Batumi Welcomes First Direct Train From Yerevan

BATUMI WELCOMES FIRST DIRECT TRAIN FROM YEREVAN
by Tengiz Pachkoria

ITAR-TASS News Agency, Russia
June 18, 2006 Sunday 12:10 PM EST

The first direct train from Yerevan was welcomed at the Batumi railroad
terminal on Sunday. The train brought representatives of the Armenian
and Georgian railroad companies, who attended the train seeing-off
ceremony in Yerevan on Saturday.

The six-car train will be a quicker and cheaper way of transportation
than buses, the officials said.

Plenty of Armenian tourists have been visiting Georgian Black Sea
resorts, and bilateral and economic contacts between Armenia and
Georgia have broadened in the recent years. Georgian and Armenian
trains will be making the shuttle trips.

There was no direct railroad line between Yerevan and Batumi not
only in the 1990s but also in the Soviet period – two cars were first
brought to Tbilisi and then attached to a Tbilisi-Batumi train.