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[[Image:The_Station_of_Baharden_on_the_Transcaspian_Railway.jpg|right|300px|thumb|The station of [[Baharly]] on the Trans-Caspian Railway, c. 1890]]
The '''Trans-Caspian Railway''' (also called the '''Central Asian Railway''', {{lang-ru|Среднеазиатская железная дорога}}) is a [[railway]] that follows the path of the [[Silk Road]] through much of western [[Central Asia]]. It was built by the [[Russian Empire]] during its [[Russian conquest of Turkestan|expansion into Central Asia]] in the 19th century. The railway was started in 1879, following the Russian defeat of [[Khokand]]. Originally it served a military purpose of facilitating the [[Imperial Russian Army]] in actions against the local resistance to their rule. However, when [[Lord Curzon]] visited the railway, he remarked that he considered its significance went beyond local military control and threatened [[British Empire|British]] interests in [[Asia]].<ref>''Military power, conflict, and trade'' by Michael P. Gerace, [[Routledge]], 2004 p182</ref>

==History==
===Construction===
[[File:Un-Turkmenistan.svg|thumb|300px|Route of Trans-Caspian railway in [[Turkmenistan]]]]
[[File:UN-Uzbekistan.svg|thumb|300px|Route of Trans-Caspian railway in [[Uzbekistan]]]]
[[File:Uzun-Ada.jpg|thumb|300px|Uzun-Ada port and railway station]]
Construction has begun in 1879 as a narrow-gauge railway to [[Serdar (city)|Gyzylarbat]] in connection with the [[Russian Empire|Russian]] conquest of [[Transcaspian Region|Transcaspia]] under General [[Mikhail Skobelev]]. It was rapidly altered to the standard Russian gauge of five feet, and construction through to [[Ashkabad]] and Merv (modern [[Mary, Turkmenistan|Mary]]) was completed under [[General Michael Nicolaivitch Annenkoff]] in 1886. Originally the line began from [[:ru:Узун-Ада (порт)|Uzun-Ada]] on the [[Caspian Sea]], but the terminus was later shifted north to the harbour at [[Krasnovodsk]]. The Railway reached [[Samarkand]] via [[Bukhara]] in 1888, where it halted for ten years until extended to [[Tashkent]] and [[Andijan]] in 1898. The permanent bridge over the [[Oxus]] (Amu-Darya) was not completed until 1901, and until then trains ran over a rickety wooden construction that was often damaged by floods. As early as 1905, there was a [[train ferry]] across the [[Caspian Sea]] from Krasnovodsk to [[Baku]] in [[Azerbaijan]]. The [[Tashkent Railway]] connecting the Transcaspian Military Railway with the network of other Russian and European railways was completed in 1906.

==Economic Impact==
The railway permitted a massive increase in the amount of cotton exported from the region. This increased from 873,092 [[Pood|pudy]] in 1888 to 3,588,025 in 1893. Also sugar, [[kerosene]], wood, iron and construction material were imported into the area. These rising trade figures were used by Governor-General [[Nikolai Rozenbakh]] to argue for the extension to Tashkent, while the merchant N. I. Reshetnikov offered private funds for the same purpose.<ref>''Russian Colonial Society in Tashkent'' by Jeff Sahadeo, Indiana University Press, 2007, p120</ref>

===Revolution and Civil War===
The railway, as the most important means of communication in the area, and the workers on the railway became key activists during the [[Russian Revolution (1917)|Russian revolution]]. It was thirty five railway workers who founded the [[Tashkent Soviet]] on 2 March 1917.<ref>''Russian colonial Society in Tashkent, 1865-1923'', by Jeff Sahedeo, Indiana university Press, 2007, p. 190</ref> They decreed that the administration of the railway should be transferred away from Ashkhabad and sent [[Commissar]] Frolov to that city, a move that proved unpopular.<ref>[[The Times]], ''The Fighting In Trans-Caspia'', 3 March 1919</ref> In turn railway workers along the western end of the railway initiated a break away from the [[Bolshevik]] oriented Tashkent, setting up the [[Transcaspian Government|Ashkhabad Executive Committee]] on 14 July 1918.

Both railway and workers also played an important role in the [[Russian Civil War]]. Troops of the [[British Indian Army]] participated in some of the battles along the railway line. [[Tashkent]] was an important bastion for the [[Red Army]].<ref>''On Secret Service East of Constantinople'', by [[Peter Hopkirk]], John Murray 1994</ref>

===Under the Soviet Union===
During the Soviet period and beyond, the railway was administrated from [[Tashkent]].

==Route==
[[File:A newly constructed railway station in Bereket city, October 2013.jpg|thumb|right|300|[[Bereket|Bereket city]] is an important junction on the Trans-Caspian route.]]
The railway starts at the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea at [[Turkmenbashi, Turkmenistan|Turkmenbashi]] (Krasnovodsk) and heads southeast, along the edge of the [[Karakum Desert]]. The important junction on the route and locomotive repair depot is located in [[Bereket|Bereket city]] (formerly Gazandjyk) some {{convert|340|km|0|abbr=on}} to the east. Also at this point the Trans-Caspian railway intersects the newly constructed [[North-South Transport Corridor|North-South Transnational Railway]] which connects Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, [[Iran]] and ends at [[Persian Gulf]]. After Bereket, the route runs parallel to the [[Karakum Canal]]. It passes through [[Ashgabat]] (Ashkhabad) and continues southeast, hugging the foothills of the [[Kopet Dagh]] mountains, and passing through [[Tedzhen]]. At Tedzhen, a modern railway link branches off, heading to the [[Iran]]ian border at [[Serakhs]], and thence to [[Mashhad]] in [[Iran]]. From Tedzhen, the Trans-Caspian heads northeast, through [[Mary, Turkmenistan|Mary]] ([[Merv]]), where a branch line built in the 1890s leads to the [[Afghanistan|Afghan]] border at [[Gushgy]], and the main line carries on to [[Turkmenabat]] (Chärjew). From there, a branch built in the Soviet period connects northwestward to [[Urganch]] and on to [[Kazakhstan]] and Russia.

The main line continues from Turkmenabat through [[Bukhoro]] (where a branch line built in 1910 leads to [[Termez]] and [[Dushanbe]]) and then carries on to [[Samarqand]]. At [[Sirdaryo]], where it crosses the [[Syr Darya]] river, a branch runs east into the fertile [[Fergana Valley]]. From there, the railway continues to [[Tashkent]]. There [[Trans-Aral Railway|another northwest bound line]] runs to Kazakhstan, which branches at [[Arys, Kazakhstan|Arys]] forming the [[Turkestan-Siberia Railway]] to [[Novosibirsk]].

== See also ==
{{Portal|Railways}}
* [[Railways in Turkmenistan]]

==References==
{{Commons category|Trans-Caspian railway}}

===Inline references===
{{reflist}}

===Bibliography===
{{refbegin}}
* [[George Nathaniel Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston|G.N. Curzon]] ''Russia in Central Asia'' (London), 1889
* [[Mikhail Annenkov]]. ''Ахал-Техинский Оазис и пути к Индии'' (Санкт-Петербург), 1881
* George Dobson. ''Russia's Railway Advance Into Central Asia''. W. H. Allen & Co, 1890.
{{refend}}

[[Category:Rail transport in the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Railway lines in Turkmenistan]]
[[Category:Railway lines in Kazakhstan]]
[[Category:Rail transport in Uzbekistan]]

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