Georgian Railway

Georgian Railway LLC is the national rail company of the country of Georgia.

A vital artery linking the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, it sits on the shortest route between the Europe and Central Asia. Built to standard Russian gauge, at present the fully electrified mainline of the Georgian Railway is 1323.9 kms in length, consisting of 1422 bridges, 32 tunnels, 22 passenger and 114 freight stations.

History

Founded in 1865, operations started in 1871 between Poti and Kvirila (present day Zestafoni). The first passenger train ran on October 10, 1872, from Poti arrived to Tbilisi.

From this central spine, the railway network expanded with links to: Rioni to Kutaisi (1877), Rioni-Tkibuli (1887), Zestafoni to Chiatura (1895). The Tbilisi to Baku line became operational in 1883, allowing transportation of Azerbaijan oil through the port of Batumi. In 1899 the railway connection between Georgia and Armenia was established. The Khashuri to Borjomi link was built in 1894, with the Borjomi to Bakuriani narrow-gauge line operational from 1902, to serve the higher level skiing community. The Kakheti railway branch line was completed in 1915.

The second major development of Georgian railways was due to rapid industrialisation and need for better distribution of agricultural products, including tea, citrus and wine produce. This resulted in the construction of the branch lines to: Natanebi-Ozurgeti (1924); Brotseula-Tskaltubo (1934), Senaki-Ingiri-Gali (1930), Gali-Ochamchire-Sokhumi (1938), Gori-Tskhinvali (1940). The construction of the Sokhumi-Adler allowing connection to the Russian railway network started during the World War II, and was in full operation by 1949.

The new Marabda to Akhalkalaki line opened on 31 December, 1986.

Infrastructure

Due to the challenging mountainous geography of Georgia, railway engineers have often been faced with some difficult challenges. In 1890 the dual tracking of the Tsipa tunnel was completed, allowing faster passage of East-West traffic.

On August 16, 1932 for the first time in the USSR, the first electric traction train ran in the Surami pass. By November 1967 all Georgian railway was electrified, including the Borjomi-Bakuriani narrow-gauge line.

Post World War Two, from 1946 the USSR army engineers with the prospect of connection to their system introduced modern communications, automatisation and automatic block signalling systems. This was followed by the introduction of on train and guard radio communication systems, a process which was completed by 1949.

Present day

Following the disillusion of the USSR, the Georgian Government took control of many of the key assets of the new country, and undertook an aggressive privatisation campaign. The railway assets of Georgia were formed into the new 100% government owned company The Georgian Railway LLC, which operates under the public law of the Enterprise Management Agency, part of the Ministry of Economic Development. It is charged with both management and maintenance of the rail infrastructure, as well as all operations of passenger and freight services. The team which forms the management body consist of: The Assembly of Partners, Supervisory Board and the Board of Directors.

Following an attempt to privatise Georgian Railway LLC in January 2007, the government agreed a public/private partnership with British private equity company Parkfield under an 89 year management agreement, under which Parkfield will invest $1billion over the first 10year period from September 2007.

Incidents

Following the 2008 South Ossetia incident, Russian army forces entered parts of Georgia and damaged key Georgian assets. This included a railway bridge near the western Georgian town of Kaspi, and application of mines to the mainline west of Gori resulted in the complete derailment and resultant fire of an oil train.

External links

• Georgian Railways website