For over a century, railways have played a central, yet often overlooked role in shaping Armenia's economic and political geography. Introduced under the Russian Empire and expanded during the Soviet period, the railway system integrated Armenia into broader imperial and later Soviet networks  — not simply as a beneficiary of industrial modernity, but as a peripheral supplier within a hierarchically structured system. Following the collapse of the USSR, this infrastructure  — heavily dependent on now-closed cross-border routes - fell into disrepair, revealing the vulnerabilities of a transport system designed for imperial integration rather than national resilience.

As connectivity and borders in the South Caucasus are increasingly subject to renegotiation, it is imperative to critically reassess the socio-economic, political, and strategic dimensions of railway infrastructure - not only as a legacy of past imperial and Soviet logics, but as a potential catalyst in shaping new regional configurations. Reimagining these transport corridors requires a broader reconsideration of how mobility, access, and infrastructural interdependence can foster stability, trust-building, and sustainable development across historically contested and fragmented borders.

Early Railway Construction: Connecting Armenia to the Region

The construction of the Transcaucasian Railway in the late 19th century was not only a major infrastructural achievement, but also a strategic instrument of imperial control, military projection and territorial integration. For the Russian Empire, the South Caucasus represented both a newly conquered periphery and a sensitive military frontier, bordering two rival empires: the Ottoman Empire to the west and Qajar Iran to the south.  In this context, the development of railways in the Caucasus was fundamentally driven by military imperatives. 

During the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78, Russia seized the Kars fortress from the Ottomans. Soon after, the imperial authorities moved to link this new conquest by rail. Kars was considered so strategic to Russian Empire’s hold over Anatolia that by 1899, a branch line from Tiflis (Tbilisi) reached Kars, cementing Russia’s ability to supply and fortify this frontier outpost. The railway not only solidified territorial gains but also served as a forward base for the further projection of force. By 1902, another branch reached Erivan (Yerevan) and was later extended to Julfa on the Persian border. Once these railways were in place, Russian troops could be quickly transported to the Ottoman or Persian frontiers, or shuttled between trouble spots in the Caucasus foothills, vastly improving the imperial military's responsiveness. A very picturesque description of the Erivan-Julfa railway and its military function is given in a book by Luigi Villari, who travelled the line in 1905:

The stations are few, but they make up for their fewness by their strange names - Kamarliu, Ararat, Nurashen, Shakh-takhti, Bozbashi. For the most part they consist merely of a wooden shed and a log-hut. One of them is nothing more than a couple of disused railway-vans. But there is always a large crowd, composed partly of passengers, with quantities of belongings wrapped up in bits of carpet or canvas, but chiefly of loafers, who come to gaze at the strange, fiery monster. The mixture of races is very considerable, but the Tartar and Persian elements become more and more prevalent the further south we proceed. There are also numerous Armenians, a few Georgians, Turks, and Kurds, and, of course, Russians. Cossacks and other soldiers are on duty at several stations, frontier guards and mounted police, and the ubiquitous blue-clad gendarmes; all the station-masters are Russians, and one meets a few other officials, and occasionally a commercial traveller.

The construction of the railway dramatically reshaped the social and spatial dynamics of the Caucasian frontier. Before the railway, towns like Kars, Alexandropol (Gyumri), and Erivan were remote garrison or administrative centers, semi-isolated by a difficult geography. Meanwhile, Alexandropol - a Russian garrison town - became a thriving railway junction. In February 1899, the first train steamed into Alexandropol's new station​, inaugurating a direct rail link from Tiflis. Once the rails connected Alexandropol with Tiflis, Kars and Erivan, it became "the largest city in Eastern Armenia", overtaking even the administrative capital Erivan. Contemporary accounts note that once the railway was in place, Alexandropol experienced a surge in trade and population - a bank was opened in 1902 and dozens of manufacturing businesses (breweries, textile mills, etc.) sprang up, underlining how integration into the imperial transport network spurred urban growth. 

The chaotic aftermath of the First World War further underlined the strategic value of the railways. With the collapse of Russian authority in 1918, Ottoman Turkey briefly gained the upper hand in the South Caucasus. In the short-lived Armenian Republic (1918-1920), Turkish forces imposed harsh conditions, including the right to use Armenian railways for military purposes. According to historical accounts, Turkey obtained rights to use Armenian road and rail facilities to move its troops across the Caucasus under the pretext of 'maintaining law and order'. In reality, control over the railways meant control over the movement of armies in the region. This period was short-lived - in late 1920, the Soviet Red Army entered Armenia and the new Transcaucasian Soviet Republics reasserted control over the rail network. The Treaty of Kars (1921) ceded Kars and adjacent areas to Turkey, and the railway line crossing this border was severed. Turkey re-gauged the section on its side to standard gauge (1435 mm), in contrast to the Russian broad gauge (1524 mm) still in use in the Soviet Union, symbolising the geopolitical split. Nevertheless, throughout the 1920s, the Soviet authorities restored and expanded rail services in their remaining Caucasus territories. By 1922, the first freight trains were operating between Yerevan and Moscow, laying the groundwork for renewed trade, industrial exchange, and economic integration within the Soviet system. Key junctions such as Gyumri (which housed a large Russian-Soviet garrison) became the sites of military depots and repair workshops adjacent to railway stations, ensuring that troops and materiel could be deployed in the event of a new conflict. 

