The first rail line in Turkmenistan was built in 1880, from the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea to Mollagara.  By October 1881 the line was extended to Kyzyl-Arvat, by 1886 had reached Çärjew.  In 1887 a wooden rail bridge was built over the Amu Darya, and the line was continued to Samarkand (1888) and Tashkent (1898). Rail service in Turkmenistan began as part of Imperial Russia's Trans-Caspian Railway, then of the Central Asian Railway.  After the collapse of the USSR, the railway network in Turkmenistan was transferred to  and operated by the state-owned Türkmendemirýollary. The rail gauge is the same as the Russian (and former Soviet) one-1520 millimeters.