Start your day informed with AnewZ Morning Brief. Here are the top news stories for the 31st of July, covering the latest developments.
China has launched a new direct rail freight route to Turkmenistan, expanding its transport links with Central Asia as trade and investment across the region continue to grow. The service will carry Chinese industrial and consumer goods to the Caspian region.
Türkiye and Saudi Arabia are aiming to establish a railway connection linking the two countries through Syria and Jordan within the next three to four years, according to Turkish Transport Minister Abdulkadir Uraloğlu.
New high-speed trains launched between Uzbekistan’s capital Tashkent and the UNESCO-listed Silk Road city of Khiva will slash journey times from 14 hours to 7.5 hours according to Uzbekistan's state railway company, Uzbek City.
The renewed discussions on reopening the Kars-Gyumri railway between Türkiye and Armenia have been described as “historic progress” and “a positive step” within a complex regional landscape.
Freight transport on the China–Europe Railway Express grew strongly in the first two months of 2026, highlighting the growing importance of rail links between Asia and Europe. The network moved about 352,000 shipping containers between January and February, a 25% increase from a year earlier.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced the arrival of the first rail shipment of Azerbaijani petrol on Friday, calling the delivery — the first such transfer between the two countries in decades — a sign that “peace has now become a reality”.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Overchuk visited Yerevan to participate in the Armenia-Russia Intergovernmental Commission meeting, as both countries review economic cooperation.
Eleven railway workers have been killed and two injured after a test train struck a maintenance team at Luoyang Town station in Kunming on Thursday, officials in Yunnan province said.
Thousands of students from across Serbia convened in Novi Sad on Friday (October 31) ahead of the first anniversary of the railway station roof collapse that killed 16 people last November.
A new multimodal transport corridor linking China, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan has officially opened, marking the completion of the long-planned China–Kyrgyzstan–Uzbekistan railway project, which began construction on 27 December 2024.
China's national railway recorded 23.13 million trips on the first day of the country's eight-day National Day holiday on Wednesday, up nearly 8% from a year earlier and setting a single-day record, state media CCTV reported.
Russia has launched a series of attacks on Ukraine's railways since the summer, using long-range drones to target key points, but the network is still functioning, the state railway CEO of Ukrzaliznytsia told Reuters.
Kazakhstan is accelerating efforts to overhaul its railway infrastructure in a bid to enhance efficiency and reinforce its role as a crucial Eurasian transit corridor, the government announced on Tuesday.
Nigeria’s Plateau State has revived an intra-city train service to offer cheaper public transport. The move comes amid soaring fuel prices after the federal government scrapped fuel subsidies in 2023, pushing up bus fares and straining household budgets.
Around 250,000 tonnes of freight were transported via the Baku–Tbilisi–Kars (BTK) railway in the first seven months of this year. The information was disclosed to journalists by Kadir Bozan, Chairman of the Kars Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Kazakhstan's Ministry of Transport and Afghanistan's Ministry of Public Works have reached an agreement on the construction of a new railway line to connect Central Asia and South Asia, which will increase the efficiency of the North-South corridor.
Stadler has launched the production of passenger railcars in Kazakhstan and presented the first completed unit to the country’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev during his visit to the plant in Astana.
South Korea’s Lee Jae-myung and Vietnam’s Luong Cuong agreed during a phone call on Thursday to deepen ties with joint high-speed rail and nuclear-energy projects.
As South Western Railway becomes the latest operator to be renationalised under Great British Railways (GBR), questions remain about whether these changes will lead to better services or lower fares.
Britain and Switzerland have signed an agreement to explore the creation of a direct rail connection between London and Switzerland, aiming to expand cross-border train travel beyond existing routes to Paris, Brussels, and Amsterdam.
With rising global tensions and growing risks to shipping, China is reshaping its trade strategy by constructing a new railway to Europe — one that deliberately avoids its close ally, Russia.
Iran seeks to expand its transportation opportunities amid US sanctions by developing new railway connections with neighbouring countries.
Prosecutors in Novi Sad indicted 13 people over the deadly collapse of a railway station awning that killed 15, sparking protests and calls for accountability.
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