Azerbaijan considers launching Astara-Baku-Astrakhan container train

Azerbaijan is considering the possibility of launching a container train "Astara (Iran) - Baku (Azerbaijan) - Astrakhan (Russia)," Report informs referring to the Ministry of Foreign Relations of the Astrakhan Region.

The main cargo flow between Azerbaijan and the Astrakhan Region is by rail and is sent along the western branch of the international North-South transport corridor.

Goods from Azerbaijan, as well as transit cargo from Iran, Türkiye and India, are delivered to Russia along this route.

“Today, the Azerbaijani side is considering the possibility of launching a container train on the Astara-Baku-Astrakhan route using the infrastructure of the Astrakhan railway hub located at the Kutum station,” the report noted.

The ministry notes that the project is planned to be implemented with the participation of Azerbaijan Railways CJSC. Representatives of the railways have already visited Astrakhan and positively assessed the prospects for cooperation.

“At the same time, active work is underway to increase cargo traffic through the Trans-Caspian section of the North-South corridor. We expect that the relevance of sea freight traffic with Azerbaijan will increase with the commissioning of the Caspian cluster capacities, in particular, the port infrastructure and the container hub,” the ministry added.