Latest Afghan rail news

All the latest rail news from Afghanistan

  • AfRA technical teams surveying the Kandahar Spin Boldak railway project
    News

    Afghan railway extension surveys underway

    2024-05-23T05:00:00Z

    AFGHANISTAN: The Afghanistan Railway Authority has announced that surveys have been completed, are underway or will be commissioned for a series of railway extension projects. On May 6 AfRA said an initial survey had been completed for a long-proposed 96 km railway from the city of ...

  • Uzbekistan Afghanistan Pakistan railway agreement (1)
    News

    Trans-Afghanistan Railway agreement signed

    2023-07-20T08:16:00Z

    ASIA: Officials from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan have agreed the route for the proposed Trans-Afghanistan Railway, which is being planned as joint initiative between the three countries to promote regional connectivity and provide Central Asia with access to Pakistan’s seaports. The protocol was signed at a ...

  • Afghanistan China corridor agreement
    News

    Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and China to trial multimodal freight corridor

    2022-09-17T05:00:00Z

    ASIA: Representatives of the railways of Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and China have agreed to trial a rail and road ‘economic corridor’ linking the four countries. An agreement for the three-month trial was signed on September 9 at the end of a two-day meeting in Toshkent. Containerised ...

  • Train in Uzbekistan
    News

    Six policy reforms to strengthen railways in Central Asia

    2022-08-25T05:00:00Z

    ASIA: An Asian Development Bank assessment of the state of railways in the 11 countries of the Central Asia Regional Economic Co-operation Programme has set out six reforms that ADB believes are needed to make rail more efficient and financially sustainable. The CAREC area covers Afghanistan, ...

  • Trans-Afghanistan railway survey (Photo: ARA)
    News

    Trans-Afghanistan railway survey finds no technical problems with route

    2022-08-16T09:00:00Z

    AFGHANISTAN: A preliminary field survey has identified no technical problems with the proposed route for a 780 km trans-Afghanistan railway which would link Uzbekistan with Kabul, Jalalabad, the border with Pakistan and Peshawar. The proposed railway is a joint initiative by Uzbekistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan which ...

  • Newly-appointed head of the Ministry of Public Works Rumi Bakht-ur-Rehman Sharafat held an initial meeting with ministry staff and the Afghanistan Railway Authority
    News

    Some trains still running amid Taliban takeover

    2021-08-26T12:26:00Z

    AFGHANISTAN: Newly-appointed head of the Ministry of Public Works Rumi Bakht-ur-Rehman Sharafat held an initial meeting with ministry staff and the Afghanistan Railway Authority on August 21 following the Taliban’s takeover of the country. The acting minister said the Taliban leadership was committed to the rehabilitation ...

  • af-transit-freight-hairatan-210715
    News

    Chinese freight arrives in Hairatan

    2021-07-16T10:39:00Z

    AFGHANISTAN: The first shipment of Chinese commercial and transit goods to arrive in the current solar year was delivered to the commercial port of Hairatan on July 11, having been moved by rail from Urumqi via Uzbekistan. According to the Ministry of Commerce, the train organised by ...

  • Inauguration of the railway from Aqina on the Turkmenistan border to Andkhoy in Afghanistan.
    News

    Railway opening forges ‘bonds of friendship’ between Afghanistan and Turkmenistan

    2021-01-14T14:44:00Z

    AFGHANISTAN: ‘Those who thought that building a network of railways in Afghanistan was impossible need to reconsider their perspective’, said President Ashraf Ghani during the inauguration of the line from Aqina on the Turkmen border to the northern town of Andkhoy on January 14. ...

  • af Herat province railway inauguration loco (AfRA)
    News

    Two presidents inaugurate Afghanistan – Iran railway

    2020-12-10T16:00:00Z

    AFGHANISTAN: The country’s first standard gauge railway, which links Herat province with Khaf in eastern Iran, was formally inaugurated with a ceremony on December 10. Afghanistan’s President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani and Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani participated by video conference because of the coronavirus ...

  • af Herat trial freight train AfRA 20201202 (2)
    News

    First Iran to Afghanistan freight train

    2020-12-03T09:45:00Z

    AFGHANISTAN: A trial freight train delivered more than 400 tonnes of cement from Iran to Rosnak in Herat province on December 2, ahead of the ceremonial inauguration of the newly completed railway which is scheduled for this month. A passenger train also carried Iranian railway officials to ...

