The Italian company Arsenale Group intends to build luxury class tourist trains at enterprises owned by Uzbekistan Railways, the press service of the state company reports.

On May 3, as part of the III Tashkent International Investment Forum, the first deputy chairman of Uzbekistan Railways, Khikmatulla Rakhmetov, and the Director General of the Arsenale Group, Paolo Barlette, signed an agreement on the construction of luxury trains, which will begin running in 2026.
 
Tourist trains will run from Tashkent to Khiva with stops in Samarkand and Bukhara, and their duration will be 2 nights and 3 days. It is planned to operate approximately 70 to 90 trips per year.

The Samarkand Express luxury trains will consist of 13-15 carriages with 38 compartments (deluxe, luxury and superdeluxe), which will accommodate about 76 foreign tourists.

In October 2023, Uzbekistan Railways and the Italian Arsenale S.p.A. announced plans to launch a tourist train. Luxury trains were supposed to be launched from Tashkent to the country’s main historical cities.