[7] Following the first test run by a passenger train from Tbilisi to Akhalkalaki on 27 September 2017, the BTK was inaugurated for cargo service on 30 October 2017, in a ceremony in Alyat hosted by the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev.

[8][9] The Baku–Tbilisi–Kars project was intended to provide a rail corridor linking Azerbaijan to Turkey via Georgia whilst avoiding Armenia, following the closure of the Kars–Gyumri–Tbilisi railway in 1993, as a result of the first Nagorno-Karabakh War.

In late 2015, a goods train took only 15 days to travel from South Korea to Istanbul via China, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, and Georgia—considerably less time than a journey by sea.

A railway line project between Azerbaijan and Turkey through Georgia, intended to provide an alternative to the closed route, was first discussed in July 1993.

[17] For the construction of the railway on Georgian territory, Azerbaijan agreed to provide a US$220 million loan to Georgia, repayable in 25 years, with an annual interest rate of 1%.

[22] The European Union and the United States declined to assist in the financing or promoting of the line because they saw it as being designed to bypass Armenia, and supported the reopening of the Kars-Gyumri-Tbilisi railway line instead,[23] thanks in part to pressure on the US Congress from the Armenian lobby in the United States, such as the Armenia National Committee in America (ARMENPAC).

[6] The foreign ministers of Azerbaijan (Elmar Mammadyarov), Georgia (Mikheil Janelidze) and Turkey (Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu) held a fifth trilateral meeting in Georgia on 19 February 2016, during which they travelled to the new Georgia-Turkey border crossing at Kartsakhi/Çıldır, subsequently hailing the railway project as "historic" and noting its importance for the region in the context of the new Silk Road.

[34] The ceremony had been announced 27 September by the Azerbaijani and Georgian ministers of foreign affairs, following the first test run by a passenger train from Tbilisi to Akhalkalaki.

In the statement it is stated that this rail corridor will ensure better network, create new business circumstances and increase quality of trade among the parties.

[37] The key objective of the project was to improve economic relations between the three countries, and to gain direct foreign investment by connecting Europe and Asia.

[41] According to Samuel Lussac, "[the project] will contribute to further regional cooperation between Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey," but it will also, "constitute a new stage in the further marginalisation of Armenia within the South Caucasus.

"[24] The president of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, reportedly declared in 2005: "If we succeed with this project, the Armenians will end in complete isolation, which would create an additional problem for their already bleak future".

[40] As further objectives, the railway is expected to provide stable goods turnover between Azerbaijan, Turkey, Georgia, and the countries located on the other side of the Caspian Sea.

[43] In June 2018, Stadler signed a contract in Bussnang, Switzerland, with the Georgian company Marabda-Kartsakhi-Railway LCC, for the delivery of a gauge-changing facility, comprising 30 metres (98 ft) of special track, to be installed in Akhalkalaki.