The North Caucasus Railway () is a broad gauge Russian railway network that links the Sea of Azov (in the west) and Caspian Sea (in the east). It runs through ten federal subjects: Rostov Oblast, Krasnodar Krai, Stavropol Krai, Republic of Adygeya, Karachay–Cherkessia, North Ossetia, Ingushetia, Chechnya, Dagestan, and Kalmykia. The headquarters are the North Caucasus Railway Administration Building in Rostov-on-Don.
The network comprises Grozny, Krasnodar, Makhachkala, Mineralnye Vody, and Rostov passenger and freight railways, as well as two children's railways (in Vladikavkaz and Rostov). , there were 6315.9 km of railtrack and 403 railway stations. The railway is operated by the Russian Railways and employs 80,757 people.
The Black Sea resorts of Sochi, Gelendzhik and Anapa are the principal passenger destinations on the railway. The Sochi line, running for many miles along the coast of the Black Sea, is especially busy in summer with regular extra direct express trains for holiday makers. The oil ports at Novorossiysk and Tuapse are significant destinations for rail freight traffic.
Major railway stations
Rostov-on-Don Bataysk Taganrog-II Likhaya Tikhoretskaya Kavkazskaya Armavir Mineralnye Vody Makhachkala Timashevskaya Krasnodar Tuapse Belorechenskaya Salsk Novorossiysk Novocherkassk
Construction timeline
1861 Shakhtnaya–Aksay (the first rail line in Northern Caucasus) 1871 Zverevo–Shakhtnaya 1872 Rostov-on-Don–Vladikavkaz 1875 Aksay–Rostov-on-Don 1888 Tikhoretskaya-Novorossisk 1897-Kavkazskaya-Stavropol 1901 Kavkazskaya–Krasnodar 1911 Bataysk–Azov 1911 Sosyka–Yeysk 1911 Armavir–Maikop 1912 Belorechenskaya–Tuapse 1914 Krasnodar–Akhtari 1914 Krymskaya–Timashevsk–Kushchevka 1915 Bataysk–Salsk 1915 Prokhladnaya–Gudermes 1916 Palagiada–Vinodelnoye 1923 Tuapse–Sochi 1927 Sochi–Matsesta–Adler 1928 Petrovskoye Selo–Blagodarnoye 1931 Vinodelnoye–Divnoye 1931 Rostov-on-Don–Khapry 1931 Komsomolskaya–Neftegorsk 1931 Maikop–Khadzhokh 1940 Labinskaya–Shedok 1942 Gudermes–Astrakhan 1942 Adler–Sukhumi 1944 Krymskaya–Starotitarovka 1969 Divnoye–Elista 1971 Zverevo–Krasnodonskaya 1977 Anapa–Yurovsky 1978 Krasnodar–Tuapse 1987 Blagodarnoye–Budyonnovsk 1989 Peshchanokopskaya–Krasnaya Gvardiya
In 1937 the North Caucasus Railway was renamed after the Soviet party leader Sergo Ordzhonikidze but soon reverted to its traditional name. It was in the late 1950s that most of the railway network was electrified.
In 1987 the line from Zverevo north to Chertkovo was transferred from the South Eastern Railway to the North Caucasus Railway, with the new connection between the two railways being just north of Chertkovo railway station.
External links