New Railway Baku-Tiblisi-Kars (Turkey)

[steven]

I did not specify a year

[Milad]

Azeri Railways (ADY) did announce that the cars will finally be delivered in the beginning of 2019 and regular passenger traffic should start in 3Q19 (=between July and September). This time it appears more serious than the previous announcements to me but obviously it feels like the hundredth time they announce the opening so I wouldn't count on that.

https://www.azernews.az/business/140090.html

[Milad]

The sleeping cars Azeri Railways ordered have left Switzerland and are on their way. They are built specifically for this route (to run both on western/turkish 1435mm rails and CIS 1520mm rails), so I think it should be now more or less safe to assume that passenger traffic starts summer 2019.

[Milad]

The passenger train has recently run for the first time on the railway, for testing purposes and without normal passengers however. I have no information when they open the railway for passengers, my guess would be the beginning of summer.

[Milad]

Update: The train is currently in Kazhakstan(!) - I have no idea why, but if you're interested in the train's interior, see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZzwpfIoanQ

[Milad]

The train will begin running in August on the route Baku - Tbilisi - Kars - Ankara, once weekly . Not through to Istanbul as some people hoped though.
Journey time Baku - Ankara is supposedly only "slightly over 40" hours, which sounds very fast to me since the current Ankara-Kars train takes around 30 hours.

The fare in the cheapest class (4-bed couchette which equals to kupe) will be around 50 EUR.

https://railturkey.org/2019/05/06/ankar ... in-august/

[sebhoff]

Any update on this? I found this a while ago: https://jam-news.net/we-dont-leave-unti ... on-strike/ - there's also some interesting background information on the project and its impact (or lack thereof) on local communities.
I'm going to be in Georgia at the beginning of November and if the timetable were to coincide with my schedule, I'd love to take the train from Ankara at the end of October. But I have my doubts whether passenger trains will be up and running by then, given how things have taken much more time than initially announced.

[Tartine]

Def not running last month.

I hope it starts sonn, though Georgia is really worth a visit

[seysearles]

The passenger train has recently run for the first time on the railway, for testing purposes and without normal passengers however. I have no information when they open the railway for passengers, my guess would be the beginning of summer.

Suspicious post date!

[Milad]

It was no joke

Current situation: The railway company says they're ready to start at any time but Turkish and Georgian customs and passport control are not. They estimate that they will be ready in October, but I will not make any guesses about the reliability of such estimations anymore.