120 years on the road

16-04-2024

In 2024, the Kazakhstan railway celebrates its 120th anniversary. We have collected important events and interesting facts about the steel line.

- The year of foundation of railway transport in Kazakhstan is considered to be 1904, when the construction of the Orenburg-Tashkent road began, which united Russia with Central Asia and passed through the territory of the Uzbek, Kazakh, Kyrgyz and Tajik SSR. The first steel highway contributed to the development of trade, industry, and the social sphere of the region. However, the first railway on the territory of Kazakhstan was opened for train traffic earlier - in the rock in 1894. It connected Pokrovskaya Sloboda (now the city of Engels) with the city of Uralsk and became a continuation of the Moscow-Ryazan-Saratov line.

- The station of Shipovo station (now Taskala, West Kazakhstan region) is considered one of the oldest in the KTZ network. The building was built in 1897.

- The first female typist in Kazakhstan, Zlikha Temirshiyeva, drove a steam locomotive on the Uralsk-Iletsk section.

 

- The construction of the Turkestan-Siberian Railway (Turksib) became the most important construction project of the first five-year plan of the USSR. The railway connected Siberia and Central Asia. The highway was built in 1927–1930 and contributed to significant economic and cultural growth in the region.

- This year marks the 145th anniversary of the birth of the first Kazakh railway engineer, public figure, Prime Minister of the Turkestan Autonomy, member of the Alash Ordy party Mukhamedzhan Tynyshpayev.

- The first railway of the Soviet period - the Petropavlovsk - Kokchetav section, built in 1920–1922. Then the route continued through the Kurort-Borovoye station and Akmolinsk (Astana) to Karaganda.

- On July 1, 1958, the largest Kazakh railway in the USSR was formed, with a length of over 11 thousand kilometers. It consisted of 15 branches and connected Kazakhstan with Siberia, the Urals, the Volga region, Kyrgyzstan and Central Asia. In the same year, the first diesel locomotives began running on the railway.

 

- In 2004, along the route Mangistau - Kulsary, a world record was set for the transportation of oversized cargo - equipment for the construction of a new plant of the TengizChevroil company. The size of a heavyweight from a four-story building, weight - 506 tons. The cargo moved for three days at a minimum speed of 10 kilometers per hour. In a short time, a new track was laid at the Sai-Utes station with the installation of three turnouts.

- The first international container train on the route China - Europe was sent on March 19, 2011 through the Alashankou - Dostyk border crossing from Chongqing station (PRC). An expensive product was imported in 36 forty-foot large containers: products of transnational IT companies. The train crossed the borders of China, Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus, Poland and Germany. He covered a distance of more than 11 thousand kilometers in 16 days.
- In 2021, for the first time, transit transportation in containers was limited to 1 million tons. TEU (twenty foot equivalent unit).

- From 2022, a new period of large construction projects will begin on the Kazakh railway. The construction of second tracks on the Dostyk-Moyynty railway section, railway tracks bypassing Almaty, Darbaza-Maktaaral and Bakhty-Ayagoz began with the opening of the third border crossing with the PRC.

- 5 international railway transit corridors pass through Kazakhstan. Intensively nearby corridors: Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TITR), North - South, China - Europe - China.

 

Press service of JSC «NC«Kazakhstan Temir Zholy»