Introduction
In 2005 Uzbekistan had 3,950 kilometers of rail lines, about 620 kilometers of which were electrified.
Uzbekistan railways offer a comfortable, reliable and cheap way to explore the touristic highlights of the country. Several new trains have been introduced in the past years.
The main line Tashkent – Samarkand – Bukhara is served by two express trains named “Registon” and “Sharq”.
The “Registon” brings you from Tashkent in 3h30min to Samarkand and the “Sharq” makes the 600-km-journey Tashkent – Bukhara (with intermediate stop in Samarkand) in about 6,5 hours.
A daily overnight train from Tashkent to Bukhara offers the possibility to travel during the night and win one day.
Comfortable sleeping cars allow a good sleep. Overnight trains also run from Tashkent and Samarkand to Urgench (3 times weekly) and to Nukus – Kungrad (2 times weekly), so it’s also possible to travel to Khiva (30 kilometers from Urgench, taxi/bus available) or to the Aral lake (Moynaq, 70 km from Kungrad) by train.
International trains are available to Almaty in Kazakhstan, Moscow, Ufa, Celjabinsk, St. Peterburg, Novosibirsk in Russia (so you can link to the Transsiberian railway) and to Kharkov in Ukraine.
From Almaty connecting trains are provided to Urumchi in China. With only one change of trains in Moscow you can travel overland from Central and Western Europe (Berlin, Cologne, Vienna, Prague, Budapest, Helsinki, etc.) to Tashkent.
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