编者按：朱马特奥特巴耶夫是吉尔吉斯斯坦前总理，北师大一带一路学院教授，尼扎米甘贾维国际中心成员。这篇文章反映了作者的观点，不一定是中国环球电视网的观点。
在我关于这个主题的前两篇文章中，我描述了新丝绸之路东西和南北铁路沿线广阔的国际贸易前景。这些运输路线的激活关系到中国经济的快速发展和国际贸易的积极发展。
中亚国家的运输走廊长期有效地向北延伸。我们和北方的邻国有一个共同的交通系统，这是苏联的遗产。
然而，直到最近，中亚才有机会利用其过境潜力。很自然，在获得独立后，该地区的国家立即开始探索摆脱历史和地理给该地区造成的"停滞"局面的可能性。
十年前，高效的"东方"欧亚铁路桥的开通是中亚交通隔绝的一个突破，它通过哈萨克斯坦和俄罗斯的领土连接了中国和欧洲。仅去年一年，中国和哈萨克斯坦之间的过境货运量就超过了2000万吨。平均每天有30列火车通过边境站。
目前正在积极开发几条"南方"铁路线。它们将通过中国、阿富汗、伊朗和巴基斯坦连接中亚和印度洋港口。
在这篇文章中，我将重点放在从中亚到西南的新铁路线上
ugh Iran and the Caspian Sea to the South Caucasus and further to the Black and Mediterranean Seas, Turkey, and Europe. Two new routes from Central Asia to the western seaports have recently started operating. It connects Azerbaijan and Georgia with access to the Black Sea and Iran and Turkey, the Mediterranean, and Black Seas, and beyond to Europe.Back in the late 1990s, the Turkmen and Iranian sections of the railways connected, which allowed Central Asian countries to enter the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas. Additionally, in 2014 a modern Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan-Iran railway link has been completed and commissioned.
Known as the North-South Transnational corridor, the 677-kilometer long railway line connects Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan with Iran and the Persian Gulf. The project is estimated to cost $620 million, which Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Iran are jointly funding. Adequate access to the Iranian railway infrastructure made it possible to connect it with the Turkish railway network, with further access to the Mediterranean and Black Seas.
Simultaneously, the Central Asian countries are working on the development of the South Caucasian transport corridor. A completely new railway, Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK), was officially opened in October 2017. Its total length of the road is 826 kilometers, and the line will carry one million passengers and more than 15 million tons of cargo annually.
Since the launch of this railway, its volume of freight transportation has constantly been growing. This line has already transported 21,260 twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) containers. In 2020, this figure reached 10,779 TEU. The project is part of a broader plan to connect Central Asia's railways with the South Caucasus and Europe via Turkey. After a ferry crossing the Caspian Sea, railways from Central Asia connect to the BTK. It also becomes possible to deliver goods between China and Europe along this route. As this route is shorter than the "northern" ones, the experts estimate that the delivery time between China to Europe could be reduced to 12-15 days.
Considering the prospects for such transportation, Turkey is showing great interest in exploring such a route. A necessary Marmaray railway tunnel under the Bosphorus Strait in Istanbul has already been built and is operating. It provides a direct link between the Asian part of the country and the pan-European rail network.
The first freight train, which went from China's Xi'an to Europe's Prague via the BTK line and Istanbul's Marmaray Tunnel, arrived in Prague on November 6, 2019. Traveling at an average speed of 40 kph, the China Railway Express reached Central Europe from Western China in 18 days.
During January-October 2020, the number of containers shipped from China via this corridor amounted to 2,343 TEU, 35 percent more than in 2019. However, almost all the cargo was moving in one direction - from China to Europe. But on December 4, 2020, the first freight train in reverse mode left Istanbul for China via this railroad. The route's total distance is 8,693 kilometers, and the train has passed it in just 12 days.
The main problem with this route is the cost of transportation. Today it costs about $1,200 to transport one container across the Caspian Sea. For this money, one can transport a container from Vladivostok to Moscow. However, logistics companies are confident that with an increase in the volume of goods transported, the cost of ferry transportation across the Caspian Sea will also decrease.
Thus, modern railway routes will soon run through Central Asia, connecting east and west, north and south. The region will become the Eurasian continent's logistics heart, located in the center of a rapidly developing area. The Eurasian railway revolution, which will actively contribute to this landlocked region's rapid development, is taking place before our eyes. The economic revival of the new Great Silk Road is just around the corner.
