The Kazakh-Chinese border remains an obstacle for rail traffic

The overly congested Kazakh-Chinese border crossings remain a problem for rail traffic. The Kazakh side cannot handle the amount of incoming freight, leading to a queue of 55 trains at the Dostyk crossing. The Central Asian country is now extending an earlier ban on incoming container traffic until the end of the month.

Initially, Kazakh Railways (KTZ) planned to suspend container traffic to Dostyk only until 11 September. It seems that that measure was not enough to resolve the accumulation of 55 trains at the border crossing. Now, the ban is being extended until the beginning of October, writes the Kazakh Association of Freight Transporters on Telegram.

The situation is aggravated by planned infrastructure works to build double tracks between Dostyk and the Moyynty station in the south of Kazakhstan. “Considering the construction works on the section Dostyk-Moyynty and the repair of infrastructure at the Moyynty station, the decision was taken to extend the ban until the end of September”, says KTZ.

Additionally, any traffic in the southern direction from the station will be suspended on 26 and 27 September, and northward traffic will not be able to transit the station on 27 and 28 September.

A new border crossing by 2027

The Dostyk border crossing is not the only one that is having issues. On 13 August, Telegram publication LogiStan reported that there were problems at the Khorgos border crossing as well. Containers were flooding the hub, because there were not enough platforms to process them all.

To ameliorate the situation, Kazakhstan and China are planning to open a new border crossing by 2027, reports Kazakh publication LS. It will be located close to the town of Bakhty, at the far end of a new rail line that Kazakhstan is building. That line will have a total length of 272 kilometres, and the entire project is projected to cost around 1 billion euros.