#精品长文创作季#
The traditional ancient Silk Road was a land passage that started from Chang'an (present-day Xi'an) and connected the central river region of Central Asia, the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean countries. Historically, this passage was the main artery for economic, trade and cultural exchanges between the mainland and Central Asia, West Asia, Southern Europe and North Africa. Nowadays, it is also a large channel of the "China-Central Asia-West Asia Economic Corridor", one of the six major economic corridors of the "Belt and Road", in this context, it is necessary to build a large-capacity channel of the ancient Silk Road with the railway as the backbone, as a support and drive for jointly building an international economic cooperation corridor between China, Central Asia and West Asia.
At present, three valuable plans have been formed: the China-Kazakhstan Railway via Alashankou and Khorgos, the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan Railway via Turgat, and the China-Kyrgyzstan-Taji-Ayi Railway through Irkestan. However, the most valuable plan is the China-Kyrgyzstan-Tajikistan-Ayi railway, because such a corridor will be an important transportation corridor connecting the resources of West and Central Asia; moreover, the construction of the project will build a new corridor for the interconnection of the Eurasian continent; it will also open up a new major passage to the sea for the continent facing West Asia, South Asia and the Indian Ocean; in addition, it may be the only unified standard-gauge railway scheme across the Eurasian continent. So how is this international railway project progressing, and is it possible to achieve a unified standard gauge?
Five-Country Railway Corridor Project (Afghanistan Railways Authority)
01. The origin of the China-Kyrgyzstan-Tajikistan-Ayi Railway
As early as 2007, the Ministry of Transport and Information of the Republic of Tajikistan developed the "Technical Proposal for the Afghanistan-Tajikistan-Kyrgyzstan-Kashgar Railway Line", which is the way to go. In 2012, Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan reached an agreement to build the line, known as the Five-State Railway Corridor Initiative (FNRC).
In December 2014, the relevant countries held talks in Dushanbe, preliminarily clarified the direction of the China-Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Iraq railways, and agreed to complete the feasibility study report by April 1, 2016. Considering the future operational prospects of the railway, Afghanistan, Iran, China and Tajikistan all advocate the use of 1435 mm standard gauge, although Kyrgyzstan needs the support of the Russian side for the domestic north-south railway, it has expressed its hope to use 1520 mm broad gauge, but also said that it will study the possibility of using standard gauge. The project almost fills the gap of railways in the region, and if built according to the standard gauge, it is possible to build a cross-line operation and smooth high-capacity corridor.
The path of the preliminary study is Kashgar-Irkeshtan-Karamakerk-Dushanbe-Magyarsher-Sharif-Memane-Herat-Teyebat, and then at a suitable node, the southern route goes directly to the Persian Gulf, and the western route leads to Turkey and the Middle East, with a total length of more than 2,300 kilometers.
According to the latest plan, the China-Kyrgyzstan-Tajikistan-Iraq Railway (Kashgar-Haf) has a total length of about 1,800 kilometers. Among them, the mileage in China (Kashgar-Irkashtan) is about 210 kilometers (accounting for about 12%), the mileage in Kyrgyzstan is about 200 kilometers (accounting for about 11%), the mileage in Tajikistan is about 460 kilometers (accounting for about 26%), the mileage in Afghanistan is about 850 kilometers (accounting for about 47%), and the mileage in Iran is about 80 kilometers (accounting for about 4%).
"China-Kyrgyzstan-Tajikistan-Afghanistan-Iran" five-country railway project
02. Progress of the China-Kyrgyzstan-Tajikistan-Iran Railway
From the above planning, it can be seen that the main new lines of the China-Kyrgyzstan-Tajikistan-Iran railway are in Afghanistan and Tajikistan, so the key to the success of the project also lies in whether the Afghanistan and Tajikistan sections can be completed.
Afghanistan segment
The Five-Power Railway Corridor Program (FNRC) was first initiated by Iran and has already begun to be implemented. The implemented section is "Khaf-Herat", which started in 2007 with an investment of about $75 million, funded by Iran, in standard gauge, with a total length of about 225 km, in quasi-gauge (1435 mm). At the end of 2020, the construction of the section "Haf (Iran)-Rozanak (Afghanistan)" (about 138 km) was put into operation. In September 2021, after Atta established the Afghan Transitional Administration, Iran promised Atta that it would continue to complete the "Haf-Herat" railway between the two countries. At present, Iran is helping Afghanistan to build the "Rozanak Town-Herat" section (about 85 km) in Afghanistan.
Iran-Afghanistan railway connection. Image from Iranian Railways
In January 2016, Afghan Foreign Minister Rabbani said at a press conference of the Chinese and Arab foreign ministers that during the talks between the Chinese and Arab foreign ministers, the two sides discussed a five-nation railway project connecting Iran from China, via Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Afghanistan. In 2017, Afghanistan was granted full membership of the AIIB, which is of great significance and paves the way for the implementation of major national projects in Afghanistan.