  • CNR Dalian electric locomotive for Uzbekistan.
    News

    Central Asia transport strategy for 2030

    2020-03-10T06:01:00Z

    ASIA: The Central Asia Regional Economic Co-operation programme has published its Transport Strategy 2030, building on lessons learned from the Transport & Trade Facilitation Strategy 2020. According to CAREC, 1 800 km of railway was built in the period covered by that strategy. ...

  • af-china-training model train
    News

    Afghans visit high speed rail training centre

    2020-01-19T06:00:00Z

    AFGHANISTAN: Staff from the Ministry of Transport recently travelled to China to be trained in railway management, signalling and operations. This included a visit to a high speed rail training centre. The Afghanistan Railway Authority said the engineers had acquired a wealth ...

  • A contract for the design and construction of the first phase of the fourth section of the railway being built to link Khaf in Iran with Herat province has been signed by the Afghanistan Railway Authority and Kazak company Integra Construction.
    News

    Herat province railway construction contract signed

    2019-12-12T10:28:00Z

    AFGHANISTAN: A contract for the design and construction of the first phase of the fourth section of the railway being built to link Khaf in Iran with Herat province has been signed by the Afghanistan Railway Authority and Kazak company Integra Construction. The ...

  • af-hairatan-china-export-20190905-minister
    News

    Afghanistan – China rail freight service sets off

    2019-09-09T12:00:00Z

    Afghanistan AFGHANISTAN: An inaugural service carrying freight for export to China by rail left Hairatan in northern Afghanistan on September 5, carrying 1 100 tonnes of talc in 41 containers. The train crossed the Soviet-built road-rail Friendship Bridge over the Amu Darya into Uzbekistan. The containers ...

  • Work has been completed between the Iranian railhead at Khaf and the border with Afghanistan.
    News

    Afghanistan approves fourth section of Khaf – Herat railway

    2019-02-21T11:00:00Z

    AFGHANISTAN: Design and construction of the 43 km first phase of the fourth section of the railway being built from Iran to Herat was approved by the National Procurement Commission at its meeting on February 18. The 1 435 mm gauge line is being built in four sections. Work has ...

  • Asian Development Bank has awarded a US$2m grant to support CAREC railway development (Photo: ADB).
    News

    ADB grant to help CAREC countries move from landlocked to land-linked

    2019-02-11T12:00:00Z

    ASIA: The Asian Development Bank has awarded a US$2m regional technical assistance grant to support the development of railway strategies and institutional capabilities in the Central Asia Regional Economic Co-operation countries. CAREC comprises Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, China, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan and six multilateral institutions. ...

  • A memorandum of understanding has been signed for the development of the freight terminal at Aqina on the Afghanistan-Turkmenistan border.
    News

    Afghan railway terminal expansion MoU signed

    2018-11-15T09:00:00Z

    AFGHANISTAN: A memorandum of understanding for the development of the freight terminal at Aqina on the Afghan-Turkmenistan border, including the construction of 10 track-km of main line and sidings, was signed by the Afghanistan Railway Authority and Turkmenistan’s Ministry of Railways in Ashgabat on November 2. The MoU has six ...

  • Design work has been completed from a link from Tajikistan's rail network to Sher Khan Bandar in Afghanistan.
    News

    Tajikistan – Afghanistan railway construction could start this year

    2018-07-18T12:58:18Z

    ASIA: Design work has been completed and Tajikistan could begin construction of a cross-border rail link to Afghanistan by end of 2018, the Afghanistan Railway Authority said on July 16. An ARA team led by Chief Executive Mohammad Yamma Shams recently travelled to Tajikistan to discuss the project, and technical ...

  • Uzbekistan has pledged to provide US$500m towards construction of a railway from Mazar-i-Sharif to Herat, Afghanistan’s Ministry of Finance said.
    News

    Uzbekistan backs Afghan rail proposal

    2018-04-18T06:00:00Z

    AFGHANISTAN: Uzbekistan has pledged to provide US$500m to part-fund the construction of a 657 km railway from Mazar-i-Sharif to Herat, Afghanistan’s Ministry of Finance said following an international conference on Afghanistan held in Toshkent on March 26-27. The proposed line would be an extension of the existing 75 km route ...

  • A ceremony to mark the completion of work to upgrade the 13 km rail link between Serhetabat in Turkmenistan and Towraghondi in Afghanistan took place on February 23.
    News

    Turkmenistan – Afghanistan railway modernised

    2018-02-26T15:11:46Z

    ASIA: A ceremony to mark the completion of work to upgrade the 13 km rail link between Serhetabat in southern Turkmenistan and Towraghondi in northern Afghanistan took place on February 23. This formed part of a pair of ceremonies which were held in Turkmenistan and Afghanistan to mark the completion ...