Rail transport in Tver Oblast is one of the most important components of the region's transport system. There are more than 100 railway stations in the region, and the total length of railway tracks is . The largest railway hubs in the region are Bologoye, Rzhev, and Sonkovo. Most of the Tver region railroads belongs to the Moscow region (formerly the Moscow Division) of the October Railway.

Railway transport in the territory of presentday Tver region has been developing since 1850, when the railway section between Vyshny Volochyok and Tver started operating. A year later, the entire railway line between Saint Petersburg and Moscow was commissioned. In the second half of the 19th century, and the first half of the 20th century, other railway lines were gradually built in the region, including the Riga and Savyolovo directions, a section of the latitudinal line Riga–Pskov–Bologoye–Rybinsk–Yaroslavl, the Bologoye–Polotsk line, as well as other railway lines and spurs.

The Saint Petersburg–Moscow main line (the main route of the October Railway) crosses the region from northwest to southeast. It is electrified, has at least two tracks throughout its entire length, and is intensively used for passenger transport. A significant portion of passenger transport is transit, but suburban services are well-developed, too. Other railway lines in the region are used less, and some of its sections are classified as low-active. The Moscow–Saint Petersburg high-speed railway is also planned to pass through the region.

History and perspectives

History of railway development in the region in the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century

The first railway line to pass through the territory of modern Tver region (Nikolaevskaya Railway) was built in the late 1840s and officially opened in 1851.Saint Petersburg-Moscow Railway Russian Railway History website, citing: Velikin B., Petersburg. Moscow. Construction of the railway. 1842–1851, Leningrad–Moscow, 1935, and others. The railway was commissioned in stages, with train services on the Vyshny Volochyok–Tver section that started its work in 1850]Oktyabrskaya (Nikolaevskaya) Railway. On the 150th anniversary of the opening of operations. Tver Regional Library named after A. M. Gorky server, citing: The October Mainline: History of the Oktyabrskaya Railway. Moscow: Transport, 1990. 342 pp.: ill., and others. The railway passed near Tver (the station was located a few kilometers from the city), and in 1851, it connected Tver and other cities in the region with Moscow and Saint Petersburg.

In the late 19th century and early 20th century private railway lines built by the Moscow–Vindava–Rybinsk Railway company and other organizations were connected to the mainline railway. In 1870, train services began on the Bologoye–Rybinsk line, which passed through Udomlya, Bezhetsk, and Savelino (now Sonkovo), as well as on the section Likhoslavl (then Ostashkovo)–Torzhok.History of the region. Official website of the Likhoslavl District Administration of Tver Region. In 1874, it was extended to Rzhev.Rzhev. Literary Map of Tver Region website, citing: History of Rzhev: Essays on the History of Rzhev Land. Rzhev: Rzhev Printing Company, 2000. 281 pp.: ill., and others. City of Rzhev. Historical overview . E. E. Golubinsky’s website. In 1897, a line from Bologoye to Pskov was opened, in 1898-a section from Sonkovo to Krasny Kholm, and in 1899,from Sonkovo to Kashin.Moscow-Vindava-Rybinsk Railway Russian Railway History website, citing: Overview of the current state and activities for the first five years of the Moscow–Vindava–Rybinsk Railway (1901–1906), St. Petersburg, 1906.

In 1900 a railway was built from Moscow to the Savyolovo station (now in the city of Kimry).Northern Railways. . Russian Railway History website, citing: Kaplan A. A., Northern Railways. On the centenary of railway transport, Moscow, 1926. In 1901, the Moscow-Vindava (Ventspils) railway, passing through Rzhev, was commissioned. In 1907, the Bologoye–Polotsk railway line, passing through Ostashkov and Velikiye Luki, was opened.Vulfov, A. Reserved railway. Science and Life, 2001, No. 12.Trains running through the Bologoy-Polotsk railway for 100 years. Pskov Information Agency. In the 1910s, entrepreneur Yu. M. Kuvshinova organized the construction of the Kuvshinovo access track-a railway from Torzhok to the village of Kamennoe (now the city of Kuvshinovo), where her paper factory was located. In 1913, a decision was made to extend the access track from Kuvshinovo to Selizharovo, and this section was opened in 1917. In the post-revolutionary period, a section was built from Selizharovo station to a junction with the Bologoye-Polotsk railway (Soblagho station), which was opened in 1928.TORZHOK — SOBLAGHO RAILWAY LINE Accessed 31 March 2010 In 1913, the railway from Krasny Kholm was extended to the Ovinishche-I station.Ovinishche. Savyolovskaya Backwoods website.

