By Kamal Ali
The Ministry of Transportation wasn’t joking when it announced the start of reforms in the country’s railway system a few years ago. To be convinced of this, you need to take the Baku-Balakan passenger train at least once, better in a coupe.
Passengers may well remember the old and filthy rail cars produced by the former Democratic Republic of Germany. Windows would not open in those cars, mice would be everywhere, and toilets would smell, which is why passengers preferred coupes far off the toilet.
Conductors would offer the coupes close to the toilet to people “without tickets” at lower prices.
Anyway, things have changed now. Cars have been fully renovated in Ukraine. The interior of the cars are clean and shining. No more unpleasant smells. Clean bed sheets are provided in plastic bags.
Conductors are all female. Male conductors were made redundant this year despite a few protests and strikes.
The conductors are usually nice and friendly. They offer really good tea in crystal clean glasses in coasters with candy for just 20 qapiks (0.2 manat).
The toilet is clean. Soap and towels are available.
A ticket for the 400-km journey from Baku to the northwestern town of Qax on the Georgian border is just 8 manat (10 dollars), which is not expensive at all. There is a nice view of the Caucasus mountains and pastureland from the clean windows of the coupe.
The only drawback is probably the speed: it takes you around 12 hours to travel 400 kilometers. It is very slow by European standards where you can make it in 1.5 to 2 hours on a high-speed train.
Forget about Europe: even in neighboring Russia, trains are much faster. In Azerbaijan, you can only see a high-speed train on the website of Azerbaijan’s railway administration.
Railway officials attribute the low speed (40 kmh to 70 kmh) to the poor state of the rails and sleepers. You can see decaying wooden sleepers in some places. Therefore, a speeder train to take you from one end of Azerbaijan to the other in just 1.5 to 2 hours seems like a dream that will take long to come true.
Bakudaily.az
