{"id":207626,"date":"2025-04-29T16:58:38","date_gmt":"2025-04-29T06:58:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.railfreight.com\/?p=61956"},"modified":"2025-04-29T16:58:38","modified_gmt":"2025-04-29T06:58:38","slug":"the-middle-corridor-is-on-the-way-to-getting-a-new-branch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=207626","title":{"rendered":"The Middle Corridor is on the way to getting a new branch"},"content":{"rendered":"

Development on the Middle Corridor, which connects China and Europe via rail through Central Asia, is in full swing. A part of that development is the appearance of alternative routes. In the Caucasus, that means that Iran may soon become a transit country on the corridor for a short stretch.<\/strong>
\n<\/span>On an Iranian – Azerbaijani business forum, the latter country’s president Ilham Aliyev announced that it is inching closer to a new rail connection with Iran. By next year, Azerbaijan could finish a line to the border in the southwest. It has also already started construction work on a bridge to cross the border river.<\/p>\n

With the development of this new line, Azerbaijan hopes to connect the exclave region Nakhchivan to its rail network. If Iran cooperates and develops rail infrastructure to connect mainland Azerbaijan to its exclave (the “Araz corridor”), it could turn into a new international rail corridor altogether.<\/p>\n

From Iran to T\u00fcrkiye<\/h2>\n

The prevailing route for freight on the Middle Corridor currently goes through Azerbaijan and into Georgia. From there, it either crosses the Black Sea or continues towards Europe through T\u00fcrkiye. But now, it seems that a more southern route through Iran and Nakhchivan could become an alternative. Freight could then take a (geographically speaking) shorter route into T\u00fcrkiye, bypassing Georgia.<\/p>\n

That would, however, require a rail connection from Nakhchivan into T\u00fcrkiye. The latter, for its part, has already started working<\/a> on exactly that. If both the Iranian corridor and the Turkish line reach completion, the Middle Corridor is going to be one route richer.<\/p>\n

Zangezur corridor<\/h2>\n

The corridor through Iran is not the most efficient option for Azerbaijan. Ideally, it would like to see the Zangezur corridor come to fruition. That would be a transport corridor through the southernmost area of arch enemy Armenia, which is opposed to the project for political reasons.<\/p>\n

Azerbaijan is not the only country interested in the Zangezur corridor. Central Asian countries, which play a big role in the Middle Corridor as transit countries, also see potential benefits. The route could slash the transit distance by 350 kilometres and boost capacity on the corridor to Europe significantly.<\/p>\n