Russia and Kazakhstan agreed on route of Eurasia railway corridor

An intergovernmental commission on cooperation between Kazakhstan and Russia, during its 19th meeting in Aktobe, Kazakhstan, agreed upon the proposed route for the Eurasia high-speed cargo and passenger railway corridor.

The Moscow-Kazan-Ekaterinburg-Chelyabinsk-Gorbunovo-Petropavlovsk-Kokshetau-Astana-Karaganda-Balkhash-Almaty (Kapshagai) -Altynkol direction is used as the basis for further work. The last station of the Almaty branch of Kazakhstani Railways is located near the Chinese border, there is a "dry port" near it and Khorgos, an international center of cross-border cooperation.

By the end of this year, a working group will be created from representatives of Russia and Kazakhstan to integrate efforts to implement the project, the team will develop a technical task for the preparation of a feasibility study for the project.

Preliminary feasibility study was presented by the Russian Railways (RZD) in August, the cost of the project was estimated at 7.84 trillion rubles. It is assumed that the speed of traffic along the new corridor which is 10 thousand kilometers long will be up to 300 kilometers per hour. The completion term for the project was set for 2035.

The starting phase of the Eurasia corridor should be the construction of a high-speed Moscow-Kazan highway, scheduled for 2018-2023. As Alexander Misharin, vice-president of the Russian Railways, declared in mid-August, the construction of the road should be completed by the end of 2017, after which construction will be opened on a 172-kilometer stretch from Zheleznodorozhnaya station to Vladimir station.