آلاشانکو → تهران
China’s highest-capacity rail gateway to Central Asia — block trains reach Tehran in 14–18 days.
| Mode | Transit Time | Frequency | Price Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| Block train FCL (40HQ) | 14–18 days | Weekly to every 3–4 days | Best for high volume |
| Rail + road combined | 15–20 days | Weekly | Balanced |
| Rail + Caspian Sea (Anzali) | 22–26 days | On enquiry | Ocean alternative |
Transit times reflect typical market performance and may vary with train schedules and border queues.
Alashankou → Dostyk → Moiynty → Bolashak → Turkmenistan → Sarakhs / Incheh Borun → Tehran. The second Dostyk–Moiynty track launched in 2025 multiplied this axis’s capacity fivefold. The adjacent road gateway is available via the Khorgos route.
Alashankou has been China's first rail link to Kazakhstan since 1990 and remains the most mature rail gateway into Central Asia — no corridor matches its decades of operating experience.
With the second Dostyk–Moiynty track launched in 2025, this axis jumped from 12 to 60 train pairs per day — the historical bottleneck on this corridor is gone.
This route is optimized for FCL: your 40ft or 20ft container moves from the origin station to Tehran's rail yard under a single set of CIM/SMGS documents, with no splitting en route.
After Turkmenistan, cargo can enter Iran via Sarakhs (Iran's busiest rail crossing) or via Incheh Borun — the shorter route toward Tehran, active since late 2024.
When needed, rail to the Caspian coast plus transit from Anzali port to Tehran is also available — a useful release valve when southern capacity is saturated.
Machinery, production-line equipment, bagged raw materials and heavy shipments — cargo for which air is too expensive and sea too slow — is this route's core clientele.
Container details (20ft or 40ft, commodity) are shared and train capacity is reserved. Some routes accept SOC (shipper-owned) containers.
The container is delivered to the origin rail terminal (e.g. Xi'an or Urumqi). China export customs declaration and loading are completed.
The train exits China at Alashankou and connects to the 1,520 mm network at Dostyk, where the container is reloaded.
Movement over the high-capacity Dostyk–Moiynty axis, then entry into Turkmenistan at Bolashak and onward to Sarakhs or Incheh Borun.
Handover to Iranian Railways, clearance at Aprin or Shahyar rail yard in Tehran, and final delivery to your warehouse.
