Trains in Uzbekistan

Introduction

2007-02-28T19:28:00.000-08:00

Uzbekistan has many things to offer for tourists. The towns on the ancient Silk Road are famous: Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva.

Uzbekistan railways offer a comfortable, reliable and cheap way to explore the touristic highlights of the country. Alltough shared-taxis and buses often provide a more frequent means of transportation, I recommend to travel by train. Several new express trains have been introduced since 2004.

--------------

TOP-NEWS:
And now the high-speed era is just about to begin in Uzbekistan. Uzbek Railways bought two highspeed-trains from the Spanish company "Talgo". Their top speed is 250 km/h and they will soon begin to run between Tashkent and Samarkand.

Some photos, taken from http://www.parovoz.com/newgallery/?LNG=EN:

--------------

The main line Tashkent - Samarkand - Bukhara is served by two express trains named "Registon" and "Sharq": The "Registon" brings you from Tashkent in 3h30min to Samarkand and the "Sharq" makes the 600-km-journey Tashkent - Bukhara (with intermediate stop in Samarkand) in about 6,5 hours.

Photo: Modern train in Uzbekistan

A daily overnight train from Tashkent to Bukhara offers the possibility to travel during the night and win one day. Comfortable sleeping cars allow a good sleep.

Overnight trains also run from Tashkent and Samarkand to Urgench (3 times weekly) and to Nukus - Kungrad (2 times weekly), so it's also possible to travel to Khiva (30 kilometers from Urgench, taxi/bus available) or to the Aral lake (Moynaq, 70 km from Kungrad) by train.

ROUND TRIPS

I have also included some suggestions for round-trips by train:
Tashkent - Bukhara - Samarkand - Khiva - Tashkent in 9 days
Tashkent - Samarkand - Bukhara - Tashkent in 7 days
More details about round-trips

INTERNATIONAL TRAINS

International trains are available to Almaty in Kazakhstan, Moscow, Ufa, Celjabinsk, St. Peterburg, Novosibirsk in Russia (so you can link to the Transsiberian railway) and to Kharkov in Ukraine. From Almaty connecting trains are provided to Urumchi in China.

With only one change of trains in Moscow you can travel overland from Central and Western Europe (Berlin, Cologne, Vienna, Prague, Budapest, Helsinki, etc.) to Tashkent and v.v..
More details about international trains

With this website I want to make it easier for tourists to use rail services in Usbekistan. I myself travelled by train through Usbekistan and it was a great experience.

I hope you like the website. It is still under construction, and if you find a mistake or have any idea to improve something, please feel free to contact me: helmut.uttenthaler@gmx.at

Helmut Uttenthaler
Vienna - Austria

kostenloser Counter
Poker Blog

Route map

2007-02-28T13:34:00.000-08:00

A great online map of railways in the former USSR ist the supermap at http://www.parovoz.com/maps/supermap/index-e.html.

Click to enlarge the maps:

Western part of Uzbekistan:

Central part of Uzbekistan:

Eastern part of Uzbekistan:

A short legend:

Red (single-track) and green (double-track) lines have passenger trains.
Blue lines have only freight trains.
Yellow lines are planned lines or lines under construction.

Click here for a more comprehensive legend

Photos

2007-02-28T13:22:00.000-08:00

This site contains photos of various trains and stations in Uzbekistan.

If you want to use one of the photos for your website or anything else, please contact me: helmut.uttenthaler@gmx.at

TRAINS

Express train no. 1/2 "Registon" (Tashkent - Samarkand - Tashkent)

Express train no. 9/10 "Sharq" (Tashkent - Bukhara - Tashkent)

Night train no. 661/662 (Tashkent - Bukhara)

Night train no. 55/56 (Tashkent - Urgench)

International train no. 331/332 (Tashkent - Saratov)

International train no. 381/382 (Tashkent - Ufa)

Local train at Tashkent

Local train no. 6110 (Samarkand - Bukhara) at Samarkand

Local train no. 6312 (Samarkand - Karshi) at Samarkand

STATIONS

Tashkent

Samarkand

Bukhara

Urgench

Turtgul

Nukus

Kungrad

Navoj

Tickets and fares

2007-02-28T13:21:00.004-08:00

Tickets can be bought at the railway stations. In some towns there are also special agencies selling railway tickets. At bigger stations ticketing is computer-based, but in smaller stations tickets are issued manually.

