The Baku-Tbilisi-Baku train service remains unavailable for most passengers.

A special quarantine regime introduced in connection with the coronavirus pandemic has been in effect in Azerbaijan since 2020. In March, the Azerbaijani government extended it for another three months, until July 1, 2026. The Cabinet of Ministers again stated that the purpose of this decision was to prevent the spread of coronavirus infection in the country and its possible consequences. Meanwhile, back in September 2024, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev stated that maintaining closed borders was also due to "external risks" to the country's security.

Purchasing tickets for the Baku-Tbilisi train on the Azerbaijan Railways website is problematic, and ticket sales for the return Tbilisi-Baku route have effectively stopped, despite passengers reporting plenty of available seats on trains in this direction. ADY announced that they would add one carriage to the Baku-Tbilisi-Baku train due to high demand, but even a few additional carriages would not solve the problem, according to Meydan TV’s article “Baku-Tbilisi Train: One-Way Journey, Expensive Tickets, and an Unaffordable Trip”.

Affordable tickets for the Baku-Tbilisi train, which go on sale on the ADY website, are sold out within minutes of the start of sales, after which only the most expensive “Lux” class tickets are available to passengers. Such tickets for some July routes are sold for between 196 and 210 manat (116-124 US dollars).

For several weeks, journalists tried to purchase train tickets from Tbilisi to Baku, but received notifications that "all tickets were sold out." Passengers on social media claim that intermediaries and some travel agencies are buying tickets in advance for subsequent illegal resale. At the same time, employees of several travel agencies stated that the sale of tickets for the Tbilisi-Baku route has been stopped by Azerbaijan Railways itself. Contacts of "intermediaries" also informed customers that Tbilisi-Baku train tickets for June and July were already sold out, even though they had initially offered them such tickets at a price of 280 manat (approximately $165). As a result, both tour operators and "intermediaries" advised interested passengers to return from Tbilisi to Baku by plane.

Azerbaijan Railways did not respond to journalists' inquiries about the reason for its decision not to sell train tickets from Tbilisi to Baku.

Train ticket prices remain unaffordable for many

The closure of Azerbaijan's land borders for six years has led to a nearly sevenfold decrease in the number of trips by Georgian citizens to Azerbaijan, from 725,000 in 2019 to 110,000 in 2025. The number of trips by Azerbaijanis to Georgia over the same period fell from 1.6 million to 226,000. Residents of neighboring countries and border regions, whose family and social ties are located on opposite sides of the Azerbaijani border, have been separated from their loved ones for a long time: they do not see their families and “cannot share either joy or sorrow,” the publication notes.

The opening of the Baku-Tbilisi-Baku train service was presented by Azerbaijan Railways as "state concern" for passengers, but in reality, passengers have still not been able to purchase tickets at the minimum advertised price of 81 manat, notes journalist Alya Yagublu, a native of Georgia.

"The ticket price does not correspond to the means of the average Azerbaijani citizen, including Azerbaijanis living in Georgia. (...) For Azerbaijanis whose relatives and families live in Georgia, this price is completely inappropriate. If they couldn't afford to fly, then for the same reason they won't be able to travel by train. People's incomes are not only insufficient for a luxury train; many don't even have enough for a decent life and adequate food. Therefore, offering them a train with Wi-Fi and a range of services, presenting it as a favor, is wrong," she notes.

According to her data, all passengers who tried to buy train tickets were offered tickets only at a high price, 200-220 manat. "This may be an affordable option for the wealthy segment of the population. The rest continue to face the same problems," Yagublu concluded.

The entire Baku-Tbilisi train carries only 118 passengers—roughly equivalent to the capacity of one airplane flight. As a result, the effect of launching train services is the same, "as if they had simply opened another flight," noted economist Natig Jafarli.

He cites the full opening of land borders and the introduction of bus services as a solution. "In this case, ticket prices will also normalize," the economist noted.