Rail transport in Georgia
Rail transport in Georgia has existed since the last third of the 19th century. Today it is operated by the Sakartwelos Rkinigsa ( Georgian საქართველოს რკინიგზა; Georgian Railway ).
history
Empire
The first railway line in Georgia was the Poti – Baku railway line . The concession was given to a British company. Construction of the line began in 1865. In 1871, the Poti-Tbilisi Railway Company ( Russian: Поти-Тифлисской Железной Дороги ) was founded. This company went into 1883 in the Transcaucasian Railway ( Russian Закавказской железной дорога ). This society in turn was nationalized in 1889 while retaining the name . The line was therefore created in the customary Russian broad gauge of 1524 mm. The first section of the line between Tbilisi and Sestaponi went into operation on August 1, 1871, followed by the section from Sestaponi to Poti on October 10, 1872 . On May 2, 1883, there was an extension at both ends of the Poti – Baku line:
- the line from Tbilisi to Baku was put into operation and
- Batumi , the second Black Sea port - next to Poti - was connected to the railroad with a line branching off in Samtredia . Poti was connected first because the larger Batumi still belonged to the Ottoman Empire until the Berlin Treaty of 1878 . Both ports had their own port railways under the direction of the port authorities, which were later incorporated into the Transcaucasian Railroad.
Further routes were created:
- on August 12, 1877 the route Rioni - Kutaisi (second largest city in Georgia),
- on May 1, 1884 the Chaschuri - Borschomi route ,
- on December 10, 1887 the Kutaisi– Tkibuli line ,
- In 1895 the narrow gauge railway Schoropani - Sachkhere , 1957 umgespurt to broad gauge,
- on December 5, 1899, the route to Armenia followed .
- In 1887 a company was founded to build a narrow-gauge railway line between Borjomi and Bakuriani . This company was taken over by the Transcaucasian Railway in 1894. The Bordschomi – Bakuriani railway did not go into operation until 1902. Today it is the last scheduled narrow-gauge railway in Georgia . It drives with a track width of 900 mm over a length of 37 km and is electrified.
The Transcaucasian Railway was initially an island operation . It was not until the Vladikavkas Railway of the North Caucasian Railway reached Baku in 1900 that continuous rail traffic with the Russian network was possible. The railway connection to Russia via Sukhumi wasn't even completed until 1946.
First Georgian Republic
In 1917 Georgia became independent after the fall of the Russian Empire , and in 1918 as the Democratic Republic of Georgia . The German Reich was one of the first states to recognize Georgia diplomatically and at the same time signed a treaty with the new state on May 28, 1918, which, among other things, transferred the operating rights of the Georgian railways to Germany. The outcome of World War I prevented the agreement from having any practical effects. During its temporary independence, the Parliament changed the Transcaucasian Railway on its territory to the Georgian Railway .
Soviet Union
Georgia became part of the Soviet Union , the Georgian Railway part of the Soviet Railways (SŽD / СЖД). The local "Railway Directorate", responsible for the railway network in Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia , took over the name "Transcaucasian Railway". The network in Azerbaijan has been outsourced and incorporated several times.
As part of the GOELRO electrification campaign , the Georgian railway network was also electrified in 3,000 volts direct current from 1927 . This offered itself because of the hydropower available in the Caucasus. On August 16, 1932 on the sections Chaschuri -Sestaponi and Chaschuri- Surami the electric operation included, since 1966, the entire network electrified. Along with Armenia and Switzerland, Georgia is one of the few countries whose rail network is fully electrified.
After the Spitak earthquake in 1988 , rail traffic to Armenia was interrupted until 1996.
There were pioneer railways in Tbilisi, Poti and Chaschuri , all with a gauge of 750 mm.
Sakartwelos Rkinigsa
history
On April 9, 1991, Georgia declared itself independent again. The railroad in the country was reorganized as the national railway company Sakartwelos Rkinigsa . In Abkhazia and South Ossetia there was a secession that continues to this day. The railway lines leading there are no longer used, the bridge over the Enguri river has been destroyed. Operation within Abkhazia and to Russia has been carried out by Don-Prigorod , a subsidiary of the Russian Railways (RŽD), since 2010 . The Georgian Railway still counts the part of the network located in Abkhazia as part of its route network. There is no longer any rail traffic in South Ossetia.
Until 2004, the Georgian Railways suffered from corruption . Hardly any investments were made in modernizing and repairing the railway. Of 11,000 cars, only 7,000 were still operational. In contrast, the railway-owned soccer stadium owned by Lokomotive Tbilisi had the most modern sports facilities in the country. General Akaki Tschchaidse was arrested in 2004 and spent several months in custody before settling for three million dollars ransomed. In order to advance the modernization, the railway was restructured in the same year, 2,445 employees were laid off and wages were raised by 17%. The tariffs for freight transport have been reduced, air-conditioned cars and high-speed connections have been modernized for tourist traffic.
During the 2008 Caucasus conflict , units of the Russian armed forces temporarily split the Georgian rail network in half. On August 16, 2008, they blew up a bridge on the main railway axis near the town of Kaspi , 60 kilometers northwest of Tblissi.
The Poti – Baku main line was renewed from 2008 to 2014.
