Marat Zembatov, Director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies at the Institute of State and Municipal Administration of the Higher School of Economics, member of the Russian-Omani Business Council at the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, expert of the BRICS Business Council Transport and Infrastructure Group, Ph.D. in Economics:
"The agreement between Russian Railways and Kazakhstan Temir Zholy to coordinate development of international interchange stations along the Russian-Kazakh border reinforces the ongoing consolidation of Eurasia's integrated transport and logistics framework. By joining forces to increase border interchange capacity—through improved daily traffic schedules and targeted bottleneck elimination—both railway companies are effectively implementing a key solution that strengthens the entire Eurasian transport corridor network.
The agreement signed on November 12 by Oleg Belozerov, CEO and Chairman of Russian Railways, and Talgat Aldybergenov, Chairman of Kazakhstan Railways, witnessed by the presidents of Russia and Kazakhstan, represents the culmination of extensive collaborative efforts first revealed to the public on July 21 this year. During that initial Moscow meeting between Belozerov and Aldybergenov, discussions about coordinated interchange station development moved beyond generalities to address specific junction points, their current operational capacity, and growth forecasts. By September, at the 16th strategic cooperation working group session in Vladivostok, the bilateral transportation dialogue had evolved to encompass not only physical junction infrastructure enhancements but also digital cargo movement support systems—with both parties examining digital platforms, electronic documentation processes, and exchange of cargo classification and volume data. This latest signing ceremony formalizes these previously negotiated achievements.
The elevation of this agreement to presidential level speaks volumes: the capacity of international interchange stations directly influences bilateral trade, transit operations, national budget revenues, and both countries' political commitments to maintaining reliable international transport corridors. This milestone represents months of dedicated work. Border crossing capacity and operational technologies have featured prominently in bilateral transport discussions long before summer 2025—addressed through intergovernmental commissions, EAEU transport working groups, and ongoing dialogue between transportation ministries and railway administrations. Fundamentally, this agreement culminates years of building mutual commitments and reflects a shared realization that independently "patching" each side's portion of junction infrastructure is no longer feasible—the common good requires unified action.
When translated from administrative jargon into plain language, this agreement goes beyond simply "developing interchange stations" to establish synchronized management of cross-border capacity. This entails collaborative monitoring of actual traffic volumes at each crossing point, coordinated investment planning, and aligned train scheduling and operational protocols. Information exchange constitutes a significant component: sharing detailed cargo classification and volume data, implementing expanded paperless processing, and enhancing digital documentation systems. The fundamental objective is creating visibility of trains for both railway operators and regulatory authorities well before border arrival, enabling proactive decisions on reception, processing, and clearance based on advanced planning and robust data analytics.
At present, about 70 freight train pairs cross the Russian-Kazakh border each day. After talks with Kazakhstan Railways in September, Russian Railways was already expecting to increase this capacity to 85 train pairs daily once border interchange stations are rebuilt. Experts now believe it will be possible to handle up to 100 train pairs daily. Looking ahead to 2027-2028, even higher capacity could be achieved if track approaches, stations and rail yards are upgraded in parallel with digital systems—especially as traffic grows along the North-South International Transport Corridor, particularly its Eastern route.
It should be noted that railway infrastructure at interchange stations is inherently interconnected with customs and border control operations, energy and communications networks, phytosanitary and veterinary inspection services, and other border-crossing facilitation systems. Should technological advancement and modernization of even one such element lag behind the railway infrastructure modernization level, the entire corridor's efficiency will be diminished proportionally to that element's development level. Hence the requirement for coordinated enhancement of each stage within the cargo inspection and clearance process.
Railway connectivity between Russia and Kazakhstan functions as both a bilateral trade enhancer and a significant transit facilitator. Kazakhstan serves concurrently as supplier, transit territory for Russian imports, and critical component within the Eastern branch of the North-South International Transport Corridor. Amid shifting trade flows from western to eastern and southern routes, Kazakhstan's strategic significance has grown steadily for years. The Eastern routing through Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan to Iran's southern ports and Persian Gulf states increasingly offers shippers an alternative to capacity-constrained western pathways. For our 1,520-mm gauge system, this presents opportunities in both raw material transport and sustained container/general cargo transit. The latter carries greater strategic importance for corridor development oriented toward sustainable economic growth based on mutually beneficial commercial relations between Russia, Kazakhstan, and aligned macroregional nations.
Following this logic, the interchange stations agreement should be viewed not as a standalone event but as part of a comprehensive development sequence. The process began with expert-level recognition that the North-South corridor and eastern routes would face persistent bottlenecks without systematic interchange modernization. This led to preliminary agreements on digital integration, collaborative planning, and coordinated tariff policies. After successive refinements during high-level meetings in Moscow (July) and Vladivostok (September), the parties elevated the finalized agreement to the presidential level. This clearly demonstrates railway transport's increasingly vital—not merely relevant—role in sustaining Eurasia's transport and logistics backbone.
The tariff component should not be overlooked. Throughput capacity without a clear tariff policy will not deliver the effect shippers expect. If each railway continues viewing its section solely through the lens of its own revenue, while through rates for the North-South corridor and transit routes via Kazakhstan are determined on a residual basis, a portion of potential cargo will remain on highways or divert to alternative sea routes. In today's geoeconomic conditions, it is critically necessary to view this agreement as one prerequisite for bringing cargo consolidation points closer to the backbone of Eurasia's transport and logistics framework—the North-South corridor. Ideally, the technical agreement on interchange station development should be accompanied by tariff solutions: coordinated through rates, corridor discounts, and transparent conditions for priority cargo categories. This would make clear to shippers not only the corridor's development prospects but also the economic rationale for utilizing the Russia-Kazakhstan connection today."
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