railway

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A train yard in Khashuri. Mariam Nikuradze/OC Media.

Armenia

Podcast | Georgia's vanishing suburban trains and Armenia's pricey early military discharge

by OC Media

•1 min read

In this week’s episode of the Caucasus Digest, OC Media’s Editor-in-Chief, Robin Fabbro, talks to Mariam Nikuradze about her latest photostory about elektrichkas, or suburban trains, in Georgia. Read More: * In Pictures | Georgia’s shrinking train lines Ani Avetisyan talks about a new bill pushed by the Armenian Ministry of Defense to allow conscripts to avoid military service in exchange for a fee of $61,000. Read More: * Armenian MoD proposes $61,000 fee to

Tbilisi-Borjomi elektrichka at the Khashuri railway station. Photo: Mariam Nikuradze/OC Media.

Georgia

In Pictures | Georgia’s shrinking train lines

by Mariam Nikuradze

•5 min read

Once a month and like clockwork, 29-year-old Guram used to take the Kutaisi-Batumi train to visit his sister and her family in Ureki, 60 kilometres north of Batumi along the black sea coast. His journey always started in his hometown of Rioni, south of Kutaisi, which doubles as a bustling train station connecting routes throughout Georgia. He travels on the ‘elektrichka’, a class of suburban train in much of the post-Soviet world that make frequent stops connecting villages and towns as wel

Khashuri Station in Georgia. Photo: Robin Fabbro/OC Media.

Abkhazia

Is an interconnected Caucasus on the horizon?

by Hamida Giyasbayli

•10 min read

The new status quo in the aftermath of the second Nagorno-Karabakh war has opened new possibilities for regional cooperation. While the three South Caucasian countries are still trying to come to terms with the new reality, their powerful neighbours dream big of new, highly profitable transport corridors of global significance. For three decades, the South Caucasus has been divided by barbed wire, trenches, and the other physical manifestations of mutually disputed and unrecognised lines of di

A railway tunnel in the village of Psyrtskha. Photo: Dominik K Cagara/OC Media.

Abkhazia

Abkhazia seeks to revive its rail link to the outside world

by Marianna Kotova

•6 min read

The Second Nagorno-Karabakh War has shaken up the status quo in the Caucasus, with one result being the impending reopening of transport links. Keen not to be left isolated and disconnected, Abkhazia’s political class are pushing for the reopening of their own long-dormant railway line, going from Sochi to Yerevan and Turkey. On 11 February, a delegation of Abkhazian MPs travelled to Moscow to discuss the reopening of the railway link connecting Russia to Georgia, Armenia, and Turkey through A

Armenia

Russian Railways threatens to pull out of Armenia

by Volodymyr Soboliev

•4 min read

Russian Railways has threatened to pull out of Armenia’s rail sector in response to an investigation by the Armenian government, triggering the latest row between the two countries. Armenia’s railways currently belong to Russia. But likely, not for long. News broke this week that the state-owned Russian Railways (RR) company is considering terminating its agreement with the Armenian Government over a criminal investigation into its subsidiary, South Caucasus Railway (SCR). The story

Georgia

Railway workers quit en masse after wildcat strike in central Georgia

by OC Media

•4 min read

Sixty railway construction workers at an international company in Georgia’s central Shida Kartli region have left their job after unsuccessfully demanding a raise. The walkout followed a brief unsanctioned strike the previous day. The workers in Khashuri Municipality left the job following failed negotiations with their employer, China Railway 23rd Bureau Group. The employees were working on the construction of a railway tunnel in the village of Kvishkheti. The tunnel is part of the ea

Freedom of the Press

Rustavi 2 crew attacked by railway company employees in Georgia

by OC Media

•3 min read

A Rustavi 2 journalist and cameraman were attacked by employees of a railway construction company near Khashuri, in central Georgia on Wednesday. The news crew said employees confiscated their cameras, demanded they delete footage, and beat them. The company, China Railway 23rd Bureau, said their workers were trying to ‘ensure the safety’ of the journalists who ‘trespassed and provoked the workers’. Rustavi 2, an opposition-leaning TV channel, reported on Wednesday that journalist Eka