Turkestan–Siberia Railway

Turkestan–Siberia Railway

The Turkestan-Siberia route.
Locale	Kazakhstan
Dates of operation	1929–current
Track gauge	1,520 mm (4 ft 11 27⁄32 in) broad gauge

The Turkestan–Siberian Railway (commonly abbreviated as the Turk–Sib, Kazakh: Түрксіб; Russian: Турксиб) is a 1,520 mm (4 ft 11 ²⁷⁄₃₂ in) broad gauge railway that connects Central Asia with Siberia. It starts north of Tashkent in Uzbekistan at Arys, where it branches off from the Trans-Aral Railway. It heads roughly northeast through Shymkent, Taraz, Bishkek (on a spur) to the former Kazakh capital of Almaty. There it turns northward to Semey before crossing the Russian border. It passes through Barnaul before ending at Novosibirsk, where it meets the West Siberian portion of the Trans-Siberian railway. The bulk of construction works was undertaken between 1926 and 1931.

The idea of a railway between Siberia and Russian Turkestan was aired as early as 1886, but it was supplanted by that of a more practicable line between Tashkent and Orenburg in the Urals. On 15 October 1896 the Verny town duma set up a commission to examine the feasibility of building a Turkestan–Siberia Railway. It was expected that the line would facilitate transport of cotton from Turkestan to Siberia and cheap Siberian grain from Russia to the Fergana Valley. An eastern branch would enhance Russia's military and economic presence on the Chinese border.