Trans-Aral Railway

Trans-Aral Railway
Trans-Aral Railway
	Freight rail
Operator(s)	Russian Railways; Kazakhstan Temir Joly; Uzbek Railways;
History
Commenced	1888–1906
Built era	Russian Empire
Technical
Line length	9,200 km (5,700 mi)
Number of tracks	2
Character	International rail link
Track gauge	1,520 mm (4 ft 11+27⁄32 in)
Old gauge	1,524 mm (5 ft) as built
Route map
	Legend
Don–Fergana main line
	Russia
	Kazakhstan
	Kazakhstan
	Uzbekistan

The 1,520 mm (4 ft 11+27⁄32 in)

broad gauge Trans-Aral Railway (also known as the Tashkent Railway) was built in 1906 connecting Kinel and Tashkent, then both in the Russian Empire.^[2]^[3] For the first part of the 20th century it was the only railway connection between European Russia and Central Asia

.

An extensive description of the newly built railway was published in 1910.[4]

Construction history

There were plans to construct the Orenburg–Tashkent line as early as 1874. Construction work did not start, however, until the autumn of 1900. The railway was simultaneously built from both ends toward a common junction. It opened in January 1906, linking the existing network of Russian and European railways to the

Trans-Caspian Railway

.

On January 1, 1905, the Kinel–Orenburg section of the Samara–Zlatoust line was joined to the Tashkent railway.

The Kinel–Tashkent Railway was the first line to be built across the steppe, replacing the multiple routes once used by caravans with a single, steel path. It introduced the Kazakhs to industrial modernity and tied the distant Governor-Generalship of Turkestan more firmly to the Russian metropole, allowing troops to be rushed to Central Asia and raw cotton to be exported to Moscow's textile mills.^[5]

Economic impact

Because of the

First World War broke out.^{[citation needed}

]

Post-revolutionary period

After the

Bolshevik takeover, which resulted in atrocities like the Kokand Massacre

, in which between 5,000 and 14,000 people were killed.

Route

The line passes through several notable cities in

Turkistan, and Shymkent. It connects at Arys with the Turkestan–Siberia rail line toward Almaty, eastern Kazakhstan, and south Siberia

.

References

^ "The Trans-Asian Railway (Eurasian Landbridge)". The Geography of Transport Systems.
^ Coulibaly, S Deichmann, U et al (2012) Eurasian Cities: New Realities along the Silk Road, World Bank Publications, P26
^ "Desert & Steppe Conquests: Fortresses and Railways in the Sahara and Kazakhstan". University of Birmingham. Retrieved 29 August 2016.
^ Hamilton, Angus (1910). Afghanistan. Oriental series. Boston and Tokyo: J.B. Millet Company. Retrieved 2014-11-23.
^ Morrison, Alexander (28 March 2012). "Railways in Central Asia". CESMI Central Eurasian Scholars & Media Initiative. Retrieved 29 August 2016.

Literature

Hopkirk, Peter
, (1984) Setting the East ablaze : Lenin's dream of an empire in Asia, 252 pp., London: John Murray

[1] "The Trans-Asian Railway (Eurasian Landbridge)". The Geography of Transport Systems.

[2] Coulibaly, S Deichmann, U et al (2012) Eurasian Cities: New Realities along the Silk Road, World Bank Publications, P26

[3] "Desert & Steppe Conquests: Fortresses and Railways in the Sahara and Kazakhstan". University of Birmingham. Retrieved 29 August 2016.

[4] Hamilton, Angus (1910). Afghanistan. Oriental series. Boston and Tokyo: J.B. Millet Company. Retrieved 2014-11-23.

[5] Morrison, Alexander (28 March 2012). "Railways in Central Asia". CESMI Central Eurasian Scholars & Media Initiative. Retrieved 29 August 2016.

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