MISC | Railway openings around the world

We can start with the two high speed lines that recently opened in France :

> Bretagne Pays de Loire (BPL) between Le Mans and Rennes
> Sud Europe Atlantique between Tours and Bordeaux

http://www.railwaygazette.com/news/single-view/view/sncf-opens-two-high-speed-lines-in-one-day.html

Just to get the ball rolling...

10 Dec.: VDE 8.2: Opening of HSR Erfurt-Coburg. Together with the HSR Halle/Leipzig-Erfurt, this line with 300 kmh makes traveling times of 4.00 to 4.30 between Berlin and Munich possible, compared to 6 hours today. This is the eighth and last major project of German Unification Infrastructure to open.
30 Oct.: BTK: Akhalkalaki-Kars. The first ever border-crossing railway between Georgia and Turkey. Together with the upgraded Akhalkalaki-Tiflis and the already existing line from there to Baku, this will form the Baku-Tiflis-Kars line. As much of the new line is through difficult highlands, speeds are around 70 kmh and overall travel times will be 16-8 hrs. The official opening will probably be more like a media event. Azerbaijan Railways has announced passenger transport for 2018.

^^ Baron Hirsch, post only recently opened railways, not railways planned to open in the (near) future.

Oct. 30: Opening of (Baku-Tiflis-)Akhalkali-Kars

Okay, so once again. Yesterday the first freight train was officially sent off from Baku to Kars. Passenger transport apparently does not start until some undetermined point in 2018.
"The 849 km BTK programme is central to plans to create a rail corridor from the Caspian Sea to Europe via Turkey. It involved upgrading infrastructure in Azerbaijan and Georgia, rehabilitating 153 km of unused 1 520 mm gauge line from Marabda to a break-of-gauge facility at Akhalkali, and building 110 km of 1 435 mm gauge line to Kars via a 4·4 km tunnel under the Georgia-Turkey border at Kartsakhi.
This completes the missing link between Georgia and Turkey, replacing a route through Armenia which has been out of use since the crossing between Turkey and Armenia was closed in 1993."
http://www.railwaygazette.com/news/...bilisi-kars-railway-corridor-inaugurated.html

Today they opened a railway between mainland Russia and Crimea, which includes an 18-km-long bridge across the Kerch Strait, which makes it the longest in Europe and Russia. The entire new railway is 60-km-long according to Wikipedia and runs between Vyshestebliyevskaya in mainland Russia and Bagerovo in Crimea.

Map: https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=11/45.2978/36.6655

Finally I discovered this thread! Because I did, hereby some openings I found for this month:

- Medan, Indonesia: 10km of double-track viaduct above existing single-track railway:
https://news.detik.com/berita/d-4806856/jalur-layang-kereta-api-di-medan-mulai-dioperasikan
- Solo, Indonesia: airport train, thereby opening a single-track between Solo Balapan and Adi Sumarno airport:
https://www.merdeka.com/peristiwa/ka-bandara-solo-batal-diresmikan-hari-ini.html
- About 10km of track is reactivated this month between Gundih and Gambringan north of Solo by reintroducing passenger trains:
https://news.detik.com/berita-jawa-...-stasiun-gambringan-grobogan-aktif-lagi-besok

More openings are expected next year in Indonesia. The Cibatu-Garut, Cianjur-Padalarang reopenings arrive soon. More spectacular work like the HSR awaits for 2021.