In 1918 all Russian railways were nationalized and transferred to the People's Commissariat of Communication Routes of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic, and further construction of mainline railways throughout the 20th century was organized exclusively by the state. In 1919, train services began at Kalyazin station, connecting railway lines from Savyolovo (Kimry) and Kashin.Kalyazin. Savyolovskaya Backwoods website. In the same year, the railway passed through Sandovo,Sandovo. Savyolovskaya Backwoods website. and further to Mga, and the completion of this line in 1921, effectively made the Savyolovo direction a backup for the Moscow–Leningrad railway.Kimry. Savyolovskaya Backwoods website. Also in 1919, the Ovinishche–Vesyegonsk–Suda railway line was built, but only a few trains ran on the Vesyegonsk–Suda section-a temporary wooden bridge over the Mologa River was destroyed by ice drift the following spring after its construction and was not rebuilt. Had the Vesyegonsk-Suda section been fully operational, it would have been the shortest connection between Moscow and Cherepovets. The flooding of the Rybinsk Reservoir did not prevent the implementation of this plan;Vesyegonsk. Savyolovskaya Backwoods website. by that time, the Vesyegonsk-Suda line had long been abandoned.

In the early 1930s a line was built from Zemtsy to Zharkovsky and Lomonosovo, with a planned extension northward to Soblagho and southward to the Smolensk hub.SOBLAGHO — ZEMTSY — ZHARKOVSKY — SMOLENSK RAILWAY LINE Accessed 31 March 2010 In 1936, a dead-end line from Doroshikha to Vasilyevsky Mokh was opened, primarily used for transporting peat (later, narrow-gauge peat railways saw intensive development in the Vasilyevsky Mokh area). In 1937, another dead-end line was opened from Reshetnikovo (Moscow region) to Konakovo.Petropavlovsky, B. I. Konakovo and Konakovo District (historical essay).Tver Regional Library named after A.M. Gorky server.

The construction of railways significantly influenced the region's settlement system. Station settlements emerged along mainline railways, some of which (Bologoye, Likhoslavl, Nelidovo, Udomlya, and others) later became cities or district-center settlements (Maksatikha, Sonkovo, Spirovо, and others).Yakovleva, S. I. Evolution of road-service functions of transit region settlements (using Tver Oblast as an example)

Railways during the World War II During World War II in 1941–1943, many western and southern districts of Kalinin (now Tver) region, and for a short period in late 1941, the regional center itself, were occupied by German troops, and railroads were in the zone of active combat operations.

On 16 December 1941 Soviet troops liberated the city, and found the railroad hub's infrastructure heavily damaged, but less than two months later, the station's operations and train services on the mainline were restored.Mikhnya Svyatoslav. The railway of life . Vsy Tver (Tver), 2000, 15 December, No. 51. In January 1942, during the Toropets-Kholm Operation, undertaken to cut off German troops from transport routes, Soviet forces fought their way to the Ostashkov-Toropets-Western Dvina line and liberated Toropets, with the fiercest resistance from German troops occurring at the railway station.Kondakov, A. History of Toropets station. Semafor, iss, 3, July 2001. In late 1942, during the Sychevka Offensive Operation, the 20th Army fought to capture the Rzhev-Sychevka railway line.[lib.ru/MEMUARY/GERM/rudel.txt_Piece40.03 Hans-Ulrich Rudel. Stuka Pilot] Military Literature Project: militera.lib.ru. Accessed 7 July 2009

The northern and eastern parts of the region were not occupied, but railway stations and hubs suffered heavily from bombings by the Luftwaffe. The Bologoye railway hub was particularly affected, with 527 air raids carried out on it between 1941 and 1943.Historical path of the city of Bologoye from its establishment to the present day (text compiled based on materials from Bologoye local historians M.A. Ivanov, L.A. Polyakova, I.V. Bagazhova). Bologoye city local history website. Accessed 7 July 2009

During the war, railway lines in the region, both in non-occupied and liberated territories, were intensively used for moving military trains and cargo, as well as for organizing evacuations. Between 1942 and 1943, alongside the restoration of the Zemtsy-Zharkovsky-Lomonosovo railway line, construction began on a frontline railway from Zemtsy station to Soblagho, but this construction was later halted, and the tracks were dismantled.

Development of railways in the second half of the 20th and early 21st centuries In the second half of the 20th century, large-scale construction of new mainline railways in the region was not undertaken, but existing lines were modernized, and steam locomotives were universally replaced by diesel locomotives and electric locomotives. In 1962 the electrification of the Leningrad-Moscow railway was completed, with a route speed of 130 kilometers per hour achieved by 1963, and 200 kilometers per hour by 1966.State Enterprise Oktyabrskaya Railway — a branch of JSC Russian Railways. In the 1960s, due to the construction of the Konakovo GRES, the route of the railway line to Konakovo was altered, and in 1966, the railway line from Reshetnikovo (Moscow region) to Konakovo GRES was electrified. Additionally, in the second half of the 20th century, departmental narrow-gauge railways developed intensively in the region, including the narrow-gauge railway of Construction Materials Plant No. 2, the first section of which was commissioned in 1951; the narrow-gauge railway of the Vasilyevsky Peat Enterprise, to which new sections were added, and many other narrow-gauge railways serving individual enterprises. However, by the end of the 20th century, a trend toward the reduction of narrow-gauge railways emerged, and many were closed, dismantled, or reduced in the 1990s and 2000s. The Zharkovsky-Promyshlennaya (near Soshno) railway line and the 40-kilometer railway from Vyshny Volochyok station to quarries were also closed and dismantled.

Accidents