Tickets for long distance trains can usually be bought 45 days in advance. However, for boarding at intermediate stations tickets sometimes can only be bought on the day of departure.

Uzbek railways offer an online reservation for tickets at http://www.uzrailpass.uz/main.cgi?lan=e&section=14. I haven't tried it yet, but if you have 1st hand experience with that service, it would be nice if you left a comment here or wrote me an e-mail to share this information.

Day-time express trains (no. 1/2 "Registan", no. 7/8 "Nasaf" and no. 9/10 "Sharq") have seating accomodation (usually 1st and 2nd class, alltough I didn't notice a big difference between 1st and 2nd class).
A snack and tea are included in the fare of such express trains.

Overnight-trains have up to four categories:

spalnyj vagon (SV) - sleeping car with 2-bed-compartments, 18 places per carriage

kupe (K) - sleeping car with 4-bed-compartments, 36 places per carriage

plazkartnyj (P) - open "dormitory-style" couchette car, 54 place per carriage

obshchyj (O) - same as plazkartnyj, but more people in one carriage, 81 places per carriage

SV and O might not be available on all trains. K and P are the basic-categories, which are always available.

Ticket prices depend on the type of train and the category. The ticket price is the same for foreigners as for local people. The information in the "Thomas Cook Overseas Timetable" is wrong regarding that.
Payment is in local currency (UZS).

Current ticket prices (in UZS) can be found out here.

Typical ticket prices (in EUR) in 2009:

Overnight trains:

Tashkent - Samarkand: L 22, K 13, P 9, O 5
Tashkent - Bukhara: L 16, K 10, P 7, O 4
Tashkent - Nukus: K 25, P 17, O 10
Tashkent - Urgench: K 22, P 14, O 9

L = "ljuks" (2-bed-sleeping-car)
K = "Kupe" (4-bed-sleeping-car)
P = "platskartnyj" (dormitory-style couchette car)
O = "obshchij" (seating car)

Express trains:

"Registon" Tashkent - Samarkand: 1 16, 2 11
"Sharq" Tashkent - Bukhara: L 25, 1 21, 2 9

1 = 1st class
2 = 2nd class
L = "ljuks" (2-bed-sleeping-car)

Tickets of my trip in 2005:

Ticket Tashkent - Samarkand:

Ticket Samarkand - Bukhara:

Ticket Bukhara - Navoj:

Ticket Navoj - Urgench:

Ticket Turtgul - Atyrau (Kazakhstan):

Links

2007-02-28T13:21:00.003-08:00

RAILWAY INFORMATION

Official website of the Uzbek railways

Official website of the passenger traffic department of Uzbek railways

A railfan site covering the former USSR

More train pictures at the railfaneurope-site

Online timetable of the Austrian railways, covering also long distance trains in Uzbekistan

Some more information about railways in Uzbekistan at sairamtour.com

Europe to Asia via the Silkroute - information of the "man in seat 61"

TOURISTIC INFORMATION

General information about Uzbekistan at sairamtour.com

Lonelyplanet Central Asia discussion board

Uzbek embassy in Vienna, Austria

Interesting website about Karakalpakstan

We are proud to be a part of
Uzbek Sites Directory.
Add your site too!