On April 12, 2023, the mainland announced China's Position on Afghanistan. The mainland is willing to carry out economic, trade and investment cooperation with Afghanistan under the framework of the "Belt and Road", and intends to jointly build a China-Afghanistan corridor with Afghanistan to support Afghanistan's integration into regional economic cooperation and connectivity, and change from a "land-locked country" to a "land-linked country".
On May 1, 2023, the Ministry of Economy of the Afghan interim government announced that the first phase of the Mazar-i-Sharif-Herat-Kandahar railway project will start in the near future.
In addition, it is worth mentioning that in addition to this horizontal railway along the border, there is also a longitudinal railway in Afghanistan, which has previously been confirmed by the Afghanistan Railways Authority (ARA) that the preparation of its important railway project, the Trans-Afghanistan Railway Route, has been completed, and negotiations are underway with relevant officials from Uzbekistan and Pakistan to start the project.
The project will extend the Afghan railway network from Mazar-i-Sharif to Kabul and then to Nangarhar Province (Jalalabad), which will cross the Torham border and enter Pakistan via Peshawar. The railway, which will be supplied by Kazakhstan with rolling stock and tracks to assist in the construction of the railway project, will be built with 1,520 mm Russian-made broad gauge gauge. Kazakhstan supports the project because it hopes that Kyrgyzstan will use it to replace the China-Kyrgyzstan-Tajikistan-Iran railway, which poses pressure on Kazakhstan to compete in freight traffic.
This longitudinal corridor has also been opened, which is the first railway in the history of Afghanistan, opened to traffic at the end of 2011, 75 kilometers long, from the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif to the border city of Hairaton, with a gauge of 1524mm (broad gauge), operated by Uzbekistan, currently only freight, with an annual transport capacity of only 120,000 tons.
That is to say, although the construction of railways in Afghanistan is in its infancy, the competition between various forces is fierce, and the horizontal is mainly promoted by Iran and China, and the standard gauge will be used vertically, and the Central Asian countries and Russia will promote the use of Russian-made broad gauge.
Via Afghanistan International Railway
Tajikistan segment
If Kyrgyzstan is a mountainous country, then Tajikistan is on the roof of the world. There are not many existing railways in Tajikistan, because they are all at the end of the railway network of the former Soviet Union, and they are still isolated into three sections that are not connected to each other: south, north and middle. At present, the main mode of transport in Tajikistan is by road. Tajikistan has two main corridors, the "Parr Highway" in the south and the "Ala-Rasht" road in the north.
Pamir Road and "Alai-Rasht" Road
The China-Kyrgyzstan-Tajikistan-Iran railway is planned to take the "Alai-Rasht" road, that is, from China's Irkeshtang to Kyrgyzstan, along the Kizil River all the way to the west, through the Kyrgyz Alay Valley (Алай), through Karamek (Карамык) into Tajikistan's Rasht (Рашт) valley, you can get to Dushanbe very conveniently. Its journey is only 566 km. The "Alai-Rasht" road is much closer and smoother than the Pamir Road, and the route of the China-Central Asia gas pipeline Line D is taken by this road.
Schematic diagram of Line D of the China-Central Asia natural gas pipeline
In 2011, Tajikistan began construction of the southern section of the railway connecting the central and southern regions of Tajikistan: Vakhdat - Kurgan Tyube. In 2013, Tajikistan reached an agreement with China to provide a loan of about US$72 million for the construction of the railway and supporting facilities, and the rest of the money was invested by the Tajikistan government. In September 2014, the project was launched with the participation of a Chinese company. The Chinese side is responsible for the construction of three tunnels with a total length of 3,755 meters and five bridges with a total length of about 700 meters. In 2016, Iranian Railways, with the financial support of the Iranian authorities, conducted a technical demonstration of the Tajikistan section of the project.
03. The significance of the China-Kyrgyzstan-Tajikistan-Ayi Railway
In the 90s of the 20th century, the railway network between China and Kazakhstan and the connection of the Central Asia-Iran railway network laid a good foundation for the desire of the Central Asian countries to serve as a transport corridor in Eurasia: on the one hand, the connection of the China-Kazakhstan railway made the Second Eurasian Land Bridge officially connected; on the other hand, the construction of the Tjejan-Salahs-Mashhad railway line, which connects the Central Asian railway network with the Iranian railway network, began in May 1992, Turkmenistan's railway connection with Iran in May 1996, and the goods began to be delivered in 1997. The Second Eurasian Land Bridge and the Central Asia-Iran Railway Project have built the basic framework of the cross-border railway network in Central Asia.
In the past 30 years, they have been smoothly transported and have played a huge role in the intermodal transport of Eurasian railways. With the continuous expansion of trade and transportation between Europe and Asia, the bottleneck constraints of transportation corridors in Central Asia have become increasingly prominent. In this context, the countries of Central Asia began to plan and build new cross-border railways.
Key data on Eurasian railway transport in 2014-2018
In this context, the countries of Central Asia began to plan and build new cross-border railways. Judging from the projects that have been proposed and are being built by various countries, they can be summarized as the basic framework of "three horizontals" and "two verticals" according to the trend: the "three horizontals" are the "Silk Wind" project, the Tajikistan-Afghanistan-Turkey railway, and the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway; and the "two verticals" are the Kazakhstan-Turkey-Iraq railway and the Russia-Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan-Kyrgyzstan-Tajikistan railway.
