The Karakum Desert, the 440th kilometre of Ashgabat - Karakum - Dashoguz railway, it was where the northern and the southern sections of the TransKarakum trunk-railway were joined. For over five years the Turkmen specialists have been building the steel way across one of the largest desert in the world. Through train operation has started on the 540-kilometre railway on the eve of Flag Day. The President of Turkmenistan Saparmurat Niyazov congratulated the railway builders on this remarkable event. In the complimentary address the President of Turkmenistan said: “You deserved the words of thankfulness and gratitude for building the railway. The Karakum Desert is one of the largest and amazing and at the same time severe deserts in the world. It is rich in natural treasures. Its depths keep innumerable reserves of gas and various mineral resources. Nothing can be compared with the importance of the steel way we built for development of the deposits. The places where the railway comes change immediately. God grant, the blooming oases will appear in the places where the new railway branch lines will come.” The head of the Turkmen state issued the resolution on construction of the trunk-railway six years ago. The official ceremony of opening of the transport corridor connecting the northern and the southern regions of Turkmenistan will be held in March 2006. Henceforth, to travel from Dashoguz to Ashgabat by fast passenger train will take 12 hours. The distance between two regions was shortened by 700 kilometres. Taking into account the fact that Bafk - Mashad railway was built last year and the way to the Persian Gulf ports was shortened by 800 kilometres Ashgabat - Karakum - Dashoguz railway will undoubtedly attract transit freight flows. It should be noted that 17 stations, three large bridges and dozens of other engineering structures have been built along the route of the trunk-railway. A locomotive depot is under construction in the settlement of Ichoguz (Darvaza) located in the centre of the railway where the car fleet and other track maintenance departments are being formed. The hostel and dozens of two-family houses were constructed in the stations and double-track sections. The families of railway workers have moved to new apartments. Over 1,500 workers and specialists of the subdivisions of the Ministry of Railway Transport were engaged in building the Ashgabat-Karakum-Dashoguz railway. Of them, 800 workers performed construction works in the desert. Three track machines were engaged in tracking sleepers and rails, the personnel of two construction trains made the railway bed ready and constructed buildings and engineering constructions. Rails and sleepers were produced in the settlement of Gypjak. High-powered equipment and machinery supplied in accordance with the orders of President Saparmurat Niyazov and increase in output at the Ashgabat sleeper-producing plant enable to speed up construction. The crushing plants producing inert materials and road metal were put into operation to railway embankment and bed in settlements of Geokdepe and Erbent. The track maintenance staff will include over 500 specialists. New jobs will be created, as the local infrastructure expands. Ashgabat - Karakum - Dashoguz is the third trunk-railway built in Turkmenistan on the initiative of the lifelong national leader during the years of independence. Addressing the railway builders and railway transportation workers the President of Turkmenistan noted: “The railway you built will go down in history as a golden chain in the Karakum Desert. Ashgabat - Karakum - Dashoguz railway will turn into an international trunk-railway. It will become a transit corridor for transporting goods from the states in Transcaucasia, Asia and the Far East to the Persian Gulf countries across the territory of Turkmenistan. Thus, Ashgabat - Karakum - Dashoguz railway like other railways you built will be an open way of friendship and mutual understanding and purpose the peaceful aims."

"A passenger train is to embark on an inaugural three-thousand kilometre (two-thousand mile) journey between Almaty, in the south of Kazakhstan in central Asia, and Tehran next week, Kazakh rail officials said. The service, which starts running on May 2, will take 68 hours -- nearly three days -- to cover the 3,290-kilometre (2,043 mile) route that will take it from Kazakhstan to Iran through Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, the officials said. The train will leave Almaty, Kazakhstan's commercial capital, once a week. The service was set up under the terms of an agreement among the five countries plus Turkey signed in the Azerbaijan capital Baku last October, the ITAR-TASS news agency said. The route is due eventually to be extended through Turkey to Istanbul, rail officials said."

Details on the time tables and bookings are available through the Silkraoders.