TASHKENT RAIL HUB
The Afrosiyob has linked Tashkent and Samarkand in two hours since 2011; in May 2026 the Korean-built Jaloliddin Manguberdi carried high-speed service to Khiva. Underground, the region’s biggest rail project in decades — the China–Kyrgyzstan–Uzbekistan line — is tunnelling toward a 2031 opening.
Uzbekistan operates Central Asia’s only true high-speed network. The Spanish-built Talgo Afrosiyob has run since October 2011, covering the 344 km to Samarkand in about two hours and reaching Bukhara in four; from February 2026, a Tashkent–Bukhara ticket costs 509,000 UZS in economy (≈ €37). In May 2026 a second high-speed type entered service — the Hyundai Rotem Jaloliddin Manguberdi, cutting Tashkent–Khiva from a 14-hour overnight to 7 hours 31 minutes via Samarkand and Bukhara. Conventional Sharq and Nasaf trains cover the same corridors at roughly 140 km/h for less. All long-distance services use Tashkent Central (North) station; Tashkent South, 7 km away, handles a separate slice of traffic.
Thirty years after it was first discussed, the China–Kyrgyzstan–Uzbekistan railway is under construction: the trilateral agreement was signed in June 2024, tunnels broke ground in April 2025, and the $4.7 billion financing closed in December 2025. The 532-km Kashgar–Torugart–Makmal–Jalal-Abad–Andijan line — 29 tunnels and 50 bridges on the Kyrgyz section alone — will carry up to 15 million tonnes a year and cut China–Europe transit by 700–900 km and seven to ten days versus existing routes, with completion expected around 2030–2031. For Tashkent, the line promises a direct rail path to China that today does not exist: all China traffic currently detours through Kazakhstan.
THE TIO READ
Uzbekistan quietly built the best passenger rail product between Istanbul and Beijing — and kept prices at regional levels. The CKU line is the freight mirror of that achievement. Its unresolved question is hierarchy: China holds 51 percent of the project company, so Tashkent must convert geography into logistics value — terminals, warehousing, pricing power — or risk becoming a waypoint on someone else’s corridor.
Subscribe to the digest and receive key market signals every two weeks.