At present, only Kazakhstan's "Silk Wind" project has been successfully implemented, the basis of the "Silk Wind" project is Kazakhstan's 2004 Kazakhstan East-West Railway Trunk Line Project, this $2.5 billion project to build a total length of 3,083 kilometers of railway in central Kazakhstan, from the China-Kazakhstan Railway to Dostyk Station, through Akdouka-Zhezkazgan-Beineu, to the Caspian coast of Aktau Port, and then to the west through the Trans-Caspian International Transport Corridor to Europe, to the south through Kazakhstan, The north-south transport route between Turkey and Iran leads to the Persian Gulf countries.
Connected to the European rail network, this transport corridor unleashes enormous transport potential. Especially after the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, in 2017~2022, the total freight volume of the Trans-Caspian International Transport Corridor increased rapidly, and the container traffic volume increased rapidly from 8,900 TEUs in 2017 to 18,000 TEUs in 2022. According to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the corridor will have an annual traffic volume of 130,000 TEUs by 2040.
Trans-Caspian International Transport Corridor
However, studies have shown that about 95% of the two-way transport of the Eurasian cross-border railway (including transport in the Asia-Central Asia region) necessarily passes through Russia, while the remaining 5% passes through the Middle Corridor and other routes.
Major transit transport routes and hubs in 2019
Because the "Silk Wind" project still has obvious shortcomings, Kazakhstan's east-west trunk railway project originally planned to attract Chinese investment with quasi-gauge, but due to various factors, this plan was not realized. Kazakhstan began to rely on its own strength to build and connect this trunk line in phases and sections, and the gauge was still broad-gauge. Therefore, there is a need to change tracks on the border between China and Kazakhstan, as well as on the border between Georgia and Turkey, and the railway in Azerbaijan and Georgia is broad gauge, while in Turkey it is a European standard. This greatly restricts the efficiency of this channel, firstly, the rail change station limits the capacity, and secondly, the orbit change operation greatly extends the arrival time.
World gauge map
The China-Kyrgyzstan-Tajikistan-Ayi railway is strategically different from the "Silk Wind" and even the China-Kyrgyzstan-Ukraine railway, the route will not need to change tracks, and the gauge will achieve a unified standard gauge, which will speed up the transmission of vehicles.
In addition, the China-Kyrgyzstan-Tajikistan-Ayi railway project is not only an east-west international corridor across Asia and Europe, but also an important international corridor to the Persian Gulf region. From the perspective of the Asia-Europe corridor, the "five-nation railway corridor" has a lot of room for imagination. Both the mainland and Iran are quasi-gauge (1435mm) railways, and the railway network in Iran is relatively sound, with the westbound railway connecting Turkey and extending to the hinterland of Europe, and the southbound railway reaching the Persian Gulf and the railway network with Iraq, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.
Iran's rail network is relatively sound (Photo courtesy of Iranian Railways)
In addition, the Tajikistan-Kyrgyzstan-Tajikistan-Afghanistan-Iraq railway can be incorporated into the China-Kyrgyzstan-Tajikistan-Afghanistan-Iraq railway project, and become a branch of the China-Kyrgyzstan-Tajikistan-Afghanistan-Iraq railway to Turkmenistan. The branch to Turkmenistan could also serve as a backup trunk in the event of an aggravation of the situation in Afghanistan.
From Russia's point of view, the interests of the Broad-gauge Railway Union should be safeguarded in railway construction and the 1,520 mm gauge standard should not be changed within the CIS countries, which is a guarantee for maintaining its sphere of influence. Russia is also striving to extend broad-gauge standards to Afghanistan, so that the quasi-gauge railway corridor between Europe and Asia will be cut off by a broad-gauge system, and the Second Eurasian Land Bridge and other new lines will have to be reloaded with time-consuming and laborious operations, which will not pose a challenge to the cost advantage of Russia's Trans-Siberian Railway without rerailing. Therefore, Russia supports the construction of the North-South railway project in Central Asia, and even in the face of a shortage of funds, it must use political influence to promote the development of these projects, while Russia has not hesitated to use indirect means to block projects such as the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway.
All in all, the China-Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan-Afghanistan-Iraqi railway is in the common interests of the five countries, and if there is no obstruction from external forces, the conditions for implementation will certainly be in place after full consultation and concessions. China should give full support to and promote consultations among other countries, dispel the concerns of Russia and Central Asian countries in terms of the technical standards of the China-Kyrgyzstan-Tajikistan, Afghanistan-Iraq and Iraq railways, use the standard rail as much as possible, and provide financial support for the project with the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank or the Silk Road Fund, so as to promote the implementation of the project as soon as possible. In terms of the prospects for project coordination, although there are still various difficulties, in general, the divergent interests of China, Russia and Central Asian countries on cross-border railways can be reconciled.
(Some of the pictures and videos in the article originate from the Internet, if there is any infringement, please contact the author to delete)
—END—