International trains

2007-02-28T13:21:00.001-08:00

The following international trains operate to/from Uzbekistan:

train 5/6 Tashkent - Moskva, 4 times weekly
train 381/382: Tashkent - Ufa, 3 times weekly
train 365/366: Tashkent - Celjabinsk, once weekly
train 395/396: Tashkent - Kharkov, once weekly
train 321/322: Nukus - Samarkand - Tashkent - Almaty, once weekly
train 369/370: Tashkent - Almaty - Barnaul - Novosibirsk, every 4 days
train 331/332: Tashkent - Samarkand - Nukus - Saratov, once weekly
train 333/334: Tashkent - Samarkand - Urgench - Nukus - Saratov, once weekly
train 383/384: Tashkent - Samarkand - Nukus - St. Peterburg, once weekly
Kungrad - Bejneu, daily

Please check http://fahrplan.oebb.at/bin/query.exe/en or http://www.uzrailpass.uz/main.cgi?lan=e&section=10 for timings and dates of running!

Roundtrips

2007-02-28T05:59:00.000-08:00

Last update: 2011-01-18

TASHKENT - BUKHARA - SAMARKAND - KHIVA - TASHKENT (10 days starting on wednesday or friday)

1st day (wednesday or friday):
Sightseeing in Tashket.
In the evening take the overnight train to Bukhara at 20:00.

2nd day (thursday or saturday):
Arrival in Bukhara at 07:00.
Sightseeing in Bukhara.

3rd day (friday or sunday):
Sightseeing in Bukhara.

4th day (saturday or monday):
Train trip from Bukhara (08:05) to Samarkand (10:50)
Sightseeing in Samarkand.

5th day (sunday or tuesday):
Sightseeing in Samarkand.

6th day (monday or wednesday):
Sightseeing in Samarkand.
In the evening take the overnight train to Urgench at 22:47.

7th day (tuesday or thursday):
Arrival at Urgench at 12:42, then taxi or bus to Khiva (about 20 km from Urgench).
Sightseeing in Khiva.

8th day (wednesday or friday):
Sightseeing in Khiva.

9th day (thursday or saturday)
Sightseeing in Khiva untill noon. Then go back to Urgench to catch the train to Tashkent at 15:45.

10th day (friday or sunday):
Arrival in Tashkent at 10:35.

The roundtrip can also be done as a 9-day-trip with only one night (instead of two) in Khiva, if you start from Tashkent on friday or saturday (return to Tashkent on saturday or sunday).

If you choose kupe-cars for overnight travel and 2nd class seating for day-time trips, I'd expect the whole round-trip to cost about 50 EUR (for the tickets).

It is possible to organize other round trips and spend more or less time in the cities. Whereas trains between Tashkent, Samarkand and Bukhara run daily enabling a flexible trip, consider that the train to/from Urgench only runs on certain days. The above roundtrip suggestion works with the timetable of that train, but for other variants you might also think about the option of reaching Khiva via Turtgul (90 km from Khiva, trip takes about 2 hours by taxi).

TASHKENT - SAMARKAND - BUKHARA (7 days)

1st day (trip can be started daily):
Sightseeing in Tashkent

2nd day
Take the train to Samarkand (at 7:00 (daily ex Tue,Wed), 7:35 (daily ex monday), or 8:15 (daily)), where you arrive 3 and a half hours later.
Sightseeing in Samarkand in the afternoon.

3rd day
Sightseeing in Samarkand

4th day
Sightseeing in Samarkand in the morning. Take the train to Bukhara at 12:00.
Arrival in Bukhara at 14:45.
Sightseeing in Bukhara in the evening.

5th day:
Sightseeing in Bukhara.

6th day:
Sightseeing in Bukhara.
In the evening take the overnight train to Tashkent at 19:45.

7th day:
Arrival in Tashkent at 6:20.

If you choose kupe-cars for overnight travel and 2nd class seating for day-time trips, I'd expect the whole round-trip to cost about 30 EUR (for the tickets).

It is no problem to plan extra days wherever you want, as there are daily travel options between the towns. You can also consider taking the day-train from Bukhara back to Tashkent.

All necessary timetables for planning round trips like this can be found in the domestic timetables section.

Domestic timetables

2007-02-28T05:53:00.000-08:00

Last actualization: 2012-01-18. No major changes expected before june 2012. No guarantee for correctness.

