Trainhopping across Uzbekistan (Patreon)

In March 2023 I left Turkey to explore some areas of Central Asia that I had not explored yet. I made it to Almaty from Istanbul and stayed at my friend's place for something like a week. Then I went on a short trip to Turkestan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan to explore some authentic places of the former Soviet Union. The destination of the final journey was supposed to be Uzbekistan, so I went there after taking a short rest again in Almaty. The idea of the trip to Uzbekistan was to explore some of the local attractions and ride some freight trains.

In this episode you'll see two of my fairly unlucky attempts to ride freights in Uzbekistan and exploration of different places between that attempts. Although the railway system of Uzbekistan was largely inherited from Soviet Union, it has been significantly improved since Uzbekistan declared its independence.

First of all, modern-day Uzbekistan is known for the high-speed railway stretch Tashkent-Samarkand-Buxara. This is the only high-speed railway in the surrounding area of thousands of miles but unlike some railways of the same type in Japan, China or Turkey, the Uzbekistan high-speed trains share tracks with slower passenger and freight trains. I'm sure it is beneficial for any kind of passenger service but it certainly negatively affects cargo corridors because freight trains can barely squeeze in the gaps between passenger trains. At the same time, one of the features of a high-speed railway is its isolation from the surrounding area. I mean such railway stretches are often separated by fences and barriers, some even secured heavier than regular railways. And that turned out to be the case of Uzbekistan where fast and slow trains have to coexist.

ATTENTION: watching this video may discourage you to travel across Uzbekistan by freight trains haha