information:extraction
Railway

Modern Samarkand is an important rail junction of Uzbekistan, and all national east–west railway routes pass through the city. The most important and longest of these is Tashkent – Kungrad. High-speed Tashkent–Samarkand high-speed rail line trains run between Tashkent, Samarkand, and Bukhara. Samarkand also has international railway connections: Saratov –Samarkand, Moscow –Samarkand, and Astana –Samarkand.

In 1879–1891, the Russian Empire built the Trans-Caspian Railway to facilitate its expansion into Central Asia. The railway originated in Krasnovodsk (now Turkmenbashi) on the Caspian Sea coast. Its terminus was originally Samarkand, whose station first opened in May 1888. However, a decade later, the railway was extended eastward to Tashkent and Andijan, and its name was changed to Central Asian Railways. Nonetheless, Samarkand remained one of the largest and most important stations of the Uzbek SSR and Soviet Central Asia.