Two trainsets for operation on the line were ordered in November 2009 from
Talgo at a cost of
€38 million The cost of the purchase was split between operator
O'zbekiston Temir Yo'llari and a loan from the state
Fund for Reconstruction and Development of Uzbekistan. Each trainset consists of two power cars, eight passenger cars with a capacity of 257 people and a dining car. The train carried out its first trip from Tashkent to Samarkand on 26 August 2011. Two more Talgo 250 trainsets were constructed for Afrosiyob services in 2017. Commercial service started on 8 October 2011 twice a week under the brand
Afrosiyob in honor of the ancient settlement of
Afrasiyab near Samarkand. Initially, total travel time was still more than two and half-hours but services were upgraded to five times a week in January 2012, and daily services started from 13 February 2012. The travel time has been reduced to 2:08 hours as of 10 February 2013.
Further extensions The high-speed rail line is expected to be extended to
Khiva via
Urgench, in order to connect all the major
Silk Road cities in Uzbekistan. In December 2018, a new station opened in
Khiva, and a railroad connects it to
Urgench. The connection between
Bukhara and
Urgench was expected to be completed in 2021. As of February 2022, the line between Bukhara and Urgench is still in progress. When the line is completed, travel between Tashkent and Khiva should take 7 hours. In March 2024, Uzbekistan Railways announced the purchase of South Korean
Hyundai Rotem's high-speed trains
UTY EMU-250 based on
KTX-Eum to service the route.
Criticism As of 2024, tickets for the Afrosiyob service are extremely hard to come by due to advance bookings by foreign tour groups as well as local resellers booking all the tickets sometimes months in advance. As a result, the Uzbek taxpayers have little to no direct benefit from their investment. ==Routes==