page_title: Trans-Caspian railway
section_title: Route
hierarchical_section_title: Trans-Caspian railway / Route
caption_attribution_description: English: A newly constructed railway station in Bereket city, October 2013
context_page_description: The Trans-Caspian Railway is a railway that follows the path of the Silk Road through much of western Central Asia. It was built by the Russian Empire during its expansion into Central Asia in the 19th century. The railway was started in 1879, following the Russian defeat of Khokand. Originally it served a military purpose of facilitating the Imperial Russian Army in actions against the local resistance to their rule. However, when Lord Curzon visited the railway, he remarked that he considered its significance went beyond local military control and threatened British interests in Asia.
context_section_description: The railway starts at the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea at Turkmenbashi (Krasnovodsk) and heads southeast, along the edge of the Karakum Desert. The important junction on the route and locomotive repair depot is located in Bereket city (formerly Gazandjyk) some 340 km (211 mi) to the east. Also at this point the Trans-Caspian railway intersects the newly constructed North-South Transnational Railway which connects Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Iran and ends at Persian Gulf. After Bereket, the route runs parallel to the Karakum Canal. It passes through Ashgabat (Ashkhabad) and continues southeast, hugging the foothills of the Kopet Dagh mountains, and passing through Tedzhen. At Tedzhen, a modern railway link branches off, heading to the Iranian border at Serakhs, and thence to Mashhad in Iran. From Tedzhen, the Trans-Caspian heads northeast, through Mary (Merv), where a branch line built in the 1890s leads to the Afghan border at Gushgy, and the main line carries on to Turkmenabat (Chärjew). From there, a branch built in the Soviet period connects northwestward to Urganch and on to Kazakhstan and Russia.
  The main line continues from Turkmenabat through Bukhoro (where a branch line built in 1910 leads to Termez and Dushanbe) and then carries on to Samarqand. At Sirdaryo, where it crosses the Syr Darya river, a branch runs east into the fertile Fergana Valley. From there, the railway continues to Tashkent. There another northwest bound line runs to Kazakhstan, which branches at Arys forming the Turkestan-Siberia Railway to Novosibirsk.
caption: Bereket city is an important junction on the Trans-Caspian route.
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