KTZ: track smart diagnostics in 1–2 minutes, Trip Optimizer on 425 locomotives and a hidden-transit detection system

Kazakhstan's national railway company KTZ is running three digital projects, the 24KZ channel reported on 26 October 2026, citing Gennadiy Shipovskikh, adviser to the chairman of KTZ.

The first is smart track diagnostics. According to Shipovskikh, a manual inspection by track crews takes about 14 days to identify defects on a section, while the system collects the same information in 1–2 minutes and sends it to the control centre, so repair budgets can be directed to exactly the right sections.

The second is Trip Optimizer, installed on 425 locomotives to save fuel. The third is a system for detecting hidden transit in freight, now in pilot operation, which helps prevent shadow schemes; according to the company, auditors have already stopped 389 such cases. Starlink has also been installed on more than 1,500 cars and is available on 51 routes.

For rail forwarding clients this is a step toward more predictable network operations. Gateway Logistics forwards wagons, containers and container flatcars: Khorgos to Almaty, Astana and all regions of Kazakhstan, and Khorgos/Altynkol and Dostyk — Alashankou to Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Iran and Turkmenistan.

Source: 24KZ, 26 October 2026.