New Railway Baku-Tiblisi-Kars (Turkey)

[Emily]

Hi seysearles, as of mid-Jan 2018 it doesn't appear to be open yet (travelled Turkey to Georgia overland last week).

[seysearles]

Thanks Emily,

Could you possible share how you made the journey? We are trying to find the most efficient way of getting from Georgia to Cappadocia. The original plan was to get the Tblisi - Kars passanger train then take the "Doğu Express" from Kars to Kayseri near Cappadocia. However I am now seeing that the first leg is not yet operational and the second leg is really slow (17hrs for 843km trip).

[jelger]

Does anyone know if this route is operating properly now (January 2018)? We will be in Tbilisi in March and want to try to traverse across to Cappadocia while we are there. Interested to know if anyone has made the train journey if they have anything to share about it.

It looks like it may start from June (too late for your journey).

http://abc.az/en/news/6461

Passenger carriages via Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway route may start from June.
[...]
Before the start of international transportation, it is necessary to resolve some technical issues relating to the gauge size.

Since this project has seen some major delays in the past, just a reminder that it's only happening when it is actually operating... any announcement should be taken as just another version of "sorry fokes, it still doesn't work!"

That said, there have been a bunch of goods shipments, so whatever is holding up the passenger traffic, it shouldn't be that bad.

[Milad]

At the end of November, the new sleeping cars the Swiss company Stadler manufactured for ADY (Azeri Railways) for this route were still standing around at the Stadler factory in Switzerland, according to some reports in forums which I cannot confirm, the reason was that ADY apparently didn't bother to pay for them. This may have changed in the meantime though.

[Emily]

Thanks Emily,

Could you possible share how you made the journey? We are trying to find the most efficient way of getting from Georgia to Cappadocia. The original plan was to get the Tblisi - Kars passanger train then take the "Doğu Express" from Kars to Kayseri near Cappadocia. However I am now seeing that the first leg is not yet operational and the second leg is really slow (17hrs for 843km trip).

Sure (sorry it's a little late, hopefully still helpful!).

My route was...
- Goreme to Kayseri by bus (1hr or so)
- Kayseri to Rize by bus (overnight, maybe 12 hours - you can get Goreme to Trabzon or Rize directly but on the day they were sold out)
- Rize to Batumi by hitchhiking (but there are direct buses too)

And then from Batumi there are trains and marshrutkas to Tbilisi directly.

[Spailpin.Fanach]

Any news about this yet (mid April 2018)?

I'll be travelling this area in October 2018

[Milad]

TCDD (Turkish Railways) says the service will start in Summer 2018. I wouldn't necessarily count on that to happen though.

[jelger]

And for anyone hitting Google in search for information, and thinking the line might run all the way to Vienna: that's not true.

Just saying... as the initial message has been republished without a check in various Caucasus media...

[steven]

Latest news....should be running in August.

[Milad]

Azerbaijan Railways has admitted they don't have the coaches yet. Wouldn't count on August.