Trains in Uzbekistan: Afrosiyob, Sharq, the new Khiva train, tickets and boarding
Places in this article: Khiva · Samarkand · Bukhara · Tashkent
Train 766 leaves Tashkent at 7:21 and pulls into Samarkand at 9:51. Breakfast in the capital, lunch a short ride from the Did you know? The Registan's sun-carrying lion went on a banknote The Sher-Dor Madrasah (1619–1636) is named for the big cats with the sun on their backs on its portal. The image appeared on the reverse of Uzbekistan's 200-som note of 1997. Read more →. For us in Tashkent the train is the backbone of almost every route: it links the capital with Samarkand and Bukhara, and since May 2026 a high-speed train runs all the way to Khiva.
Below is what we tell every traveller before the trip: which train to take, how to buy the ticket, and what happens at the station.
Which train to take
Uzbekistan's high-speed train: Tashkent to Samarkand in 2 hours 30 minutes, Tashkent to Bukhara in about 4 hours. Tickets are tied to your passport. Read more → is the Spanish-built Talgo high-speed train, with VIP, Business and Economy classes and a restaurant car. Tashkent to Samarkand takes 2 hours 30 minutes, Tashkent to Bukhara a little over 4 hours, and Samarkand to Bukhara under 2 hours. Several Afrosiyob trains run between Tashkent and Bukhara every day, with an extra pair on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.
Sharq is the classic air-conditioned train on the same line: cheaper, but slower, about 6 hours 30 minutes from Tashkent to Bukhara. Nasaf is a similar daily train without first class.
Jaloliddin Manguberdi is the new high-speed train to Khiva, built by Hyundai Rotem for up to 260 km/h. It entered service in May 2026, and a second trainset joined it in July. Between them they leave Tashkent at 7:00 every day except Sunday and leave Khiva at 7:15 or 7:20 every day except Monday; the journey takes about 7.5 hours. Timetables change, so check the current one on eticket.railway.uz before you plan around it. The overnight sleeper to Khiva still runs too: about 15 hours, with two-berth and four-berth compartments.
How to buy a ticket
Tickets are sold on the official Uzbekistan Railways site eticket.railway.uz, in the Uzrailway tickets app for iPhone and Android, and at station ticket offices. Sales open 60 days before departure. Afrosiyob and the Khiva train sell out, so we advise booking as soon as your dates are fixed.
The ticket is issued to your passport. It carries your surname and the number of your document, and the attendant at the carriage door checks the ticket against the passport. Enter your passport details exactly as they appear in the document: the person placing the order is responsible for them, and a typo can cost you your seat. Travel with the same passport you booked with.
An online ticket can be shown on your phone. At the Tashkent, Samarkand and Bukhara stations there are self-service kiosks that sell tickets and accept Visa as well as the local Uzcard and Humo cards. Visa and Mastercard work at almost every card terminal in Uzbekistan; you need cash only where there is no terminal, such as bazaars, street stalls and some taxis.
Refunds. At a station ticket office, return the ticket at least 24 hours before departure and you get the full fare back. Between 24 and 6 hours, you get the ticket price plus half of the reserved-seat charge. After that, and up to 3 hours after departure, you get the ticket price without the reserved-seat charge. The service fee is not refunded.
At the station and on board
- Which Tashkent station. Tashkent has two: Tashkent Central, which locals call the North station, and the South station, about 7 km away. Check the station on your ticket: overnight trains to Khiva, for example, usually leave from the South station.
- Security. You show your ticket and passport to enter the station, and bags are screened before the platform. Come at least half an hour early.
- Luggage. Each passenger may carry up to 36 kg of hand luggage, or 50 kg in two-berth sleeper compartments. A single item may not exceed 180 cm in length, width and height combined.
- From the station into town. Samarkand station is more than 6 km from the Registan and Bukhara station about 12 km from the old city, so plan a taxi or a transfer. In Khiva the station is a half-hour walk from Did you know? People still live inside Khiva's museum city Itchan Kala packs more than 50 historic monuments and about 250 old houses inside clay walls 8–10 m high and 5–6 m thick, and families still live and work in its lanes. Read more →.
How we plan train days
We like the early Afrosiyob to Samarkand: you arrive before 10 a.m. and have the whole day in the city. Between Samarkand and Bukhara the fast train takes under 2 hours, so the move costs you a morning rather than a day. For Khiva, the high-speed train saves a night on the sleeper. It skips only Sundays out of Tashkent and Mondays out of Khiva, so we simply keep the Khiva legs off those two days.
If you would rather not handle tickets yourself, a transfer or an extension can be added to a trip with us: see the tour catalogue or answer a few questions in the tour finder. Related reading: where to stay and exchanging money.
In short
- Afrosiyob: Tashkent–Samarkand in 2 hours 30 minutes, Tashkent–Bukhara in about 4 hours.
- Khiva: Jaloliddin Manguberdi from Tashkent in about 7.5 hours every day except Sunday; the sleeper takes about 15 hours.
- Book on eticket.railway.uz or in the app; sales open 60 days ahead.
- The ticket is tied to your passport: enter the details carefully and travel with the same document.
- Check which Tashkent station your train uses, and arrive at least half an hour early.
