The "E" rail network extended to
Caucasus and Central Asia
Geneva, 18 December 2001
As from 1 January 2002, the main international railway
lines in the Caucasus and Central Asia will be an integral part of the
European rail network or "E" rail network defined in the European
Agreement on Main International Railway Lines (AGC).
Extended itineraries include the east-west reference lines:
E 20 from Moscow, Nizhniy Novgorod, Yekaterinenburg, Omsk and ending in
Vladivostok; E 50 through Ukraine, Volgograd, Makat, Aralsk, Almaty and
ending in Druzhba in Kazakhstan; E 60 from Batumi (Georgia), via Baku
(Azerbaijan), crossing the Caspian Sea to Ashgabat (Turkmenistan), Buchara and
Tashkent (Uzbekistan) and connecting to E 50 in Arys (Kazakhstan). This
entire network is further completed with a number of branches ensuring even
better north-south coverage.
With this extension, the United Nations Economic Commission
for Europe (UNECE), in particular its Inland Transport Committee, has reached
an important milestone in its effort to integrate the railway lines of its
Caucasus and central Asian member countries into the AGC network.
The AGC, concluded in 1985 under the auspices of the UNECE,
comprises not only all railway lines of international importance in Europe,
but also the infrastructure parameters to which "E" railway lines
should conform together with the numbering system according to which
"E" railway lines are designated.
When developed up to the standards foreseen in the AGC, the
new "E" railway lines as part of Euro-Asian transport links
will make easier international transport and trade with those countries,
thereby facilitating the integration of the economies of these countries into
the European and the world economy.
The following 22 countries are Parties to the AGC: Belarus,
Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, France,
Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Luxembourg, Poland, Republic of Moldova,
Romania, Russian Federation, Slovakia, Slovenia, The former Yugoslav Republic
of Macedonia, Turkey, Ukraine, and Yugoslavia. The latest information on the
status of the AGC and signatory Parties is available on Internet at: http://untreaty.un.org/
The UNECE is the Geneva-based European Regional Commission
of the United Nations. Its membership comprises 55 countries including
all European countries, the United States of America, Canada, Israel and the
Republics of the Caucasus and Central Asia.
For any further information regarding the international
legal instruments in the field of transport administered by the Transport
Division of the UNECE please contact:
José Capel Ferrer, Director,
Helmut Lehmacher or Miodrag Pesut
Transport Division
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE)
Palais des Nations
CH - 1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland
Telephone: +41(0)22 917 24 00, 917 24 34 or 917 41 36
Fax: +41(0)22 917 00 39
E-mail: [email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
Map (pdf)
Ref: ECE/TRANS/01/12