There’s an underground passageway in Armavir that was built to allow pedestrians safe access beneath the train tracks. Nobody uses it.

For the past year the passageway has been used as a garbage dump and no one appears willing to clean it. The tunnel has no lighting.

When I visited the site, I was amazed to see people crouching down to slip under the freight trains to get to the market on the other side. You won’t see any warning signs posted as to the dangers such maneuvers entail.

Artur Avoyan, Armavir station master for South Caucasus Railways, told me it wasn’t the heaps of garbage that presented a problem, but rather that no one takes responsibility for servicing the tunnel and installing some overhead lighting.

“The passageway isn’t the property of the railway. It belongs to the municipality. I’ve requested that they take care of the property, but to no avail,” says Avoyan.

The station master says that the municipality has cleaned the tunnel once in the past year after he personally went and complained. Station workers have erected a fence at one end of the tunnel so that more garbage isn’t dumped.

Avoyan also complained that it’s next to impossible to tell pedestrians not to cross the tracks or at least when it is safe to do so

“If the passageway is cleaned, people will have to use it. I’ll call the police to come around and stop people from crossing the tracks.”

Avoyan noted that due to investment in the rail system, trains can run faster and that a major tragedy is just waiting to happen.

Artak Avagyan, from the Armavir Municipality, told Hetq that town employees cleaned the passageway last year.

“We aren’t the ones to blame. We cleaned it once but it’s not our property. I don’t know who is responsible for the upkeep. Let the railway find out. The damn thing runs under their tracks,” added Avagyan.

Caught in the middle of this mutual blame game are local residents.

They and their children have to risk crossing the tracks every day.