ADY's New Night Rakes Still Waiting To Start Operation

In connection with the purchase of 537 coaches from Stadler for KTZ, see here, the passenger cars for ADY were also mentioned.

ADY initially ordered three 10-car rakes with 1,520/1,435 mm variable gauge from Stadler in June 2014 for overnight trains between Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey on the Baku - Tbilisi - Kars - Istanbul route. However, for financial reasons, the operator eventually reduced its order to two rakes in January 2018, the first of which was built at the Altenrhein works and the second at the Minsk works, and even these are still not in operation due to obstacles at the railways concerned, although this was scheduled to happen in autumn 2019 - even after various delays, one of the reasons for which was the delay in the construction of the new line between Georgia and Turkey. 

We asked ADY about the reason for the delayed start of these trains, and when does ADY expect to start this service? The company answered us now: 

„In response to the COVID-19 pandemic prevalent in the world and in Azerbaijan since March 2020, the Operational Headquarters under the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Azerbaijan had applied a special quarantine regime and Azerbaijan’s land borders had been temporarily closed, except for cargo transportation.
The opening of the land borders is out of the authority of ADY. If the Cabinet of Ministers adopts a decision to change the rules of the special quarantine regime, the public will be updated on this. Both trains are kept in an ADY depot.“