Road project from Eastern China to Western Europe.
In addition, because of the recent diplomatic row between Russia and Turkey, Azerbaijan has come forward and said it wants to become the transport hub for Turkish goods to Central Asia.
The growing links across the region will improve connectivity and cut back on transport times for westbound goods from China, South and Central Asia.
And its worth keeping in mind that stresses caused by the Russia- Turkey row may create opportunities for new trade routes.
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(News report from Issue No. 259, published on Dec. 4 2015)
NOV. 10 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbekistan wants to upgrade its railway system and it has turned to European companies for the technology and the know-how.
Temir Yollari, Uzbekistan’s state-owned railway company, signed a €38m ($41m) deal with Spanish train manufacturer Talgo to buy two high-speed electric trains.
The new AVE 250 trains will be delivered in 2017. Temir Yollari is already using two Talgo trains, purchased in 2009, for its Tashkent-Samarkand route, opened in 2011.
The Uzbek government is spending around $400m to complete the rail link by 2016 — a potential windfall for European and other western companies looking for deals in the region.
Once completed, the railway line will half the travel time from Tashkent to Bukhara to around 3-1/2 hours.
In another deal struck this week, Temir Yollari signed a memorandum with French company Alstom to establish a production line for asynchronous traction motors, an advanced electric train engine, which Uzbekistan intends to use on new locomotives.
The asynchronous traction technology has not yet been introduced in the former Soviet Union.
“We appreciate the opportunity to work in Uzbekistan’s attractive investment environment and see this project as mutually beneficial for the parties [and] as the first step in the
development of Alstom’s long partnership with the country,” said Martin Vaujour, VP for Alstom CIS.
On paper, Uzbekistan is improving its legislation. The latest World Bank “Doing Business” ranking praised Uzbekistan for its reforms in the past two years. But it is still regarded as a difficult place. Corruption, bureaucracy and asset grabs by the state have all scarred investors.
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(News report from Issue No. 256, published on Nov. 13 2015)
NOV. 10 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbekistan’s railway company placed an order for 38m euros with Spanish train maker Talgo for two high-speed electric trains. The trains are designed for the upgrade of the Samarkand-Bukhara line.
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(News report from Issue No. 256, published on Nov. 13 2015)
OCT. 12 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbekistan and China inaugurated a cargo train service between Binzhou, east China, and Tashkent, an initiative aimed at boosting trade between the two countries. The 5,630km railway also passes through Kazakhstan.
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(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct. 23 2015)
SEPT. 14 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Lithuanian Railways will open a representative office in Kazakhstan’s capital Astana, the company said in a statement. “Kazakhstan is Lithuania’s major railway partner in Central Asia. Stasys Dailydka, a director at Lithuanian Railways, said trade volumes, mainly minerals, had been increasing rapidly over the past six years.
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(News report from Issue No. 248, published on Sept. 18 2015)
SEPT. 7 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — French railway company Alstom has started producing 50 freight locomotive trains for Azerbaijan, media reported. The contract, signed in 2014, is worth around 300m euros. Alstom’s new AZ8A electric locomotives will be built specifically for Azerbaijan.
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(News report from Issue No. 247, published on Sept. 11 2015)
SEPT. 1 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Askar Mamin, head of Kazakhstan Temir Zholy, the state-owned railway company, and Li Xueyong, the governor of the Jiangsu province in China’s far east, signed a series of documents that included an extra $600m investment in the development of the Khorgos special economic zone on the China-Kazakhstan border. Kazakhstan and China are spending billions on developing Khorgos, although a corruption scandal has slowed progress on the Kazakh side.
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(News report from Issue No. 246, published on Sept. 4 2015)