Kazakhstan shelves Astana-Almaty high-speed rail over economic concernsKazakhstan has determined that building a high-speed railway connecting its capital Astana with the largest city Almaty is economically unfeasible due to insufficient passenger demand, the head of the national passenger rail company said Wednesday.Anuar Akhmetzhanov, chairman of Passenger Transportation JSC, revealed that comprehensive feasibility studies showed the project would require at least $10 billion in infrastructure investment while serving only 3,000-4,000 daily passengers."Chinese experts advised us that economic viability requires approximately 60 train pairs operating daily on such a route," Akhmetzhanov told reporters.He explained that while China can easily deploy 60 train pairs due to its large population, Kazakhstan lacks sufficient passenger numbers to justify such investment. "This is a problem for us. We simply don't have enough passengers," Akhmetzhanov noted. (ICE ALMATY)

Fonte notizia: INTERFAX