Rail transport in Azerbaijan is operated by the national state-owned railway company Azerbaijan Railways (Azerbaijani: Azərbaycan Dəmir Yolları). The railway network consists of 2,918 km (1,813 mi), its gauge is 1,520 mm (4 ft 11+27⁄32 in) (Russian broad gauge), 815 km (506 mi) are double track and 1,272 km (790 mi) are electrified at 3 kV (3,000 V) DC.^[1]

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Azerbaijan
ES2-003 (1), Baku
Operation
National railway	Azerbaijan Railways
System length
Total	2,932 kilometres (1,822 mi)
Double track	815 kilometres (506 mi)
Electrified	1,272 kilometres (790 mi)
Freight only	810 kilometres (500 mi)
Track gauge
Main	1,520 mm (4 ft 11+27⁄32 in)
Electrification
25 kV 50 Hz	Main network
Map

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Railways take up 16.7% of Azerbaijan's freight traffic flows. Throughout 2005–2009, a massive railway modernization program was initiated.^[2] Expansions costing $795 million were announced in 2012 to respond to the growing demand for rail transport in the country.^[3] Stadler Rail and local partner International Railway Distribution LLC announced the formation of a 51:49 joint venture on July 17, 2014.^[4]

So far 2,932 km of rail tracks including 2,117 km of carrier service lines, 810 km of industrial lines have been laid in Azerbaijan. In 1988, during the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, territories of Azerbaijan with 240 km of rail tracks were occupied by Armenia. The railway link connecting the city Nakhchivan of Azerbaijan with other Azerbaijani regions was broken in 1991.^{[citation needed]}

Azerbaijan Railways serves 176 stations. 2 of them (Bilajari and Shirvan) are completely automated^{[citation needed]}. 12 stations have container yards^{[citation needed]}. Keshle, Ganja and Khirdalan stations are able to supply high cube cargo containers.^{[citation needed]}

1,272 km of the total railway routes are electrified at 3 kV (3,000 V) DC. 1,126 km of railway roads are supplied with full automatic blocks. Just 479 km of railway links are provided with centralized dispatchers. There are no high-speed trains in Azerbaijan.^[8]

• Russia: there is a direct Moscow–Baku train which runs 3 times weekly. The train passes through Volgograd, Astrakhan, and Makhachkala, and takes 3 nights. There are also direct trains from some other towns in Russia to Baku.^{[citation needed]}
• Iran: construction of the Astara (Iran) - Astara (Azerbaijan) railway is due to be completed in 2021. The Gazvin-Rasht-Astara railway route will integrate the national rail networks of Azerbaijan, Iran, and Russia. Azerbaijan allocated a preferential loan of $500 million for the construction of the line.^[9]
• Turkey: the Baku–Tbilisi–Kars railway, connecting Turkey, Georgia, and Azerbaijan, began operating in 2017.^[10]

Azerbaijan is positioning itself as a transportation hub for east–west, north–south for freight trade in the region^{[vague][citation needed]}.

The Baku–Tbilisi–Kars rail link, with a capacity to transport 1 million passengers and 5 million tons of freight a year, connects 3 countries (Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Turkey). At the same time, it is a main freight and passenger link between Europe and China. The BTK Railway will also connect Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan to continental Europe.^{[citation needed]}

Negotiations on the Baku–Tbilisi–Kars railway began in 2005. In 2007 the construction of the railway was commenced. The importance of the project is offering the most cost-effective transportation for the logistics sector that seeks a more economical way of delivering goods to target markets. Initially, the railway will carry nearly 1 million passengers and 6.5 million tons of freight a year. But in the near future freight transportation potential will be up to 50 million tons a year^[vague].^{[citation needed]}

On October 30, 2017, an inauguration ceremony for the Baku–Tbilisi–Kars (BTK) railroad was held in Alyat, 70 kilometres (43 mi) southwest of Baku. The European Union called the opening of the railway "a major step in transport interconnections linking the European Union, Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Central Asia".^{[citation needed]}

Approximately 504 kilometres (313 mi) of the BTK railway passes through Azerbaijan, with 246 kilometres (153 mi) through Georgia and 79 kilometres (49 mi) through Turkey.^[15][16]

The North–South corridor, with a length of 7,200 kilometres (4,500 mi), is designed to carry more than 20 million tons per year from India, Iran and other Persian Gulf countries to the territory of Russia (the Caspian Sea) and further on to Northern and Western Europe^{[citation needed]}.

The agreement among Russia, Iran, and India on the North–South International Transport Corridor was signed in Saint Petersburg (Russia) in September 2000. Azerbaijan joined the project in 2005.^{[citation needed]}

Through the North–South Corridor route, Northern Europe and Southeast Asia will be connected. Presently Iran carries out construction work on completion of the missing link of the Qazvin–Rasht–Astara road and railway (205 kilometres (127 mi)) including the Rasht–Astara section (164 kilometres (102 mi)).^{[citation needed]}

369 kilometres (229 mi) of bridges and railway lines to link the southern sections to the northern ones will be constructed within the framework of the project.^{[citation needed]}

The Rasht–Astara section of the North–South Corridor route was completed in 2016. The remaining construction of the Qazvin to Rasht rail route is nearing completion^[when?].^{[citation needed]}

The current sea route via the frontiers of Western Europe, through the Mediterranean and the Suez Canal, takes 40 days. The North–South Corridor will reduce transport time by half. According to the project, the goods that will be transported via the corridor from India to Russia and Europe will be delivered in 12 days. The annual transit through Azerbaijan will consist of millions of tonnes of freight.^[17]

• Azerbaijan Railways
• Baku Metro
• Transport in Azerbaijan
• Trams in Baku
• Trams in Ganja, Azerbaijan
• Trams in Sumqayit
• Rail transport in the Soviet Union
• Zangezur corridor