Upper Baskunchak (station)

The station is located in the village of Upper Baskunchak, Akhtuba district, Astrakhan region . Branches leave for the station on Volgograd , Lower Baskunchak . The Upper Baskunchak - Lower Baskunchak branch is departmental, although it is displayed on the official maps of Russian Railways and is owned by Bassol OJSC. It carries out only freight transportation.

At the Upper Baskunchak station, all long-distance trains stop. Passenger transportation through the station to Brest , Makhachkala , Odessa , Volgograd , Moscow , Saratov , Astrakhan , Tashkent , Baku , Khujant , Adler , Novorossiysk , St. Petersburg , Kazan , Nizhny Novgorod , Murmansk , Kharkov , Kiev , Orsk , Kustanai , Astana , Pavlodar , Tomsk , Novokuznetsk , Karaganda , Tyumen , Nizhnevartovsk , Dushanbe , Simferopol , Mangyshlak , Aktobe , Alma-Ata , Novosibirsk , Izhevsk . ^[2] Also, many freight trains pass through the station, including with salt transported from the village of Nizhny Baskunchak .

The station is notable for the fact that in its northern part there is a perpendicular blind intersection of two single-track sections (Solonchak - Lower Baskunchak and Upper Baskunchak - Urbakh), which is used only in the warm period when salt is being mined. In winter, the cross is removed from the path.

As of June 2019, the following long-distance trains run through the station:

Before the construction of the Astrakhan line, the station site was a desert area through which the Baskunchak railway , opened in 1881 to transport salt from Lake Baskunchak to the Vladimirovka station, located on the Volga River, passed . In connection with the laying of the Astrakhan line crossing the Baskunchak railway , the Upper Baskunchak station was opened in 1907, and a steam locomotive was commissioned.

During the Great Patriotic War, the station became a major railway hub of strategic importance. In 1941, in a record short time, the Akhtuba - Stalingrad railway was built, along which people, food, and military equipment were delivered. The Upper Baskunchak was repeatedly subjected to air raids, as a result of which the railway lines, train depot were almost completely destroyed, the station was burned, the village was destroyed, but the station continued to work and ensure the delivery of troops and equipment.

In the post-war years, a track machine station, a car depot, track distance, signaling and communication distance were opened. Previously, there was a railway line to Middle Baskunchak, which is currently dismantled.

In 2005, overhaul of the platform and the station was carried out, in 2010 the second route of the Upper Baskunchak – Solonchak route was opened. ^{[3] [4] [5]} .

At the station are carried out:

• sale of passenger tickets;
• reception, baggage claim;
• receiving and issuing carload shipments (open areas);
• reception and delivery of wagon and small shipments (access roads). ^[6]

• Unified network marking: Upper Baskunchak
• Tariff Guide No. 4. Alphabetical List of Railway Stations
• Tariff Guide No. 4 (as amended on 11/28/2008, as amended on 10/06/2010) Book 1 “Tariff distances between stations on railway sections”
• Upper Baskunchak on translogist.ru
• Upper Baskunchak on a map of the Astrakhan region
• Detailed map of the Volga Railway (Neopr.) . Archived December 5, 2012.
• Map of railways and roads of the Astrakhan region
• Map of the Volga Railway