A train of Azerbaijan’s national railway operator ADY, formed of Stadler coaches, at a station in Tbilisi. Source: ADY
Azerbaijan, Georgia: The first train — seven passenger coaches hauled by an Alstom Prima M4 electric locomotive — arrived in Tbilisi from Baku on 26 May.
It runs at an average of 100 km/h across Azerbaijan and 50 km/h across Georgia. The Swiss-built coaches have finally entered service after seven years standing idle; rail services between the two countries were suspended in March 2020.
New passenger trainset of Stadler coaches for the route between Azerbaijan and Georgia. Source: ADY
The train has one dining car with 28 seats and four Comfort and Comfort+ class coaches, each with eight four-berth compartments and a shared shower and toilet. Two further Luxe class coaches carry eight two-berth compartments apiece, each with its own shower cubicle and toilet, and one compartment is laid out for passengers with reduced mobility. Every coach has individual temperature and lighting controls, sound insulation, a safe and an emergency power unit that keeps the essential onboard systems running for 24 hours without external supply.
Compartment of a Stadler passenger coach for Azerbaijan’s national railway ADY. Source: ADY
Stadler signed the contract for 30 passenger coaches with Azerbaijan’s national railway ADY back in 2014. The first batch of 10 was built at the plant in the Swiss canton of St. Gallen and handed over in autumn 2019. A second batch of 10 followed from the plant in Fanipol, Belarus, arriving in autumn 2020. No information on the delivery of the remaining coaches could be found in open sources.
Dining car from Stadler for ADY. Source: ADY
The coaches were originally meant to run at 160 km/h on the Baku – Tbilisi – Istanbul route. Because Azerbaijan and Georgia use 1,520 mm gauge while Türkiye uses 1,435 mm, they were fitted with gauge-changing bogies with adjustable wheelsets. The plan was for the gauge to change automatically, without stopping the train, as it passed through a special facility at the border crossing in Akhalkalaki. The Covid-19 pandemic intervened, and the coaches never ran.
This order also did much to build the track record behind Stadler’s later, much larger contract with Kazakhstan’s national railway Kazakhstan Temir Zholy for 557 locomotive-hauled coaches. The first of those were built and certified in 2025, but their launch is already running almost six months late after the customer raised technical complaints.