AndrewGrantham.co.uk

IRNA reports Khwaf-Herat Railway To Connect Afghanistan To Pakistan

Afghan Foreign Minister Rangin Dadfar Spanta said on Sunday [=15 April 2007?] that the executive operations of Khwaf-Herat railway project, which is highly important to his country, started last year.

He made the remark at a press conference in Kabul during which he briefed the media on his last week’s three-day visit to Iran.

“Once this railway project is implemented, northern and southern parts of Afghanistan will be connected to Pakistan. Besides railway lines inside the country will also expand,” he said.

A press release of 27 May 2006 mentioned Iran’s President Ahmadinejad meeting wih Afghanistan’s President Karzai, when “seven agreements and memoranda of understanding on transfer of prisoners, extradition of criminals, promotion of investment, construction of the Khwaf-Herat railway as well as cooperation in cultural, judicial and economic fields are expected to be signed.”

Iran Daily had more details on 27 February 2007, and claims work has started:

Rail Link With Herat

KHWAF, Khorasan Razavi, Feb. 26. Construction of a railway line to link national railway network to the Afghan city of Herat began in a special ceremony here on Sunday.
Deputy head of Construction and Development Department of Railway, Airports and Ports at the Roads and Transportation Ministry told the Persian daily Qods that the railway line will extend a total length of 202 kilometers, adding that 77 kilometers of the route will be in Iran.
He said that in the year to March 2008, a plan will be undertaken to lay 125 kilometers of railway lines from the Iranian border to Herat. The railway line will start from Torbat Heidarieh Station and will be linked to the national railway via Mashhad-Bafq route. The Torbat Heidarieh-Bafq railway line which is around 12 kilometers was made operational with an average cost of four billion rials per kilometer.
The official further said the construction project of Iran-Afghanistan railway line within Iranian borders will be implemented by Nasr Institute, an affiliate to Khatamol Anbia Base, and the remaining section within Afghanistan will also be undertaken by an Iranian contractor.
The Iranian railway network stretches a total length of 8 300 km. The government has decided to modernize 5 600 km of the lines and also plans to lay out another 3 500 km of electrified railway lines. The objective is to transport 3.5 percent of the country’s total passenger and 8.5 percent of the total freight by rail. The government is interested in developing the East-West corridor.[More]

There is a short video about Redcar’s acoustic mirror on YouTube.

I’ve just stumbled across a mention of a letter about the Kabul tramway in the April 2007 issue (no 194) of an Australian publication called Light Railways, which is produced by the Light Railway Research Society of Australia Inc. I’ve not seen a copy of this magazine - anyone know if it says anything interesting, and if it might be worth me ordering a copy?

Letters - [...] Kabul tramway, Afghanistan

Because they are on an island surrounded by the waters of a deep gravel pit, the sound mirrors at Denge are only accessible on guided walks (believe me, this is true, I’m not making it up!).

Dates of guided walks are listed on the Romney Marsh Countryside Project website. I’ve been twice, and the “Echoes from the Sky” walks, led by Dr Scarth, author of the now out-of-print book and world expert on acoustic mirrors, are well worth doing - and very popular. Getting there by public transport requires a bit of planning, but is possible. Alternatively, the walks start from a large car park.

Some Easter 2007 photos of the Hythe acoustic mirrors on An English Shooter’s Blog.