During the Second World War, the railways of the South Caucasus took on an even greater military role as part of the Allied Lend-Lease supply chain. Following Germany's invasion of the USSR in 1941, the Western Allies used the so-called Persian Corridor - a transit route from the Persian Gulf through Iran to the Caucasus - to deliver vital aid to the Soviet war effort. Much of this aid flowed by rail once it reached northern Iran. A key entry point was Julfa, on the border between Iran and Nakhchivan (Azerbaijan SSR), which connected to the Transcaucasian rail network. One eyewitness account notes that Allied shipments “first came to the [Soviet] border at Julfa... and then followed the railways and roads of Armenia, Georgia and the main part of the Azerbaijan SSR to the front and rear regions outside the Caucasus”. Allied convoys brought thousands of tonnes of war materiel by ship to Iranian ports, then by rail through Tabriz to Julfa, where it crossed into the Soviet Union. From Julfa, supplies travelled by rail and road through Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan into the wider USSR. In this way, the Armenian SSR railways became a critical segment of the Lend-Lease lifeline.

Social and Economic Impact of Railways

In the aftermath of the Second World War, railways quickly became the backbone of Soviet Armenia's industrialisation, supporting the country's economic transformation into an important industrial hub. Factories in Yerevan, Kirovakan (Vanadzor), Kapan, and Hrazdan depended on rail transport to receive raw materials and distribute finished goods to distant Soviet markets. In Kirovakan, the expanding chemical industry relied on the railway to import key inputs and export synthetic fibres, fertilisers, and other chemical products. The Kajaran copper-molybdenum plant, one of Armenia's most significant industrial enterprises, used the railway to transport ore to Alaverdi, where a major metallurgical plant processed copper concentrates. In Leninakan, the country's textile center, cotton arrived by rail from Central Asia, and the finished textiles were shipped to various parts of the Soviet Union.

Railways didn't just move goods - they moved people. Stations became hubs for new settlements, leading to the growth of towns along railway lines. New neighbourhoods sprang up around the stations, attracting workers and merchants. During the Soviet period, the railway system played a crucial role in facilitating state-directed internal migration, particularly from rural to urban areas. Thousands of Armenians were mobilised or encouraged to move to newly developing industrial centres, many of which were deliberately built along railway corridors to ensure logistical efficiency and integration into the all-Union economy. This process contributed to the rapid expansion of working-class urban districts where housing, factories, and transport infrastructure were planned in parallel. A good example is Yerevan's Shengavit district, which grew significantly in the mid-20th century as it became home to chemical, textile, and machine-building plants - its development closely linked to its rail connectivity and the broader Soviet agenda of transforming the Armenian capital into an industrial metropolis.

Railways also influenced social development. Schools, hospitals, and technical colleges were often built near railway hubs. Over time, a skilled workforce emerged, including Armenian railway engineers and technicians who contributed to the Soviet industrial system. This tightly controlled railway-industrial nexus reshaped Armenia's urban geography and social composition. Entire towns grew around rail-linked factories (Byureghavan, Charentsavan, Hrazdan, etc.), often built with little regard for ecological sustainability or long-term economic resilience. The resulting labour migration, while creating a skilled industrial workforce, also contributed to the erosion of traditional livelihoods and regional imbalances. Moreover, the dependency on rail-linked industries meant that, after the Soviet collapse, Armenia was left with a fragmented infrastructure, obsolete equipment, and a fragile economic base unable to adapt easily to the market economy.

Railways in Independent Armenia

Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Armenia's railway network entered a prolonged period of decline and fragmentation. Several structural and geopolitical challenges emerged almost immediately. Most critically, the closure of Armenia's borders with Turkey and Azerbaijan - a consequence of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and Turkey's alignment with Baku - cut off Armenia's access to key east-west rail corridors. The railway line through Kars, once an important link to Turkey and Europe, became unusable. The railway infrastructure, built in Soviet times, deteriorated due to a lack of funding. Many trains and tracks became outdated. With limited railway connections, Armenia became more dependent on expensive road transport for trade, increasing costs for businesses. Similarly, railway lines passing through Azerbaijani territory (notably the Nakhchivan-Meghri-Baku and Ijevan-Tovuz lines) have been dismantled or abandoned, cutting Armenia off from its former Soviet transit network.

With the collapse of central Soviet subsidies, the railway infrastructure rapidly deteriorated. Years of underinvestment led to the obsolescence of rolling stock, poor maintenance of track and signalling, and the deactivation of entire sections. The transition from a centrally planned transport system to a market economy further exposed Armenia's vulnerabilities: with no access to the sea and limited functional rail links, the country became increasingly dependent on more costly and less efficient road transport for its foreign trade. This, in turn, increased transport costs for domestic producers and importers, contributing to higher transaction costs and logistical bottlenecks in an already fragile post-Soviet economy. Today, much of Armenia's railway network operates well below capacity, serving only domestic routes and a single external line through Georgia to the Black Sea, reflecting the wider economic isolation that has accompanied Armenia's geopolitical marginalisation in the region.

While the railways once served as lifelines connecting Armenia to wider imperial and transnational networks, today they stand as vestiges of a system designed for a different geopolitical logic. Yet, in the context of renewed discussions on regional connectivity, the question arises: can these dormant infrastructures be meaningfully reactivated to support inclusive economic recovery, post-conflict reconstruction, and regional interdependence? Addressing this question requires not only technical and financial investment but also a critical and historically informed understanding of infrastructure as a social and political project - one that can enable either renewed marginalisation or constructive cooperation.

Bibliography

  1. Mirzoyan, S., & Badem, C. The Construction of the Tiflis-Aleksandropol-Kars Railway (1895-1899). The Institute for Historical Justice and Reconciliation, 2014.
  2. Villari, L. Fire and Sword in the Caucasus. London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1906.
  3. Ibid., p. 256.
  4. Lynch, H.F.B. Armenia: Travels and Studies, Vol. I. London: Longmans, 1901, pp. 160–165.
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