Map of the Kars-Akhalkalaki-Tbilisi-Baku railway

The Kars–Gyumri–Tbilisi railway line is a railway line that runs from the city of

Kars Kars (; ku, Qers; ) is a city in northeast Turkey and the capital of Kars Province. Its population is 73,836 in 2011. Kars was in the ancient region known as ''Chorzene'', (in Greek Χορζηνή) in classical historiography ( Strabo), part of ...

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

to the

Armenia Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ''Ox ...

n city of

Gyumri Gyumri ( hy, Գյումրի, ) is an urban municipal community and the second-largest city in Armenia, serving as the administrative center of Shirak Province in the northwestern part of the country. By the end of the 19th century, when the city w ...

, and from there on to

Tbilisi Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), is the Capital city, capital and the List of cities and towns in Georgia (country), largest city of Georgia (country), Georgia, lying on the ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

. Originally completed in 1899, the railway was highly important during the Soviet era, both as the only direct rail link between Turkey and the

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

(Kars-Gyumri), and as one of the two main railway connections between Armenia and other Soviet Republics (Gyumri-Tbilisi). While the Gyumri-Tbilisi section remains Armenia's lifeline to the outside world, the Kars-Gyumri section has not been operational since 1993, when Turkey closed the border with Armenia, following the

first Nagorno-Karabakh War The First Nagorno-Karabakh War, referred to in Armenia as the Artsakh Liberation War ( hy, Արցախյան ազատամարտ, Artsakhyan azatamart) was an ethnic and territorial conflict that took place from February 1988 to May 1994, in th ...

between Armenia and Turkic-speaking

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of th ...

, in support of the Azeris. Because the Kars–Gyumri section has been inoperative due to the closed Turkish-Armenian border, an agreement was signed in April 2005 to build a direct connection across the Turkish-Georgian border from Kars to

Akhalkalaki Akhalkalaki ( ka, ახალქალაქი, tr; hy, Ախալքալաք / Նոր-Քաղաք, translit=Axalk’alak’ / Nor-K’aġak’) is a town in Georgia's southern region of Samtskhe–Javakheti and the administrative centre of the Ak ...

in Georgia, and to rehabilitate the existing railways from

to Tbilisi and

Baku Baku (, ; az, Bakı ) is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. Baku is located below sea level, which makes it the lowest lying national capital in the world a ...

, thus creating the Kars–Tbilisi–Baku mainline. The

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

(EU) and the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

declined to assist in financing or promoting the new mainline, because they saw it as designed to bypass Armenia, and supported the reopening of the Kars-Gyumri-Tbilisi railway line instead. However, the EU did "welcome" the opening of the line.

History

Construction

The railway was built in the late 19th century, when Georgia and Armenia, as well as the recently conquered

Kars Oblast The Kars Oblast was a province (''oblast'') of the Caucasus Viceroyalty of the Russian Empire between 1878 and 1917. Its capital was the city of Kars, presently in Turkey. The ''oblast'' bordered the Ottoman Empire to the west, the Batum Oblast ...

, all were parts of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

. By the late 1880s, the railway system of Russian

Transcaucasia The South Caucasus, also known as Transcaucasia or the Transcaucasus, is a geographical region on the border of Eastern Europe and Western Asia, straddling the southern Caucasus Mountains. The South Caucasus roughly corresponds to modern Arme ...

consisted of the mainline from

Poti Poti ( ka, ფოთი ; Mingrelian: ფუთი; Laz: ჶაში/Faşi or ფაში/Paşi) is a port city in Georgia, located on the eastern Black Sea coast in the region of Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti in the west of the country. Built near t ...

and

Batumi Batumi (; ka, ბათუმი ) is the second largest city of Georgia and the capital of the Autonomous Republic of Adjara, located on the coast of the Black Sea in Georgia's southwest. It is situated in a subtropical zone at the foot of th ...

on the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Roma ...

Tiflis Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Kura River with a population of approximately 1.5 million pe ...

(now Tbilisi) to

on the

Caspian Sea The Caspian Sea is the world's largest inland body of water, often described as the world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. An endorheic basin, it lies between Europe and Asia; east of the Caucasus, west of the broad steppe of Central Asia ...

, run by the

Transcaucasian Railway The Transcaucus Railway (russian: Закавка́зская желе́зная доро́га) was the first railway in South Caucasus.Большая Советская Энциклопедия. Гл. ред. Б. А. Введенский, 2-е � ...

