Tashkent to Khiva high-speed train: 2026 times and fares

01

Is there a fast train from Tashkent to Khiva?

Yes. Since 5 May 2026 the Jaloliddin Manguberdi, built by Hyundai Rotem, has linked Tashkent-Markaziy (Central) station with Khiva: 7 h 42 min westbound and 7 h 56 min eastbound in the railway’s booking search, against 14 h 24 min for night train 056. A second trainset joined on 22 July 2026. Launch report

It is not an Afrosiyob. Afrosiyob is the Talgo train that serves Samarkand, Bukhara and Qarshi. The Khiva train has its own name, its own numbers (752 towards Khiva, 751 towards Tashkent, as the operator’s own notices call them) and its own fares. A search for “Afrosiyob to Khiva” finds nothing useful; search by station instead, Tashkent to Khiva (Xiva). Our Afrosiyob guide covers the other train.

It does not travel at its maximum speed throughout the journey. The railway describes a seven-car train able to reach 250 km/h and says the 450 km Bukhara–Urgench–Khiva section was electrified for it. Uzbekistan has no separate high-speed line yet: Spot reported in April 2026 that one from Tashkent to Samarkand is at the feasibility-study stage. Spot, 30 April 2026

The train can reach 250 km/h, but it does not maintain that speed throughout the journey. It reaches Bukhara 3 h 54 min after leaving Tashkent, a quarter of an hour quicker than the 07:30 Afrosiyob in the same search, then needs 3 h 28 min after a 20-minute stop to cross the desert to Khiva.

02

When does the Tashkent–Khiva train run?

From Tashkent it runs every day except Sunday; from Khiva, every day except Monday. The booking search returned exactly that pattern for every date we checked between 25 September and 23 November 2026. It matches the two announced trainsets: the first leaves Tashkent on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, and the second on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Spot: second trainset

Use the times below, not the launch announcements. In May the railway announced 07:00 → 14:31 and a 07:20 return reaching Tashkent at 14:51; in July, 07:15 from Khiva for the second trainset. On 24 September the booking search showed 07:00 → 14:42 and 07:10 → 15:06 on every date. The railway publishes no intermediate times, so we took them from searches for each pair of stations.

03

How much does the Tashkent–Khiva train cost?

Economy costs 780,000 som for the whole route, business 1,006,000 and VIP 1,815,000: about $66, $85 and $154 at the Central Bank rate of 24 September 2026 (11,814.05 som per dollar). These are the prices the booking search displayed that day. The economy price is the same 780,000 som the railway gave before launch. CBU rate

We found no published tariff table for this train, so treat the figures as search results that can change. Children’s fares and charges for extra services appear during booking. For sections we found in both directions, the fares were the same each way.

04

Economy, business or VIP: which classes are available?

Each departure offers economy and either business or VIP, depending on the day. Spot’s pre-launch report lists three classes on the train, but no departure we saw in the booking search offered all three at once.

The available classes varied by day of the week. Trains leaving Tashkent on Tuesday and Saturday, and Khiva on Friday, showed VIP and economy; trains leaving Tashkent on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and Khiva on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, showed business and economy. That fits the two trainsets’ days, but it is our observation from one day of searches, not a published rule.

On board, the railway’s launch report describes seven cars, seats that turn to face the direction of travel, CCTV and screens with the route map and speed. The train was designed for heat, cold and Kyzylkum dust. All accommodation is seated: the search lists only seated cars, so this is a day train with no berths.

We have not ridden the train, and the railway’s pages do not describe food, Wi-Fi or luggage racks. We also leave out seat counts: the railway’s total and the car-by-car figures in media reports do not add up. Bring water and food for 7–8 hours.

05

When do tickets go on sale, and does it sell out?

Sales open at least 60 days before departure at 10:00 local time at the train’s origin station, under section 3 of the railway’s public offer. For both Manguberdi trains that means 10:00 Tashkent time, since Khiva uses the same time zone. Public offer

Tickets do sell out, especially from Tashkent to Khiva. On 24 September we searched every date up to 16 October. Only 6 of the 19 departures from Tashkent had any seat left, and one of those had a single business seat. From Khiva, 13 of 19 departures still had seats, many with dozens in economy.

Dates further ahead looked different. From 17 October to 23 November the search listed the train on its usual days but with no seats on any section, not even the 20-minute Urgench–Khiva hop, while Afrosiyob seats to Bukhara were on sale for 20 November. We cannot tell whether those Manguberdi seats were sold or not yet released.

Our advice: if your date shows no seats, search again on the following days after 10:00, and book a fallback from the alternatives below if your dates are fixed. Refunds are explained in our booking guide.

06

Can you ride only Bukhara–Khiva or Khiva–Samarkand?

Yes. You can book part of the Manguberdi route in both directions: we saw prices for Khiva–Urgench, Khiva–Bukhara, Khiva–Samarkand, Urgench–Tashkent, Bukhara–Khiva and Urgench–Khiva (fares above). Westbound, Bukhara–Khiva seats were available on almost the same dates as full-route seats: 7 of 19 departures up to 16 October.

Eastbound, the Manguberdi is the early train out of Khiva. It leaves at 07:10, reaches Bukhara (Buxoro-1) at 10:38, leaves again at 10:57 and reaches Samarkand at 12:41. Its arrival in Bukhara is almost four hours earlier than that of CRRC electric train 707, which leaves Khiva at 09:55 and reaches Bukhara at 14:32, every day except Tuesday. Our Khiva–Bukhara–Samarkand itinerary is built around this morning run. Operator notice, 7 September

Westbound, the Manguberdi leaves Bukhara at 11:14 and reaches Khiva at 14:42, in time for an afternoon in Ichan-Kala. Train 706 leaves Bukhara at 15:45 and arrives at 20:25. See Bukhara to Khiva for the 706 and road options, and Samarkand to Bukhara for the leg before it.

