Uzbekistan will launch new high-speed electric train services connecting Khiva, Bukhara and Tashkent from September 9, closing a long-standing gap in rail access to one of the country’s most visited historic cities, according to the Tourism Committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan.
Uzbekistan’s so-called golden triangle of Silk Road cities, Khiva, Bukhara and Samarkand, has for years been unevenly served by rail. Tashkent, Samarkand and Bukhara have been linked since 2015 by the Afrosiyob high-speed service, extending a route first launched between Tashkent and Samarkand in 2011. Khiva, more than 450km further west across the Kyzylkum desert, has remained comparatively harder to reach, typically requiring a domestic flight or a long road journey from Bukhara. The new service gives travellers a direct rail link between the two cities for the first time on this scale, opening up more flexible multi-city itineraries across the country’s most popular heritage circuit.
Modern CRRC-Dalian electric trains will begin running on the Khiva-Bukhara-Khiva route from September 9. Each train has five carriages with a total capacity of 415 economy class seats. Train No. 707 will depart Khiva at 09:55, arriving in Bukhara at 14:32, running daily except Tuesday. The return service, Train No. 706, will depart Bukhara at 15:45 and arrive in Khiva at 20:25, running daily except Monday, giving travellers same-day connections in either direction.
A separate new service linking Bukhara and Tashkent will launch from September 14. Train No. 701 will run every Monday, departing Bukhara at 15:17 and arriving in Tashkent at 21:22. Train No. 702 will begin operating from September 15, running every Tuesday, departing Tashkent at 10:05 and arriving in Bukhara at 15:17.
Khiva’s walled inner city, Itchan Kala, has been inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1990, while Bukhara’s historic centre has held the same status since 1993, together with Samarkand’s Registan and surrounding monuments. All three cities sit within the same broad tourism corridor promoted by Uzbekistan’s Tourism Committee, and improved rail connectivity has been a recurring theme in the country’s efforts to extend average visitor stays and encourage multi-city itineraries rather than single-destination trips.
The Tourism Committee said the new services are intended to provide greater convenience for domestic and international travellers, expand opportunities to visit Uzbekistan’s historic cities and strengthen transport connectivity between regions, allowing tourists to plan visits to the country’s tourist centres more easily.