Trans-Asian Railway trade routes. UNESCAP's Transport & Tourism Division began work on the initiative in 1992 when it launched the Asian Land Transport Infrastructure Development project. The agreement formally came into force on 11 June 2009. The Trans-Asian Railway system will consist of four main railway routes. The existing Trans-Siberian railway, which connects Moscow to Vladivostok, will be used for a portion of the network in Russia. Another corridor to be included will connect China to Korea, Mongolia, Russia and Kazakhstan. In 2003, the president of Kazakhstan proposed building a standard gauge link from Dostyk (on the Chinese border) to Gorgan in
Trans-Mongolian Railway line began in 1947, reaching Ulan Bator from the north in 1950 and the Chinese border in 1955. Before that the only railways in Mongolia had been a line (opened in 1938) connecting the coal mines at Nalaikh to the capital and a Soviet-built freight-only branch (completed in 1939) from Borzya on the Trans-Siberian Railway to Bayantümen, Dornod near Choibalsan in north-eastern Mongolia. Russian Irkutsk State University of Railway Engineering opened its Ulaanbaatar branch in June 2009. The Mongolian Railway company "Mongolyn Tömör Zam" carries 80% of all freight and 30% of all passenger transport within Mongolia. In the aftermath