.А.Э. Котов (A.E. Kotov)
"Из истории Южно-Кавказской железной дороги"
("From the History of the South Caucasus Railway"), 17.07 2009. Includes a detailed map. An on-site study of the future railway route from Tiflis to Alexandropol (now Gyumri) to Kars was initiated in the spring of 1894 by the Imperial Ministry of Communications and the management of the

. The construction work, led by engineer E. Wurzel (russian: Е. Вурцель), was completed in December 1899. In 1899, work also started on a branch line from Alexandropol south to

Yerevan Yerevan ( , , hy, Երևան , sometimes spelled Erevan) is the capital and largest city of Armenia and one of the world's List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest continuously inhabited cities. Situated along the Hrazdan River, Y ...

. That was completed in 1902, and later extended to Julfa on the

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

ian border.

Operation

During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, the railway was used to supply Russian troops fighting the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

Anatolia Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The re ...

. After the war, Turkey took possession of

, and re-gauged the part of the railway now in Turkey from the to .Рубен ГРДЗЕЛЯН (Ruben Grdzelyan)
Тишина на границе
("Quiet on the border") During the

era, the Gyumri-Kars line became the only direct railway connection between the USSR and Turkey. For most of the time, the Soviet Armenian railway staff at the final Soviet station,

Akhuryan Akhuryan ( hy, , translit=Axuryan), is a major village and rural community (municipality) in the Shirak Province of Armenia. The Statistical Committee of Armenia reported its population was 7,113 as per the 2011 official census down from 9,696 at ...

(the border station is apparently here: , although it may be not the main Akhuryuan station), had a fairly good working relationship with their Turkish colleagues at Doğukapı (station apparently here: ) on the Turkish side of the border. In the mid-1980s, the annual freight volume across the border was around 65,000 tons, peaking at 180,000 tons in 1989. Apparently, that was still much less than the railway's otentialcapacity, which was as high as 6,000,000 tons per year. Until a crane for changing railcar

bogies A bogie ( ) (in some senses called a truck in North American English) is a chassis or framework that carries a wheelset, attached to a vehicle—a modular subassembly of wheels and axles. Bogies take various forms in various modes of transp ...

was purchased at Akhuryan, which came quite late in the border stations' history, shortly before the border was closed, cargo had to be transferred from Soviet rail cars to Turkish ones, and vice versa. The Turkish Doğukapı, on the other hand, had a crane for moving

intermodal container An intermodal container, often called a shipping container, is a large standardized shipping container, designed and built for intermodal freight transport, meaning these containers can be used across different Mode of transport, modes of trans ...

s between broad-gauge and standard-gauge cars. In 1986, the construction of a 160-kilometer branch line from

Marabda Marabda ( ka, მარაბდა) is a community in Georgia, located some 23 km south of the capital Tbilisi, and a few kilometers north of Marneuli. It consists of three villages Akhali Marabda, Kotishi and Dzveli Marabda. According to the ...

(on the Tbilisi-Gyumri line, 23 km south of Tbilisi Junction) west to

was completed.History of the Georgian Railways
(in English), o
History of the Georgian Railways
That branch fell into disuse later, but was rehabilitated as part of the Kars–Tbilisi–Baku railway.

Closing of the Kars-Gyumri section

The last freight train crossed the Turkish-Armenian border on 6 July 1993, a few days before the border was closed by Turkey. The two governments agreed to exchange empty railcars (there were some empty Turkish cars left at the Armenian Akhuryan Station, and some Armenian ones at the Turkish Doğukapı), which was done on 11 July. Since then, no train has crossed the border. The Gyumri-Tbilisi section is part of the Yerevan-Tbilisi mainline, and is Armenia's only functioning rail connection to the outside world. During the Soviet era, the Kars-Gyumri line was used by direct trains from Yerevan to Moscow and elsewhere in the USSR, but now trains from Armenia can only reach Georgia, because Georgia's rail connection with Russia has been severed due to the

Abkhazia Abkhazia, ka, აფხაზეთი, tr, , xmf, აბჟუა, abzhua, or ( or ), officially the Republic of Abkhazia, is a partially recognised state in the South Caucasus, recognised by most countries as part of Georgia, which vi ...

n war, and Georgia's rail link to Azerbaijan is of little use to Armenians.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kars-Gyumri-Tbilisi railway Defunct railroads International railway lines Cross-border railway lines in Turkey Railway lines in Turkey Railway lines in Armenia Railway lines in Georgia (country) Rail infrastructure in Asia Buildings and structures in Kars Railway lines opened in 1899 Railway lines closed in 1993 1899 establishments in the Russian Empire Transport in Kars Province Soviet Union–Turkey relations