This year we celebrate 145 years since the beginning of the construction works at the Transcaucasian line, one of the largest and breathtaking railway routes in the world which competes the Russian Trans-Siberian or the Trans-Continental in America.
Cradle of Euroasian civilizations, Caucasus has always been a connecting platform between Europe, Central Asia and the Middle East. The need to build a communication way to link the main ports of the Black Sea and Caspian Sea emerged immediately after the appearance of the railways and nothing could bring hopes down, not even mountainous relief.
The idea was to connect the most important Russian port from the Black Sea, Novorosissk, to the Port of Baku in Azerbaijan.
Works were initiated in 1865, the rail segment Poti-Zestafoni on the corridor’s first section Poti-Tibilisi was launched on August 14, 1871, the corridor being completed a year later. The development of oil fields in Baku area stimulated works, the eastern section of the corridor up to Baku and, implicitly the Tibilisi-Baku connection, being opened to regular services. The construction of the corridor was finalized in 1949, together with the finalization of the last section of the line, that between Sukhumi and Adler. The electrification of all Georgian sections was completed in 1957, while that of Armenian sections in 1972.
It is important to remember the contribution of every country in building the line, since workers, engineers and designers from all Caucasian states, as well as all countries living together in Caucasus have participated to the construction works.
Thus the Port of Novorossik was connected with the Port of Poti, via Krasnodar, the length of the actual Transcaucasian corridor reaching 2,346 km (in 1990) but whose extensions connect to important Russian, Turkish and Iranian corridors and which consists in a vital communication network to all the countries in the area and a significant economic potential for future developments in the region.
After the fall of the USSR, the line has been divided between the resulted countries in Caucasus, Russia, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. However, the route continued to be the most important transport route in the entire region, the new national networks being designed and thought around the Transcaucasian.
Traffic on the Transcaucasian has often been affected by conflicts in the region, a relevant example being the situation of cross-border connections between Caucasian states, which also endangered the integrity of the Transcaucasian, which remained a silent witness to the troubled history of the region.
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