Infrastructure
Georgia's railways today have a total of 1,612 kilometers of fully electrified network. Its main axis, the Poti – Baku railway line , crosses the country from west to east, from the ports of Batumi and Poti on the Black Sea via Tbilisi and on to Baku in Azerbaijan on the Caspian Sea .
About 80% of Georgian railway lines run in mountainous terrain with gradients of up to 4.9%. 247 kilometers run in curves with a radius of less than 300 meters.
In 2006 a program for the renovation and construction of new stations was launched. The station buildings of the stations of Machindschauri (a suburb of Batumi ) and Kobuleti were rebuilt, as was that of the Kutaisi -I station in 2010 . The reception building of Tbilisi Central Station was renovated and re-inaugurated in May 2010.
vehicles
The electric locomotives of the ВЛ10 and ВЛ11 series are widespread .
traffic
Freight transport
The main part of the freight traffic consists of crude oil or crude oil products, which are transported from the production areas in Azerbaijan to the ports in Poti and Batumi (as well as the corresponding empty trains in the opposite direction).
passenger traffic
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The passenger transport timetable is published on the Internet . On international connections there is only one daily pair of trains to Baku and one that runs several times a week from Tbilisi to Yerevan . The latter runs daily to and from Batumi-Machindschauri on the Black Sea in summer .
Between the major cities of the country there is long-distance traffic with both night and day trains, especially between Tbilisi and Batumi as well as Tbilisi and Poti. For this purpose , railcars of the GRT series built by CSR (today: CRRC ) are used in China , as well as KISS railcars from Stadler Rail since July 25, 2016 . These trains also have two different classes of car . There is also a sleeping car service between the main cities .
As a rule, only two pairs of trains are offered on branch lines per day, which are driven at very low speed and often with converted ER 2 class railcars .
future
Connection to Turkey
In order to create a direct rail connection between Georgia and Turkey - the existing line runs through Armenia and has no traffic due to the political differences between Armenia and Turkey - a line is under construction.
Reconstruction of Tbilisi
The railway line through Tbilisi is to be replaced in the coming years by a double-track 27 km long bypass line north of Tbilisi. Passenger traffic in the city is to have two head stations - Didube station in the north-west of the city (at the Tbilisi metro station of the same name ) - and Nawtlughi station in the south-east (near the Samgori metro station). Today's central station is to be shut down and the railway infrastructure dismantled after the new line has opened . A continuous connection for passenger trains and direct transfers for travelers traveling beyond Tbilisi will then no longer be possible. Timetables for this project have not yet been published.
Unlike the US consultancy Booz Allen Hamilton , Western European transport experts rate the project rather negatively because of these effects.
Rail-bound public transport
Tram companies
Tram companies no longer exist in Georgia. You passed in
- Tbilisi. A horse tram was opened here in 1883 by a private individual , which was taken over in 1897 by the Belgian stock corporation Société Anonyme des Tramways de Tiflis , which replaced the horse tram in 1904 with an electric tram in meter gauge. This in turn was mm 1933-1938 1,524 umgespurt . In 1951 and 1960 the network was drastically cut and finally shut down on December 4, 2006. A new tram with new vehicles is to be put into operation in the future.
- Borjomi received a horse-drawn tram in 1888.
Subway
There is a subway in Georgia only in Tbilisi . The first line opened in 1966. Today the network comprises two lines and is 26.3 kilometers long. A third line is said to have been under construction from the late 1980s, but was abandoned after 1991 due to a lack of funding. The subway is electrified with 825 volts direct current , which is fed in via a busbar .
literature
- Markus Rabanser: Georgia . In: Fern-Express 1/2016, pp. 20–26.
- Neil Robinson: World Rail Atlas . Vol. 8: The Middle East and Caucasus . 2006. ISBN 954-12-0128-8 .
Web links
- Homepage of the Georgian Railway (en, ge, ru).
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Rabanser, p. 21.
- ↑ Robinson, p. 13.
- ^ Victor von Röll: Encyclopedia of the Railway System . Volume 8. Keyword: Russian railways . Berlin, Vienna 1917, pp. 256-278.
- ↑ Rabanser, p. 21; Robinson, pp. 15f.
- ↑ a b c d Robinson, p. 17.
- ↑ a b c Rabanser, p. 25.
- ↑ a b Robinson, p. 16.
- ↑ a b c Rabanser, p. 24.
- ↑ Rabanser, p. 10.
- ↑ GS Raikher: Transcaucasian Railroad . Большая советская энциклопедия (Great Soviet Encyclopedia), Moscow 2010 (English).
- ↑ a b Robinson, p. 14.
- ↑ Robinson, pp. 15, 17 (note 3).
- ↑ Rabanser, p. 26; Robinson, p. 17 (note 1).
- ↑ See: Weblinks.
- ↑ Rabanser, p. 25f.
- ↑ a b c d e Rabanser, p. 26.
- ↑ mr: Georgian Kiss in action . In: Eisenbahn-Revue International 10/2016, p. 511.
- ^ Georgian Railways: Tbilisi Railway Bypass Project - Project Description . Tbilisi 2010 (English, online ).
- ^ Robinson, pp. 13, 16, 17 (note 18).