A new rail route through Central Asia has cut freight transit between China and Iran to 17 days, the head of the Sarakhs Special Economic Zone said at the 11th International Conference on Industries and Systems (ICISE) in Mashhad on September 25.

The rail link is a milestone in Tehran’s efforts to expand trade and infrastructure links across Eurasia. The inaugural train departed from Tehran in May. The route, which crosses Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan before entering western China, forms part of the broader China-Central Asia-West Asia corridor under Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

Mohammadreza Rajabi Moqaddam said “shipping time by sea between China and Iran is between 30 to 45 days, while the rail route … has reduced this time to 17 days.”

This breakthrough marks a dramatic acceleration in trade flow as Asian countries attempt to out compete each other with multimodal transit projects. He added that a line now under construction between Kashgar in western China and Osh in eastern Kyrgyzstan could bring that down to seven days once operational.

The plan hinges on linking Sarakhs (in northeastern Iran) via Cheshmeh-Soraya in West Azerbaijan, and onwards to Turkey. Once in place, the corridor would enable a continuous east-west rail artery from China to Europe.

The zone’s chief said that in the first five months of 2025, rail and road transit through Sarakhs surged by 80 % compared to last year.

He also claimed that 80 % of Iran’s rail transit passes through the Sarakhs border.

Moqaddam stressed that logistics is the “backbone of the economy,” saying the Sarakhs region is equipped with complete multi-modal infrastructure including rail, road, air and combined transport.

The official described Turkmenistan's Sarakhs as a “crossroads for global transit,” linking east-west and north-south corridors.

Under Iran’s 14th administration and with support from President Masoud Pezeshkian, work is underway to complete both corridors.

Rajabi Moqaddam said that by 2026, the Chabahar–Zahedan–Kerman rail link should be tied in, thus enabling a continuous north-south corridor from Sarakhs to Chabahar in the southeast.

In a related development, the zone recently facilitated Iran Khodro’s first major all-rail shipment of auto parts from China — cutting stockpiling and transit time from about 50 days to 15 days, said the Sarakhs economic zone head.

Iran has invested heavily in recent years to expand its rail infrastructure, which comes in the context of other developing overland links, including the Turkish-Azerbaijan backed Middle Corridor, which is connecting up via tunnels and bridges to Iran's infrastructure.

There is also a new railway link between China and Kazakhstan that opened in November 2023, the Ayagoz-Tacheng railway connection that is also part of the BRI.

The new railway line connects Tacheng in China's western Xinjiang region with Ayagoz in eastern Kazakhstan. It is the third rail border crossing between the two countries, alongside the Alashankou-Dostyk and Khorgos-Altynkol corridors.