Qazaqstan Temir Zholy
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Kazakhstan Temir Zholy (KTZ), also National Company Kazakhstan Temir Zholy, is the national railway company of Kazakhstan.
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[edit] Organization
Founded by the government as a joint stock company KTZ’s task is to develop, operate, and maintain railway transportation in Kazakhstan. It is headquartered in Astana. Related stock companies own the rolling stock, the hauling equipment, and the passenger transport division. Repair facilities have been privatized. Private companies may own or rent rolling stock that can use the rail system.
[edit] Network
The current rail network is based on the inheritance from the former Soviet Union and as such has a broad gauge of 1.520 m (4ft 11-27/32 in). While this provides a smooth transit at international borders to countries of the former Soviet Union, the railway in China has a standard gauge of 1.435 m (4 ft 8½ in); thus there is a break-of-gauge at the eastern border at Druzhba.
KTZ controls about 15,000 km track (2005) which is being expanded. The Kazakhstan sections of the old Trans-Aral Railway, the Trans-Caspian railway, and the Turkestan-Siberia Railway have become incorporated into the KTZ.
[edit] Operation
KTZ is the largest employer in Kazakhstan with about 79,000 employees. It manages over 80,000 wagons, 50,000 of them state-owned, and the remainder in private hands. While most of the hauling is done by diesel engines, electrification of track is an ongoing project. The company is profitable.
Kazakhstan has started to build wagons for KTZ and is expected to produce engines in conjunction with GE in 2008.[1]
[edit] The TransKazakhstanTrunk Railways project
The potential of Kazakhstan to act as a transit in the trade between China, Europe, and even the eastern coast of America, as envisioned in the Trans-Asian Railway proposal, has not yet been fulfilled. Current rail transport between China and Europe goes over the Trans-Siberian railway, is lengthy, and requires bogie changes.
KTZ is engaging on the TransKazakhstaniTrunk Railways (TKTR), a major railroad project to link China and Southeast Asia to Europe for a length of 2,400 miles. China and most of Europe use the standard rail gauge of 1.435 m, and the TKTR will utilize the same gauge, avoiding costly delays at bogie exchange stations. The route to Europe will be shortened and laid out for high speed. It is estimated that it will be possible eventually to ship cargo in 7-10 days (half the current time by rail) from China’s ports to Europe. The sea transport takes about 40-65 days. A similar project was already proposed in the 1930s but vetoed by Stalin. The railway would also open up areas of Kazahstan for exploration of minerals and oil. Currently the plan is to run the railway through Turkmenistan to Iran; Iran is linked to Turkey and Europe's standard gauge system.[2]
Construction for the new line will start at the eastern border town of Druzhba to go to Aktau on the Caspian Sea. Construction is expected to start in 2006 and take four years. The total cost of the project is $ 5-7 billion.[3] A link from Aktau to Iran is also required.
An alternative route would be to build a standard gauge link through Russia and either Belarus or Ukraine to match the European standard rail system. Such a line would shorten the China-Europe connection but also compete with the Trans-Siberian railway.
The transport corridor through Kazakhstan has the potential to provide a railway-ship link between China and the east coast of North America through the Northern East West corridor.[4]
