Can anyone recommend some rail journeys in Central Asia?

[Amateurish]

I am planning a trip to the Stans in June with my son. Can anyone suggest any great rail journeys? We particularly enjoy sleeper trains.

We are currently lloking at Dushanbe - Tashkent, Tashkent - Almaty, Almaty - Astana. But all suggestions welcome.

 

[dutchflyer]

Well, in short: when a-sleep there is little to see.......
Have been in Kazak + Kyrgiz-to mostly to visit their (then) tram+ trolleybus systems pre covid. Railways are the usual ex-soviet style cheap: platskart (rolling dorm) or a little more upmarket: kupey. In fact about any main connection there is overnite-frequency is often also not more as just that. Plus that of course, even now, all main cities will have their direct train/or at least coaches to the capital of the red world, Mockba. Kazak also had-and probably thus still will have, Talgo-type sleepers.
Cannot remember much that was as far as trains go worth the extra mile.
There is a splendid site with forum, mostly aimed at do-yourself bekpek stypes: caravanistan. Very good in uptodate info in what borders are open, what connections exist and also what visa you may need and how to organize them. I never see this mentioned, so take a peek there first -much info may be there already.

 

[W-on-Sea]

I travelled on the "Silk Road Orient Express" sleeper car attached to a train from Tashkent to Bukhara about 10 years ago, and on daytime (Talgo) trains between Bukhara and Samarkand, and Samarkand and Tashkent. I highly recommend a visit to those two Silk Road cities, even if I understand there may have been some questionable architectural projects in both of them more recently.

 

[stadler]

If you are looking for an odd interesting railway than the Stepnogorsk Railway in Kazakhstan is one i would highly recommend. I found this really interesting. It is odd railway mainly built for serving industrial plants and it still runs today. It still uses very old ER22 units. Unfortunately it is not the easiest to get to and is isolated from the rest of the network but it makes for a very interesting visit.

If you are in Kyrgyzstan then the Bishkek to Balykchy (Issyk Kul) is recommended. It is a very scenic route. It ends alongside a big lake that is very popular in the summer but can be great to visit any time of the year. They use locomotive hauled stock on this route.

If you are in Tajikistan then the Tashkent to Kulob train is recommended. Another very scenic interested route. They use some interesting stock on this route. Sometimes an old Estonian Railways DR1 unit and other times it is locomotive hauled stock.

 

[MarcVD]

Lots of interesting stuff to see in Uzbekistan. There has been a lot of new line construction going on in the last 30 years. At the USSR breakout, UZ railways inherited a network broken into five disjoint portions, because of lines crossing the old republic borders. They have now finished reuniting their network a few years ago, and it is now possible to travel the whole network without having to cross a border. This was a huge effort.

If you want to witness that feat, there are two lines that are worth looking : Angren - Pap via the new Quamchik tunnel, which reunited the Ferghana valley with the main network, and Dehkanabad - Kumkurgan, in the south, on the line to Termez (Afghan border, but nothing to worry).

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 5 Feb 2025 ==

If you are in Tajikistan then the Tashkent to Kulob train is recommended. Another very scenic interested route. They use some interesting stock on this route. Sometimes an old Estonian Railways DR1 unit and other times it is locomotive hauled stock.

Tashkent to Kulob ? Via Termez ? Does such a train really exist ?

 

[stadler]

Lots of interesting stuff to see in Uzbekistan. There has been a lot of new line construction going on in the last 30 years. At the USSR breakout, UZ railways inherited a network broken into five disjoint portions, because of lines crossing the old republic borders. They have now finished reuniting their network a few years ago, and it is now possible to travel the whole network without having to cross a border. This was a huge effort.

If you want to witness that feat, there are two lines that are worth looking : Angren - Pap via the new Quamchik tunnel, which reunited the Ferghana valley with the main network, and Dehkanabad - Kumkurgan, in the south, on the line to Termez (Afghan border, but nothing to worry).

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 5 Feb 2025 ==


Tashkent to Kulob ? Via Termez ? Does such a train really exist ?

Sorry that was my mystake. Dushanbe to Kulob is what i meant to write. I was getting my cities mixed up. A train from Dushanbe to Kulob exists.

 

[Gag Halfrunt]

If you are looking for an odd interesting railway than the Stepnogorsk Railway in Kazakhstan is one i would highly recommend. I found this really interesting. It is odd railway mainly built for serving industrial plants and it still runs today. It still uses very old ER22 units. Unfortunately it is not the easiest to get to and is isolated from the rest of the network but it makes for a very interesting visit.

Nonstop Eurotrip made a video about it recently.

We'll be riding the Stepnogorsk Railway in northern Kazakhstan that is totally isolated from the rest of the country's network. The tickets on these ER22 Elektrichka trains are super cheap for this 47 minute ride - but getting there was much more expensive - so come with me and let's check it out together!