The first central station in Tbilisi was built in 1872, with trains to the black sea port of Poti.

The architects Bairamashvili, Kavlashvili, G. Shavdia and Jibladze won a State Prize for their work in 1992.

From neighboring Armenia, trains depart to Tbilisi and Batumi from Yerevan railway station.

Although argued otherwise by the American consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton, the project was therefore very much disputed by Western European transportation specialists and railway companies.

[4] According to plans revealed by the city government in 2018, the existing infrastructure for the bypass project will be integrated into a new line of Tbilisi Metro.