Kuryk – Alat: Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan work on 120-railcar ferries

Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan are working on a project to build ferries able to carry up to 120 railcars at once, Kassym Tlepov, deputy chairman of the Railway and Water Transport Committee of Kazakhstan's Ministry of Transport, said on 1 October.

According to him, the ASCO ferries currently operating between Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan take a maximum of 44 railcars. Trains are therefore split: 44 cars are loaded at Kuryk and shipped to Alat, and the next ferry returns for the remaining 15–20 cars while the first part of the train waits at Alat. The new ferries are designed for two full trains per sailing, which Tlepov said could cut port processing time by up to three times and speed up delivery along the whole route.

Kazakhstan also plans to widen private-sector participation in maritime shipping through a vessel financial leasing programme, so that container shipping is not limited to Kazmortransflot and ASCO.

For project shipments that cross the Caspian as complete trains of equipment, moving a train in one sailing makes transit times on the Kuryk – Alat leg, and onward to Georgia and Türkiye, easier to plan.

Sources: Trend, 1 October 2026; Infranews, 5 October 2026.