APRIL 19 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — A passenger train running between Almaty and Atyrau, western Kazakhstan, derailed injuring 44 people. Kazakhstan is pouring cash into updating and modernising its rail infrastructure. Rail remains one of the main ways to travel around the country.
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(News report from Issue No. 181, published on April 23 2014)
APRIL 1 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — The World Bank is considering a $200m loan to Uzbekistan for the construction of a railway in the east of the country, media report. China has already agreed various loans for the Angren-Pap railway that will link the eastern Ferghana Valley area with the rest of Uzbekistan.
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(News report from Issue No. 178, published on April 2 2014)
MARCH 17 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan’s rail network recorded a total revenue of 223m manat ($30m) in 2013, roughly the same as in 2012, media reported. International organisations are ploughing millions of dollars into reviving the Soviet-era railway network. Cargo shipments generated over 90% of the revenue.
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(News report from Issue No. 176, published on March 19 2014)
MARCH 16 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — PromMashKomplekt, a plant in northern Kazakhstan that manufactures wheels for trains, has said it may have to make redundant 540 employees because of a contract row with a subsidiary of Temir Zholy, the Kazakh national railway, media reported. The row highlights the relatively precarious state of Kazakh industry.
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(News report from Issue No. 176, published on March 19 2014)
FEB. 23 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbekistan’s government has allocated another $280m to the construction of a railway line linking the Ferghana Valley to the rest of the country, media reported.
The loan from the Uzbek Reconstruction and Development Fund to Uzbekistan Railways is to be specifically spent on mining machinery needed for the project.
It’s an ambitious project designed to allow trains to cross — over and under — the mountains straddling the Ferghana Valley with the rest of the country.
It’s also important, not only for reducing journey times, but also politically. Currently the main road linking the Ferghana Valley to the rest of Uzbekistan is often closed during winter because of snow, forcing people to travel through Tajikistan. Uzbekistan’s relations with Tajikistan are strained.
Although the Uzbek government has offered some cash for the project, much of the funding is coming from China. This is revealing. China has becoming increasingly active in Central Asia through the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) military alliance and through funding various projects.
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(News report from Issue No. 173, published on Feb. 26 2014)
FEB. 4 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — It’s been a bad week for senior officials in Tajikistan. Media reported that a court in Dushanbe had sent the daughter-in-law of a senior Tajik diplomat to prison for 12-1/2 years for drug smuggling and that President Emomali Rakhmon had sacked the head of the Tajik railway company after his son was involved in a deadly crash.
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(News report from Issue No. 170, published on Feb. 5 2014)
JAN. 14 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Turkmenistan invited international companies to compete in a tender to build a railway track from Bereket in the west of the country to Etrek on the border with Iran, media reported. The railway will form part of an ambitious project to link Central Asia up with the Persian Gulf.
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(News report from Issue No. 167, published on Jan. 15 2014)
JAN. 7 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan has started building a new factory for passenger railway wagons in the eastern city of Ganja, media reported by quoting an official from the state railway company. Swiss company Stadler is developing the factory with the Azerbaijani government. Azerbaijan has said it wants to develop its railway.
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(News report from Issue No. 166, published on Jan. 8 2014)
NOV. 4 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Figures from Azerbaijan Railway’s showed how dependent the network is on cash earned from freight transport. Azerbaijan Railways earned 168.5m manat ($215m) in the first nine months of 2013, media quoted the company’s chairman, Arif Asgarov, as saying. Freight transport generated just over 93% of the total.
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(News report from Issue No. 159, published on Nov. 6 2013)
SEPT. 18 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan’s railway network modernisation plan is picking up speed.
Earlier this year, the World Bank said it would finance an upgrade to Azerbaijan’s rail network. Azerbaijani officials said an upgrade was vital to speed up the route, used to shift wagons full of goods from the Caspian Sea to the Black Sea.
One of the areas that needed attention was signalling. Now, Azerbaijan’s government has said it has awarded a contract worth $288m to a consortium including Canada’s Bombardier. Bombardier will install new signalling equipment along the 503km track running from Baku to Boyuk Kesik on the Georgian border. This is roughly 17% of Azerbaijan’s total railway track.
Media also reported that French train maker Alstom, and other companies, are looking to win business in Azerbaijan off the back of the rail modernisation plan.
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(News report from Issue No. 152, published on Sept. 18 2013)