You can download the timetable for the routes Tashkent - Samarkand - Bukhara, Tashkent/Samarkand - Urgench/Nukus/Kungrad and Tashkent - Karshi - Termez here:
http://www.file-upload.net/download-4040454/2012-01-18_UZB_timetable.xls.html
(just click "Download")

Trains and service offered

2007-02-28T05:30:00.000-08:00

There are basically three types of trains in Uzbekistan.

DAYTIME EXPRESS TRAINS

This trains run between Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara and Karshi:
no. 1/2 "Registon" Tashkent - Samarkand
no. 3/4 "Registon" Tashkent - Samarkand
no. 7/8 "Nasaf" Tashkent - Karshi
no. 9/10 "Sharq" Tashkent - Samarkand - Bukhara

This express trains have seating accomodation (usually 1st and 2nd class, alltough I didn't notice a big difference between 1st and 2nd class) similar to European trains. A snack and tea are included in the fare of such express trains.
There is usually a buffet-carriage.

The carriages of this trains are quite new and ususally air-conditioned. Express trains run fast: The 353 km between Tashkent and Samarkand can be travelled in less than 4 hours, the average speed is 92 km/h. Maximum speed is currently 120 km/h, which is maybe raised to 140 km/h from march 2011.
Uzbek railways have also ordered new Spanish trainsets (from Talgo company), eventually they will run at top speeds of 200 km/h or more, once they are operational.

OVERNIGHT TRAINS

Overnight trains run between Tashkent and Bukhara and also to the more remote parts of the country (Urgench, Nukus, Kungrad, Karshi, Termez, Andizhan). Also international trains (except the local train Kungrad - Bejneu) count to this category.
However, it is also possible to use such trains for shorter trips, e.g. from Tashkent to Samarkand.

Overnight-trains have up to four categories:

spalnyj vagon (SV) - sleeping car with 2-bed-compartments, 18 places per carriage

kupe (K) - sleeping car with 4-bed-compartments, 36 places per carriage

plazkartnyj (P) - open "dormitory-style" couchette car, 54 place per carriage

obshchyj (O) - same as plazkartnyj, but more people in one carriage, 81 places per carriage

SV and O might not be available on all trains. K and P are the basic-categories, which are always available.

Obshchyj is OK for shorter distances, but not recommended for overnight travel. Plazkartnyj allows a relatively good sleep and is recommended if you're on a tight budget.
Kupe is more spacious and offers more privacy. It's possible to lock the doors of the compartment. SV is similar to Kupe, but there are only two passengers per compartment, so you have even more privacy.

Every car has one or two conductors. They will check the tickets and take care about their passengers.
In every car there is a water-boiler, where you can take hot water at any time for preparing tee or instant coffee. This service is free. A small fee is usually payable for bed linen.

Restaurant cars are usually available on overnight trains.

LOCAL AND SUBURBAN TRAINS

Apart from the long distance trains there are also some local trains. These usually consist of plazkartnyj-cars used as obshchyj cars. Around Tashkent there are suburban trains ("Elektrichka") with seating accomodations.

Pictures of some Uzbek trains

News

2007-02-27T06:46:00.001-08:00

2012-01-16:
The first Talgo-trainset is now running on a regular basis (on weekends) between Tashkent and Samarkand. Travel time is now just 2h30.

The ordinary express trains (Sharq, Registon and Nasaf) has been slowed down a little bit (by 10 minutes) between Tashkent and Samarkand, they now make intermediate stops at Djizak and Gulistan.
However, the morning train (train no 3/4) from Samarkand to Tashkent and back in the afternoon seems to have been discontinued.

I've updated the domestic timetable section.

