Rail transport in Belarus

Rail transport in Belarus is owned by the national rail company BŽD / BČ (be: Bielaruskaja Čyhunka / ru: Belorusskaja Železnaja Doroga). The railway network consists of 5,512 km, its gauge is 1,520 mm (4 ft 11 ²⁷⁄₃₂ in) (Russian broad gauge) and 874 km are electrified.

History

The first line crossing the country was the Saint Petersburg – Warsaw Railway, which started operating in late 1862. This included section and railway station in Hrodna.^[1] During mid 1860's railway line was built also from Daugavpils to Polatsk and further to Vitebsk. Line Warsaw-Brest, opened in 1866, completed to Moscow in 1871.^[2]

Network

Belarus is crossed, from Brest to Orsha through Minsk, by an international rail line connecting Berlin and Warsaw to Moscow. Other important lines are the Minsk-Gomel (to Kiev), the Orsha-Vitebsk (to Saint Petersburg), the Minsk-Vilnius and others. Some international trains serving Belarus are the Pribaltika Riga-Odessa, the Minsk-Irkutsk^[3] and the Sibirjak Berlin-Novosibirsk (and other Russian destinations).^[4]

The national network has no high-speed lines and is not served by high-speed trains.

Urban railways

Uruchye subway station in Minsk

A diesel locomotive at Orsha

Minsk is the only city with a subway system, the Minsk Metro. The network consists of two lines: Avtozavodskaya and Moskovskaya. The only cities with tramway systems are Minsk, Vitebsk, Mazyr and Novopolotsk.

Rail links to adjacent countries

• (Poland) - yes - break-of-gauge 1,520 mm (4 ft 11 ²⁷⁄₃₂ in)/1,435 mm (4 ft 8 ¹⁄₂ in)
• (Lithuania) - yes
• (Latvia) - yes
• (Russia) - yes
• (Ukraine) - yes

See also

• Transport in Belarus
• List of town tramway systems in Belarus
• Children's Railroad of Minsk
• Rail transport in the Soviet Union

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Rail transport in Belarus.

• (Russian) BŽD official website
• Railway network map of Belarus