AndrewGrantham.co.uk

The December 2007 issue of the ASLEF Journal, the in-house magazine of a UK railway trade union, has a one-page article entitled “A long way to go for Iraq’s railways“. This says

• Baghdad - Basra was discontinued last year and remains closed
• “only about 10 people a day board the 10-hour trip from the capital to Mosul - and that nearly of them are railway employees.”
• “various outposts [...] manage to run limited local trains, but it is in the face of terrorists threats and criminal gangs.”
• “The remote railhead in the desert at al-Qaim runs infrequent and unreliable services …”

Download the magazine as a PDF. The Iraq article is on page 11.

A photo taken by Naeemazizian on November 3 2007 showing one of the Afghan steam locos at the National Museum in Kabul. It’s good to see that it is being looked after.

A couple of photos taken on November 3 2007 showing one of the Afghan steam locos at the National Museum in Kabul. It’s good to see that it is being looked after.

1. http://www.flickr.com/photos/naeemazizian/1882670854/
2. http://www.flickr.com/photos/naeemazizian/1881838823/

Kuwait’s Arab Times reports, unfortunately without a date,
Italian railway experts due

An Italian technical delegation specialized in railway projects will arrive in Kuwait next week to meet with officials at the Ministry of Communications to discuss ways to link the country’s railway project with the Iraqi railway network, reports Al-Watan. The Italian delegation, which is responsible for operating the Iraqi railway network, will meet with Communications Ministry Undersecretary Eng Abdul Aziz Al-Osaimi and Assistant Undersecretary for Transport Sector Nabeel Al-Tarkeet.

The delegation had earlier visited the country and met with the Transport Sector officials to review the technical figures, statistics and data as a prelude for preparing an integrated technical concept to be referred to the Ministry to discuss the possibility of linking the railway networks in Iraq and Kuwait. Sources said Kuwait’s railway project is still in the evaluation and study phase in preparation for inviting international consultancy offices to provide bids for this major national project.

Club Feroviar has something similar dated 29 November 2007:
Possible rail line between Irak and Kuweit

Next week, an Italian delegation, responsible for the operability of the railway trasnport network in Irak will meet the State Subsecretary of the Communications Ministry in Kuweit, Eng Abdul Aziz Al-Osaimi, to discuss the unification possibilities of railway networks in Irak and Kuweit. The Irakian Transport Ministry’s officials analized the statistics and information given in the process of unification through railway networks of the two countries. This particular project will be handed in to the Minsitry.
The railway line Kuweit project is in the study and evaluation phase, as to announce the participation in tender.

There are currently no “conventional” railways in Kuwait (unless you know differently?), though there is reported to be a railway in the Entertainment City/Al-Madina Al-Tafrihi theme park.

I think this is the theme park:

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It had a Crown Metal Products 3ft gauge 4-4-0 loco, but it seems this was taken to Baghdad during the 1991 conflict. Severn-Lamb Ltd supplied a replacement. This aerial photo appears to show a narrow gauge train in Zarwa park in Baghdad, perhaps the one stolen from Kuwait?

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There has been some talk of building a metro in Kuwait, though this may not be too serious. There have also been rumours of plans to build a freight line between the docks and a US military base, taking trucks off the roads.

The two railway terminals in Afghanistan are now visible at a half-decent resolution in Google Earth.

Hayratan

Unfortunately the eastern-most part of the railway line is still low-resolution, including the Friendship Bridge from Uzbekistan. Some sidings are visible, but no trains.

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Towraghondi

There is more to see on the line from Turkmenistan, with lots of sidings and buildings, and various wagons.

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Chris Curtis served in Iraq with the US infantry, and has sent me this photo of a short IRR train hauled by loco DEM2717 which he took “just south of Baghdad” in 2005.

© Chris Curtis

The 50 locos in the DEM2700 class were built by Dalian Loco in China, and delivered to Iraqi Republic Railways from 2002.

More pics

The UK’s Defence Image database has a few pictures of railways in Iraq dated 26/11/03, which can be found if you search for railway. I can’t figure out if the copyright rules let me put them here or not, but try these links

• http://tinyurl.com/2ctvay Members of A Company, 1st Battalion The Royal Scots. On foot patrol in Az-Zubayr south of Basra.
• http://tinyurl.com/2c824p A member of A Company, 1st Battalion The Royal Scots with Iraqi children, on foot patrol in Az-Zubayr south of Basra crosses rail tracks.
• http://tinyurl.com/2efxbb A child sits on a rusting railway carriage [actually a freight wagon] as he watches members of A Company, 1st Battalion The Royal Scots on foot patrol Az-Zubayr south of Basra.

Samuel Rachdi of Fahrplancenter has provided me with some information on train operations across Afghanistan’s northern borders.

The Turkmen government has rehabilitated earlier in 2007 the line to Towraghondi and about 20 to 25 wagon loads are brought over this rail line to Afghanistan per week. This line is operated by Turkmen Railways.

In contrast the Termez (Uzbekistan) - Hayratan line is very busy, nearly every day a train is entering Afghanistan, mainly with petroleum products, building material, machines, agricultural products. Every train consits of up to 30 wagons. In the opposite direction very little merchandise is transported, less than 10% against import, so most wagons are leaving the country empty. This line is operated by Uzbek Railways, but with some Afghan employees at Hayratan.

A news report which is floating round the web

Plan Ready To Make Balochistan Rail Link For Central Asia

QUETTA, Oct 26 Asia Pulse - [Pakistan's] federal government has prepared a blueprint for Balochistan to make it a rail bridge for Pakistan trade and a traffic corridor connecting it to Iran, Turkey, Europe and Central Asia.
According to official sources, Pakistan Railway’s blueprints provide for rail access from Gwadar, Pakistan’s third deep seaport along Arabian Sea, to Afghanistan and Central Asian Republics as well as Russia on one side.

On the other side, they said, Gwadar would have a rail link with Iran, Turkey, Europe and beyond. Both these vital rail links would go through southern, central and northern Balochistan. The blueprints show a link between Gwadar-Mastung-Taftan and Zahidan (Iran) on one hand, while on the other from Gwadar to Kandahar (southern Afghanistan) via Mastung-Quetta-Chaman-Spinboldak.

The sources added that at present Gwadar had no rail network, therefore, the government had decided to build 940-kilometer broad gauge from Gwadar (southern Balochistan) to Mastung (central Balochistan) at an estimated cost of Rs75 billion. Mastung is already connected with Quetta on the main line linking Pakistan with Iran via Taftan and Zahidan (Iran). The Quetta-Taftan-Zahidan section (612-km) though Mastung is in process of upgrading to international standard.

Such standard would be at par with Iranian railways, already catering for passengers and freight services to Turkey and the European countries, they added. They said the PR had already set aside a sum of Rs10billion for upgrading of Quetta-Taftan-Zahidan section.