On board the European high-speed train zooming through Central Asia’s desert

The train: Afrosiyob, Uzbekistan

• Route Samarkand to Tashkent
• Distance 300km
• Operator Uzbek Railways
• Class Economy class
• Frequency Up to 10 times daily

The journey

Samarkand to Tashkent on Uzbek Railways’ eight-car high-speed Afrosiyob service. It’s the country’s fastest train, reaching speeds up to 250km/h, with a scheduled time of two hours and 20 minutes. The full Afrosiyob service runs between Tashkent and Bukhara (taking about four hours). An extension to Khiva is predicted to open this year.

The seat

Afrosiyob are Spanish-made Talgo high-speed trains, and the service has three classes: a VIP carriage with leather seats, business class (with 26 seats per carriage), and economy (36 seats per carriage). Economy seats are in a 2-2 formation, and each booking assigns you a seat. Each seat has a USB charging point and there are ceiling TV screens (it’s my first brush with a kitschy reality TV show called Bollywood Battle) and on-board Wi-Fi. Despite having three language options on the Wi-Fi sign-in page, it insists on giving me instructions only in Russian, so I content myself instead with the gloriously barren desert scenery.

Boarding

You’re not getting aboard under-caffeinated. Samarkand’s small train station, with its palatial chandeliers and stained-glass round windows, has six coffee stalls (and three souvenir stores if you haven’t done enough shopping in the city). There’s a single doorway for boarding, and I take my cues from the crowd – when others head for the door, I do the same. A station guard is assigned to check tickets, but he just waves me through before I can even scan my ticket QR code. For passengers on the platform, the carriages are unfailingly numbered. Easy-peasy.

Baggage

No need to skimp. There’s a 36-kilogram weight limit on luggage and no specification on the number of items – and there’s nobody who’s likely to check. The ends of each carriage have storage areas for larger bags, and there are luggage racks overhead for smaller items.

Food + drink

Fares between Samarkand and Tashkent include a snack (strangely, between Samarkand and Bukhara, a trip that isn’t much shorter, there’s no such policy). I’m handed a white paper bag with a jam-filled pastry and a three-in-one coffee sachet – look away now if milky, super-sweet coffee isn’t your cup of Joe (though you can order tea from a cart). We’ve barely left the station when food vendors come through the carriage selling tubs of fruit salad, ice-creams and local mojitos – hold the celebrations, these mojitos are non-alcoholic juices with basil and ice, which are just the tonic on this day that’s 36 degrees in Samarkand and 39 in Bukhara. There’s also a dining carriage (sans seating) selling the likes of Pringles, Oreos, rolled crepes, bottled beer and, strange but very local, tinned plov – an Uzbek rice dish. I wasn’t game to give it a go.

One more thing

Getting to Samarkand’s railway station is simple, with the city’s tram system reopening in 2017 after the Soviet-era lines were closed in 1973. Much to the chagrin of Tashkent’s residents, it uses trams that previously operated on that city’s now defunct system. Tram 2 runs to the station from the Siyob Bazaar market beside Bibi Khanym Mosque, a popular tourist site.

The verdict

It’s everything you expect of a European high-speed train, but in the desert of Central Asia. It departs on time – to the minute – and is equally punctual into Tashkent, with a spectacular desert sunset thrown in along the way. Space is plentiful, and snacks are spot-on for the desert temperatures. It’s pretty much perfect, unless you like your coffee black and unsweetened.

Our rating out of five

★★★★

The writer was a guest of World Expeditions. worldexpeditions.com