Transport in Uzbekistan

As of 2007, Uzbekistan's overland transportation infrastructure declined significantly in the post-Soviet era due to low investment and poor maintenance. Air transport was the only branch that received substantial government investment in the early 2000s, as airport modernization projects were undertaken. In the following years, improvements have been made to the surface transport network including the construction of the Tashkent–Samarkand high-speed rail line.

Railways

As of March 2017, the total length of Uzbekistan's main railway network is Template:Convert, of which Template:Convert is electrified.

Trams

Uzbekistan has one town tramway system, which is located in Samarkand. The modern, electrified system opened its first line in 2017, and is the first system to operate in Samarkand since the Soviet-era system was disestablished in 1973.

Metro lines

The Tashkent Metro was the only such line in Central Asia, until the opening of the Almaty Metro.

Highways

File:M39 Highway in Uzbekistan near Jomboy.jpg

M39 Highway in Uzbekistan, near Jomboy

As of 2005, Uzbekistan had Template:Convert of roads, about Template:Convert of which were paved. The road infrastructure is deteriorating, particularly outside of Tashkent. No significant highway projects were underway in 2006. In the early 2000s, U.S. engineers improved some roads around the port of Termez to facilitate movement of humanitarian supplies to Afghanistan. Uzbekistan is a member country of the United Nations’ Asian Highway Network, and several national roads are designated as part of the network.

There are some parts of the roads considered as freeways, although mostly in a state of complete neglect and disrepair since the collapse of the Soviet Union. The ring road around Tashkent is about Template:Convert long, and completely multilaned, although it lacks a carriageway separation in most sections.

The M39 Highway, connecting Tashkent and Samarkand is a 4-laned road in some Template:Convert of its length, although poorly maintained and without carriageway separation in most of its length. In January, 2017, the Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan governments made an agreement to reopen the Template:Convert section of this highway which passed through Kazakhstan that had been closed for ten years, avoiding the detour via Guliston. The M37 Highway starts from Samarkand, reaching west to the Turkmen border, via Navoiy and Bukhara. The A373 Highway starts from Tashkent, going east through Kokand of Fergana Region, and ends at the Kyrgyz border.

In September 2019, The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank proposed the Bukhara Road Network Improvement Project to improve the multiple assets of cross-border roads in Bukhara and the road networks in Karakalpakstan and Khorezm regions. The project finances were approved in June of 2020 and has been estimated to take 214.7 million USD.

Highway classification

The highways in Uzbekistan are divided into three groups based on the level of their significance whose names differ by a prefix on their code. On July 2024, in a cabinet ruling, the Soviet-era highway numbers were retained for "roads of international significance", but the road numbering was overhauled for "roads of state significance" and "roads of local significance".

This superceded and annulled an earlier cabinet ruling from August 2010, which affirmed and documented the same 3 levels of roadway, but retaining the codes from the Soviet era.

Below are the "highways of international significance", with a prefix "M" or "A", inheritted from the Soviet road network.

Road	Direction	Length
Template:RouteBox	Toshkent — Yangiyoʻl — Chinoz — Sirdaryo — Guliston — Xovos — Tajik international border (Template:RouteBox)	153 km
Template:RouteBox	Samarqand — Ishtixon — Kattaqoʻrgʻon — Karmana — Buxoro — Olot — Turkmen international border	367 km
Template:RouteBox	Samarqand Ring Road	46 km
Template:RouteBox	Kazakh international border (Template:RouteBox) — Gʻishtkoʻprik — Toshkent — Chinoz — Jizzax — Samarqand — Shahrisabz — Gʻuzor — Termiz	628 km
Template:RouteBox	Termiz Bypass — Hayraton — Afghan international border (Template:RouteBox)	30 km
Template:RouteBox	Tajik international border (Template:RouteBox) — Denov — Jarqoʻrgʻon — Termiz	188 km
Template:RouteBox	Toshkent — Ohangaron — Angern — Qoʻqon — Shahrixon — Andijon — Kyrgyz international border (Template:RouteBox)	379 km
Template:RouteBox	Ohangaron — Guliston — Sardoba	129 km
Template:RouteBox	192nd km of A373 — Qoʻqon	66 km
Template:RouteBox	Qoʻqon — Beshariq — Tajik international border (Template:RouteBox) a break in the itinerary of this route Tajik international border (Template:RouteBox) — Bekobod — Xovos — Jizzax	153 km
Template:RouteBox	Samarqand — Tajik international border (Template:RouteBox)	37 km
Template:RouteBox	Samarqand — Gʻuzor	152 km
Template:RouteBox	Navoiy — Uchquduq	289 km
Template:RouteBox	Gʻuzor — Qarshi — Muborak — Buxoro — Tuproqqalʼa — Beruniy — Nukus — Xoʻjayli — Qoʻngʻirot — Kazakh international border (Template:RouteBox)	1,204 km
Template:RouteBox	Xoʻjayli — Turkmen international border	12 km

The total length of these roads is 3,833 km.

The next level of roadways in Uzbekistan are "roads of state significance" (), their codes consisting of 3 digints, and being designated with a prefix "D" (for davlat, meaning "state"). These roads are designated from D001 to D240, with branches and variants being labelled using miniscule latin letters, e.g. "D025e" (862nd km of M39 — Chinoz). The total length of these roads is 14,316 km.

The next level of roadways are "roads of local significance", numbered at a region (viloyat) level. For these types of roads, their codes consist of 3 digits, and they're designated with a prefix "##V" (a two digit number desingating the region, same codes as those for Uzbek license plates, followed by "V" for viloyat). For example "70V001" is located in Qashqadaryo Region, and designates Qashqadaryo Ring Road. (license plates of Qashqadaryo Region have codes 70 to 74). Branches and variants are also labelled using miniscule latin letters, e.g. "70V078a" (3rd km of D148 — Shahrisabz). The total length of these roads is 24,222 km.

Ports and waterways

Double landlocked Uzbekistan has no seaports. Its main river port is Termez on the Amu Darya river. Although Termez lacks modern facilities and has a shortage of spare parts, activity there has increased as conditions in neighboring Afghanistan have stabilized. Termez has been an important transfer point for humanitarian supplies entering Afghanistan.

Uzbekistan has Template:Convert of inland waterways. Since the mid-1990s, commercial travel on Uzbekistan's portion of the Amu Darya has been reduced because of low water levels.

Pipelines

As of 2010, Uzbekistan had Template:Convert of natural gas pipelines, Template:Convert of oil pipelines, and Template:Convert of pipelines for refined products.

Airports

As of 2012, Uzbekistan has 53 airports. 33 of them have paved runways, six of which had runways longer than Template:Convert. The largest of them, Tashkent International Airport, is linked with European and Middle Eastern cities by direct flights of Aeroflot, Lufthansa, and Turkish Airlines. The national airline, Uzbek Havo Yollari (Uzbekistan Airlines), flies mainly within the former Soviet Union. In August 2010, Hanjin Group, the parent of Korean Airlines, opened a new cargo terminal at Navoi, which will become a cargo hub with regular Incheon-Navoi-Milan flights.

See also

• North-South Transport Corridor
• Ashgabat Agreement, a Multimodal transport agreement signed by India, Oman, Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, for creating an international transport and transit corridor facilitating transportation of goods between Central Asia and the Persian Gulf.