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-Siberian Railway the original route, with a few stopovers (e.g. in Harbin, Grodekovo and Ussuriysk). Such an itinerary would pass through the following points from Harbin east: The Trans-Mongolian line follows the same route as the Trans-Siberian between Moscow and Ulan Ude, and then follows this route to Mongolia and China: New lines between Perm and Mariinsk via Ural base tunnel, Nizhny Tagil, Tyumen and Tomsk, from Krasnoyarsk via Eniseisk, Ermakovo, Igarka to Dudinka, from Kirov via Tobolsk, Surgut, Nizhnevartovsk, Eniseisk to Bratsk, and from Nizhny Tagil via Tobolsk and Tomsk to Eniseisk are proposed. Moscow-Kazanskaya - Ryazan - Samara - Ufa