It’s worth downloading the full size image for a detailed view.
Herat railway opens this year?
This report (in Persian) appears to suggest that (tracklaying?) work is underway on the new railway from Iran to Herat, and it will open in the current (Iranian) year
The Fars News Agency reported on 27 May 2012 that Khaf-Herat Railway to Start Economic Revolution in Afghanistan. “[Iranian Consul-General Rahim Mohammad Yekta] stressed that the Khaf-Herat railway construction project will be implemented soon.”
Tashkent Transport blog
The Ташкентский транспорт blog has updates on trains, trams and buses in Tashkent. Worth a browse.
Soviet photos of the Hairatan rail link
Some Soviet photos of the Friendship Bridge and Hairatan, showing the railway.
Silk Road by rail
The Silk Road by train section section of the Caravanistan travel website has some practical information about passenger services on Central Asian railways, (including a page on Afghanistan which doesn’t (yet…) have any passenger trains).
The beds are comfortable, your fellow passengers are sociable and the samovar at the end of the wagon keeps the hot water flowing so you can refill your cup of tea endlessly
Or you could buy a yak…
Link to the Ministry of Railway Transport of Turkmenistan website
It seems the Ministry of Railway Transport of Turkmenistan does have a website. However there is some kind of configuration problem with their default page, which means index.html returns a 404 error and so http://www.railway.gov.tm doesn’t work and the site is rather hard to find.
The Ministry website does have some working pages, and these appear to be in Russian, which Google Translate generally does a reasonable job of translating into English. Here are the pages I’ve found:
- History
- Chronology of Turkmenistan’s railways:
- 15 November 1897 Construction of the railway Merv – Kushka
- 4 December 1898 Start of through traffic Merv – Kushka (293 versts [=313 km])
- News. Mostly calls for tenders, some in English. The last update was 24 March 2011
- The North-South line from Kazakhstan to Iran
- Construction of social facilities
- Construction of a bridge across the Amu Darya
- Contact details
(in case this posting attracts web traffic from people who are looking for the official website: I have no connection with – or contacts at – any railway organisations within Turkmenistan. I’ve never been anywhere near the country. If you need to get in touch with them, you can find their details here; do let me know if they reply!).
Balkh railway video
A November 2010 video of the new railway in northern Afghanistan, featuring a TEM2 locomotive and a smart inspection car.
Nov 6, 2010: Abdul Qodus Naiman Hamidi, Minister of Public Works, visited the newly constructed Mazar-Hairatan railway track today here in provincial capital of Balkh.The aim of this trip is to inquire the construction works of this railway track, he said. (PAJHWOK/Zameer Saar)
Photos of the Mazar-i-Sharif railway
“Rebuilding Afghanistan’s transport and energy network” is a September 2011 gallery of really excellent photographs of the new railway to Mazar-i-Sharif, taken by Jawad Jalali of the Afghan Eyes photo agency.
Photo 32 shows a building which looks distinctly like a passenger station.
Freight trains at Mazar-i-Sharif
“Afghanistan joins railroad era _ 100 years late” an Associated Press article by Kay Johnson, dated 10 March 2012, with photos of trains near Mazar-i-Sharif taken by AP’s Mustafa Najafizada on 6 March 2012.
Railway from Hayratan to Mazar-e-sharif
Awaz News video showing construction of the railway: