On June 2, 2026, the 180 kilometer upgrade project of the Baku Tbilisi Kars railway in Georgia was officially completed in Akhalkalaki. This shortest railway connecting China and Europe has seen its freight capacity increase from 1 million tons per year to 5 million tons, a fivefold increase. Georgian Prime Minister Kobashizer, Azerbaijani Minister of Transport Nabiyev and Türkiye Minister of Transport Ulaloglu jointly attended the ceremony.

180 kilometer upgrade

BTK railway, with a total length of 826 km, was opened in 2017, connecting Baku, Azerbaijan, Tbilisi, Georgia and Kars, Türkiye, and is the core line of the Middle Corridor. This upgrade focuses on the road section within Georgia, with a total of 153 kilometers of existing tracks repaired, 27 kilometers of new road sections constructed, and 13 stations, 55 bridges, 8 traction substations, and over 320 supporting buildings built simultaneously. At the Akhalkalaki hub, the 1520mm wide gauge and 1435mm standard gauge can be interchanged, allowing goods to flow across borders without the need for reloading - this is exactly the seamless connection pursued by the land port system.

The real test only began after the doubling of transportation capacity

The statement of Ulaloglu, the Minister of Transport of Türkiye, is noteworthy: "The world's concern is not how many kilometers BTK has built, but the quality of service, transport efficiency and user confidence. ”This sentence points out the real pain point of the Central Corridor: transportation capacity is only the foundation, running fast, steadily, and making customers trust is the key. Keywords: the Belt and Road, freight

For inland ports such as Zhengzhou and Xi'an, the BTK upgrade means an additional alternative route directly to Europe. When the transportation capacity increases from 1 million tons to 5 million tons, the next step is to solve how to truly turn this line into a logistics product that customers are willing to pay for.Editor/Cheng Liting