2011-09-08:
The two Talgo-trainsets ordered by Uzbek railway finally were delivered to Uzbek Railways in summer. Some photos are availaible here.
The top-speed of the trains is 250 km/h. Revenue service between Tashkent and Samarkand is expected to start soon, with travel times reduced from 3,5 hrs to just 2 hrs.
Not only new trains were bought, also the tracks between Tashkent and Samarkand were upgraded to enable higher speeds.
A more detailed report is available here

2011-06-27:
A new direct train now connects Bukhara and Urgench once weekly.
See http://www.uzrailpass.uz/main.cgi?lan=e&section=2&id=98

2011-02-09:
A new train from Tashkent to Denau (in the south of the country, close to Dushanbe) is running every other day since 2011-02-04.
It replaces the former Tashkent - Kitab train, but Kitab will continued to be served with direct waggons in the new train, which ware uncoupled at Karshi.

2011-01-18:
I've heard that the top-speeds of the express trains will be increased from 120 to 140 km/h from march. If this happens, further travel time reductions can be expected.

2010-06-01:
A new evening express train Tashkent - Samarkand as well as a new morning train Tashkent - Samarkand was introduced.

2009-12-24:
A new once-weekly Tashkent - Urgench - Shavat train was introduced in december 2009.
The dates of running of the other trains Tashkent - Urgench (3x weekly) and Tashkent - Kungrad (2x weekly) were changed.
Now there are 5 weekly trains between Tashkent and Urgench (3 to Urgench, 1 to Shavat and the international train to/from Saratov in Russia), which gives more flexibility for trips to Khiva.

2009-11-26:
Uzbek railways are currently finalizing negotiations with the spanish company Talgo about delivery of two high-speed trains till 2011.
They plan to run trains between Tashkent and Samarkand with speeds up to 250 km/h.

Source: http://www.rzd-partner.com/news/2009/11/26/348264.html

2009-08-01:
On weekends a 2nd overnight train between Tashkent and Bukhara has been introduced. It departs from Tashkent on friday evening and from Bukhara on sunday evening.

The Tashkent - Termez train no longer runs via Turkmenistan. Thanks to a new railway line between Tashkurgan and Kumkurgan the train can reach Termez without crossing through Turkmenistan. Passengers now save 7 hours and can use this train now without worrying about Turkmen transit visas.

The train 49/50 between Tashkent and Samarkand has been cancelled.

Please download the updated timetable at http://uzbekistan-railway.blogspot.com/2007/03/domestic-timetables.html

2009:
All trains depart/leave again from Tashkent main station.

2008-06-15:
A new train Tashkent - Nukus - St. Petersburg has been introduced. It runs once-weekly.

2008-06-01:
IMPORTANT:
Due to renovation works on the tracks near Tashkent main station all trains from Tashkent to the south or west (to Samarkand, Buchara, Urgench, Kungrad, Saratov) temporariliy depart/arrive at Tashkent Yuzhnyj station (Tashkent South) instead of Tashkent main station.
Also the transit-train Almaty - Tashkent - Nukus now serves Tashkent Yuzhnyj instead of Tashkent main station.

2008-03-20:
A new train Tashkent - Saratov via Urgench has been introduced. It runs once weekly.

2008-01-14:
A new train Tashkent - Almaty - Novosibirsk has been introduced. This train makes travelling betwenn Tashkent and Almaty more easier and also offers a possibility to reach Siberia directly from Uzbekistan (e.g. to connect with a trip on the Transsiberian railway). The new train runs every 4 days.

2008-01-10:
A new express train Tashkent - Samarkand - Karshi has been introduced. It is called "Nasaf".
Timetable:
Tashkent 7:35 - Samarkand 11:05/11:20 - Karshi 13:05
Karshi 15:35 - Samarkand 17:20/17:35 - Tashkent 21:07
The new train runs daily except saturdays and sundays.

The travel time of express train has been shortened between Tashkent and Samarkand by 10 minutes to 3h30 and between Tashkent and Buchara by 30 minutes to 6h30.

2007-05-04:
The speeds of express trains has been raised. The "Registon" now makes Tashkent - Samarkand in 3h40, whereas the travel time between Tashkent and Buchara on the "Sharq" has been cut by 30 minutes to exact 7 hours.