07

Khiva or Urgench: where should you get off?

Get off at Khiva (Xiva), the last stop. Urgench comes 20 minutes earlier and is a separate city, so a ticket to Urgench leaves you with another journey to arrange. Khiva station opened in 2018, and the railway describes a tree-lined avenue running from it towards the Ichan-Kala monument complex. Railway report, 2021

On OpenStreetMap the station is about 1.2 km in a straight line from Ichan-Kala’s east gate (Palvan Darvoza) and 1.6 km from the west gate (Ota Darvoza). That is our measurement, not a walking time; with luggage, we suggest pickup arranged by your accommodation. Station on OpenStreetMap

If you fly in instead, Urgench airport now has its own train. No. 7055 leaves the airport at 08:40, calls at Urgench station at 08:59 and reaches Khiva at 09:22; No. 7058 leaves Khiva at 21:00 for the airport. The adult fare is 25,000 som (about $2). It runs once a day each way, so other flights still need a taxi or transfer. Operator notice, 3 September

Then see our Khiva guide and the desert castles day trip.

08

How do you book the Tashkent–Khiva train?

Book on the railway’s own site, eticket.uzrailpass.uz; the old address eticket.railway.uz now redirects there. Search by stations rather than by train name, and have your passport details ready before you start, because the payment step is timed.

1. 1

   Search by station and date

   Choose Tashkent and Khiva (Xiva). The Manguberdi appears as train 752 or 751 with its name.

2. 2

   Pick the class

   Each departure shows economy plus business or VIP, with the number of available seats, next to the night trains for the same date.

3. 3

   Enter passport details

   Use the passport you will travel with, and correct any error before paying.

4. 4

   Pay within 10 minutes

   The site allows 10 minutes for the passenger and payment steps, then cancels the order. It lists national cards, Visa, Mastercard, Mir, UnionPay, Google Pay and Apple Pay; whether your own bank approves the payment is a separate question.

5. 5

   Save the e-ticket

   Download the ticket with its 14-digit number and keep a copy offline for the station check.

09

What if the fast train is full, or it’s Sunday?

Take a night train, fly to Urgench, or change at Bukhara. All are slower door to door, but they run on days or at times the Manguberdi doesn’t, and night trains usually still had berths when the Manguberdi was full.

• Sunday from Tashkent: no Manguberdi, and neither 056 nor 076 runs. Train 125 goes only as far as Urgench that day. Flying, or the Afrosiyob-plus-706 combination, are the realistic options.
• Monday from Khiva: our search found no train at all from Khiva to Tashkent on Mondays. Leave on Sunday or Tuesday, or fly from Urgench.
• Other days from Khiva: after the 07:10 Manguberdi, night trains leave at 15:32/15:33 (076 on Tuesdays; 126 on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays) and 18:30 (056 on Wednesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays).

10

Night train or fast train: which is better?

For most first trips we would take the Manguberdi. You reach Khiva at 14:42 with the afternoon free, while the night trains arrive at 12:09 or 13:26 after 14–15 hours on board. The night train does save a hotel night, and an open berth costs about a third of the Manguberdi’s economy fare.

Choose the berth with care. The railway’s carriage guide describes platskart as an open-plan sleeping car, kupe as four-berth compartments and SV as two-berth compartments. On train 056 the SV costs 640,390 som, close to the Manguberdi’s 780,000 economy fare, and it was on sale only on some dates. Carriage types

A kupe compartment means a night beside people you may not know; platskart is open-plan, with no door at all. If you travel alone, weigh that before saving the money. Night trains leave from Tashkent-Janubiy (South), not the Central station the Manguberdi uses.

Khiva works well as the far end of a longer loop; our 10-day and 14-day itineraries show how many nights to give each city. Practical safety notes for women and solo travellers are in Is Uzbekistan safe?.

11

What can go wrong on this route?

The main planning problems are limited seats and changes to the service. This is what we found on 24 September 2026.

• Westbound sell-outs: only 6 of the next 19 departures from Tashkent had seats. Book as soon as your date opens.
• No seats shown further ahead: nothing was on sale for any date from 17 October to 23 November. Recheck; don’t assume the train is cancelled.
• Cut-backs to Urgench: from 31 July to 10 August 2026 the railway ran trains 752 and 751 only to and from Urgench for technical reasons, with a free bus to Khiva. Operator notice
• Timetable changes: the booking search differs from the May and July announcements by 5–15 minutes. Trust your ticket.
• Class depends on the day: you get economy plus business or VIP, not a free choice of all three.
• The 07:00 start: unless you land in Tashkent well before dawn, plan a night in the city first. See arriving at Tashkent airport.
• Mondays from Khiva: no train at all to Tashkent in our search.

12

What is changing on the Khiva line?

More trains are coming. As of 29 July 2026 the railway had six Manguberdi trainsets on order: three delivered, two in service and the third in technical testing. A third trainset could add departures, but no date has been announced. Railway, 29 July 2026

A Tashkent–Nukus high-speed service is due from March 2027. President Shavkat Mirziyoyev announced it at a meeting on Karakalpakstan, saying the trip would fall from 16 hours to 7; kun.uz reported in May that the Manguberdi service itself is planned to reach Nukus from 2027. For the Aral Sea side of that journey, see our Aral Sea trip guide. Gazeta, 19 September 2026

Other services on the route are also changing: the operator is changing trains 125/126 on their Fergana Valley section from 30 September and 1 October 2026, and it posts such changes on Telegram first. We will recheck this page by 23 December 2026. Operator notice, 23 September From Nukus, the only crossing into western Kazakhstan open to travellers is by train: see Nukus to Beyneu.

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