Rail transport in Belarus
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Rail transport in Belarus is owned by the national rail company BŽD / BČ (Belarusian: Bielaruskaja Čyhunka / Russian: Belorusskaja Železnaja Doroga). The railway network of Belarus consists of 5,512 km (3,425 mi) of lines, its gauge is 1,520 mm (4 ft 11+27⁄32 in) Russian gauge (broad gauge), of which 874 km (543 mi) are electrified.
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| Rail network in Belarus | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||
| Operation | |||||
National railway | Belarusskaja Železnaja Doroga | ||||
| System length | |||||
| Total | 5,512 km (3,425 mi) | ||||
| Electrified | 874 km (543 mi) | ||||
| Freight only | ? | ||||
| High-speed | 0 km | ||||
| Track gauge | |||||
| Main | 1,520 mm (4 ft 11+27⁄32 in) | ||||
| Electrification | |||||
25 kV 50 Hz | Main network | ||||
| Features | |||||
| |||||
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 the mid-1860s, 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 Kyiv), the Orsha-Vitebsk (to Saint Petersburg), the Minsk-Vilnius and others. Some international trains serving Belarus are the Pribaltika Riga-Odesa, 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
Minsk is the only city with a subway system, the Minsk Metro. The network consists of three lines: Awtazavodskaya, Maskoŭskaja and Zelenaluzhskaya. The only cities with tramway systems are Minsk, Vitebsk, Mazyr and Novopolotsk.
