Azerbaijan, China explore expanding railroad services to Europe

Azerbaijan and China are in discussions to potentially increase the number of railroad services connecting to Europe, said Emil Mammadov, Advisor to the chairperson of Azerbaijan Railways CJSC.

Mammadov made the announcement during a panel session held on the sidelines of the Black Sea-Caspian Freight Forum 2024 in Baku, News.Az reports.

Mammadov highlighted that maintenance work on the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) corridor has been completed, and the corridor has resumed basic operations as of June 2024. According to him, this has significantly boosted the line's capacity from 1 million tons to 5 million tons.

He noted that the BTK corridor is currently one of the shortest and most efficient routes for transporting cargo from Central Asia to Europe or Africa.

“In terms of the connection between Türkiye and the region of Azerbaijan or Central Asia, it also remains the shortest landline that allows not only traditional freight transportation but also continental rail deliveries. Moreover, we are in talks with our Chinese partners about the possibility of increasing the number of rail routes to Europe, which will be an additional opportunity for China to enter the European market,” Mammadov added.

News.Az