File 1569/1913 'Trans-Persian Railway' [‎71v] (151/594)

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5. Foremost among new railways improving communication with European
Russia is, of course, the Charjui-Alexandrov Gai line which has been considered
among railways in Turkistan itself.
In 1910, permission was given to a company engaged on the construction of
a line from Liubertsa to Arzamas to construct the section Arzamas-Kinel with*
a bridge over the Volga at Simbirsk. If this project is realised the commumcation
between Tashkent and Petersburg will be considerably shortened.
Together with projected construction in Southern Siberia may be mentioned
another scheme, supplying lateral communication between the Saratov-As-
trachan and the Tashkent lines. This is the projected line from Uralsk to
Ueitsk on the Tashkent Railway for the construction of which permission was
requested early last year. The section Ershov-Uralsk is narrow-gauge. It is
proposed to convert it to a line of normal gauge and to continue it to Ueitsk
from which place a short branch already runs westward to some salt works
to meet it.
From Ueitsk the line would be prolonged to meet the Trans-Siberian Railway
through Orsk and Troitsk at Cheliabinsk, and would, in addition, form a portion of
the projected Southern Siberian line thiough Akmolinsk to Semipalatinsk, and of
the Altai line from Semipalatinsk through Barnaul to Novomkolaevsk on the
Trans-Siberian line.
The papers have recently mentioned the Orsk-Troitsk* section as under
*Section Troitsk Kustanai (on Tobol River) construction, and in 1911 the Council of
is shewn on Railway map as under construction. Ministers ruled that both the Southern
Siberian and Altai lines should be constructed from Government funds. Pro^
visional offices for the latter are shortly to be established at St. Petersburg.
The survey for an additional branch from Petropavlovsk on the Trans-
Siberian Railway southwards through Kokchetav and Akmolinsk to the Spasski
Works was ordered in 1911, and a reconnaissance for an extension to meet the
Arys-Vyerni line was provided for, for the current year.
It would thus appear that considerably improved communication will be
provided between the Trans-Siberian and Tashkent lines through Orsk and
Troitsk very soon, while a still shorter and more important link between the two
systems the junction .by rail of Vyerni and (probably) Semipalatinsk is not likely
to b« delayed very long. Not only would the transfer of troops between Omsk
and Turkistan Military Districts be facilitated, but the mobilization of reservists
in the Omsk District would be much accelerated by the projected construction.
6. If construction be commenced early in the current year as at present
anticipated, a term of 3 to 5 years should see the termination of most of it.
The Tashkent-Orenburg line with a length of 1,156 miles was completed within 4
years, and with the exception of the Siberian projects, none o*f the other lines but
that from Char jui to Alexandrov Gai have anything like the same extent, and the
facilities for construction are greater than those existent at the time of the laying
of the Tashkent line.
We are certainly justified in anticipating that within 5 years, to "the raih
way facilities existent in Russian Central Asia at the present day will be added :—•
a third single line from a district in European Russia convenient for
reinforceing the Turkistan Military District j
a second strategic railway to the Afghan frontier ;
a Semiryechia line facilitating the despatch of troops to or from the Chinese
frontier, and the collection and distribution of reservists
improved and probably direct communication between
Siberia ;
improved internal railway communications.
7. A Russian General Staff Officer at Meshed recently stated that mobilized
pnits from European Russia would reach the Turkistan Military District 40 days