Astara–Rasht–Qazvin railway

The agreement on the route's construction was signed by three parties (Iran, Azerbaijan and Russia) in 2005.[1] The most challenging section from an engineering point of view was the construction of the railway between Rasht and Ghazvin which started in 2009 [2] and took nearly a decade to complete. On 22 November 2018, a test train ran for the first time on that 164 km section of the line[3] whose formal opening ceremony was held on 6 March 2019 with the Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Azerbaijani Minister of Economy Shahin Mustafayev plus officials from Pakistan and Iraq in attendance.[4][5] The line was a major engineering achievement including some 53 tunnels with a cumulative length of over 22 km.[6]

The bridge and short section of track between Azerbaijani and Iranian Astara, using dual gauges (1520mm and 1435mm) plus a 82.5m river bridge over the Astarachay River,[7] was completed in March 2017.[8] The first arrival of a train coming all the way from Russia to Iranian Astara was documented on February 8, 2018.[9] Immediately after putting into operation the section Astara (Azerbaijan) - Astara (Iran) in 2018, the Iranian section of the railway together with the Astara station and the newly built cargo terminal was leased to Azerbaijan for a period of 25 years. During the first 11 months of operation, around 270,000 tons of cargo was transported via this railway[10] growing to 364,000 tons in 2019.[11]

As of early 2019, the construction of the 130 km Rasht-Astara leg remained at a 'study and review stage' but with approval granted in Iran as of January [12] and around half of the estimated cost ($1.1 billion) secured by a preferential loan of $500 million from Azerbaijan. Some press reports claimed that track laying should be complete by around 2023[13] whilst others hinted that as of the ECO meeting of 17 December 2019,[14] no physical construction had yet commenced.[15] In November 2020 the Iranian ambassador to Russia was quoted as calling for a rapid completion of the Astara Rasht line as an economic imperative.[16]

As of April 2022, only the first section between Rasht and Anzali Caspian Port was reported as expected to open in 2023,[17] with the remainder of the route from just south-east of Bandar Anzali to Astara taking a further 5 years at a cost of €1.6B jointly financed with Russia.[18]

• Baku–Tbilisi–Kars railway
• Pipelines in Azerbaijan