Railways of Iraq

Various news sources report the [re-?]start of commuter rail services in Baghdad at the end of October, which is good news.

AP has some photographs, A train arrives at al-Alawi railway station, central Baghdad, Iraq, on Thursday, Oct. 30, 2008, showing DEM2727.

Baghdad Central station in 2005 (Photo by Mark Hemphill)

Commuter rail trains running in Baghdad to relieve traffic jams

by Fu Yiming, Jamal Hashim

…
The 25-kilomter commuter rail, a section of an old railway which had been damaged by the war and stopped running for years, came into operation just a few days ago.

It shuttles between central Baghdad and the mostly Shiite neighborhood of Kazimiyah north of the capital or the mainly Sunni suburb of Yousifiyah in the south, which makes a handful of stops in both Sunni and Shiite neighborhoods. A ticket costs 1,000 Iraqidinars (equivalent to 80 cents).

“The train is faster than cars, it avoids stopping in traffic jams and dozens of checkpoints that people obliged to pass through,” a Transport Ministry official said on condition of anonymity.

….
At the main station in Allawi area in central Baghdad, metal detectors and body search conducted by male and female security members are set at several checkpoints.

There are also walls that protect the railroad along with security forces protecting main and some stops for the train.

The anonymous Transport Ministry official said that “there are no security problems among those Sunni and Shiite districts, because situation is calm now” and there are also walls that protect the railroad along with security forces protecting main and some stops for the train, “but everybody knows that there is no 100 percent of guarantee for safety, not in every place in the world.”
[more]
Source: Xinhua

The official Iraqi Republic Railways website gives a timetable, but it doesn’t survive a Google translation:

News is very important

The company of the Iraqi Basthat railway line to transport people

As “the 10-27-2008 works on the side of Karkh to train
Services and absorb the momentum off in the Karkh side of the station
Central at 5.35 am, “passing” Mansour station at 5.50
And the field or drums session at 6.12 and the Abu Dshir to station
Yusufiya train at 6.25 am. “And leave the station for Yusufiya”
Baghdad at 6.50 am, “and hit the Abu Dshir 7.07 pm
Morning “and reach the station at 7.10 and 7.25 Mansour up station
Morning, “as up to the train station Kadhimiya at 7.50 am.” And again
Passenger b at 2.45. Aa train station Kadhimiya through “station
Mansour train at 3.09 b. And an AM or drums session at 3.27
B. AA and the Abu Dshir, to close at 3.45 b Yusufiya. Aa.
And re-boarding the train station at 4.00 pm Yusufiya, “passing”
Abu Dshir area in order “to the train station at 4.15 pm”
Access “to the train station at 4.46 pm Mansour” and up to station
Central Baghdad at 4.45 pm. ”

Fare (1000) thousand dinars only
Source: Iraqi Republic Railways.

Rainer Fuchs, who has a comprehensive website on Iraqi railway stamps, has found some wonderful vintage stereoscopic photographs of the Magil - Basra railway and the Magil light railway.

They are labelled with the name of Sunbeam Tours, who appear to have been at 37 Bedford Street, Strand, London WC2.

Maqil/Magil is near Basra, and seems to have a had a complicated mix of 2′, 2′6″ and metre gauge railways from World War I onwards.

Maqil - Basra railway

Iraq Development Program has a report from Noozz dated May 19 about various railway development plans. It is illustrated with a UK Class 323 EMU in Centro colours!

Iraq to invest $6 billion in railways to boost trade and tourism

Iraq will spend over $6 billion over the next few years to develop its railway infrastructure for passenger and freight services, connecting the whole country via a central hub encircling Baghdad according to the general director of the Iraqi Railroads Company.

Alaa ad-Deen Sadiq, the general director of the Iraqi Railroads Company, one of the enterprises of the ministry of transportation, told Al-Bayyina newspaper that the ministry has approved two giant projects for implementation and that a third is currently being discussed.

An unnamed international company has been awarded a design and modernization contract for the $1 billion Baghdad circle line railway. Construction on the project has already begun, and once completed it will encircle Baghdad, creating a 112km hub for all rail traffic moving across the country.

The project also includes the construction of two new passenger stations and a goods yard in south-west Baghdad, and three rail bridges, two across the river Tigris and one across the river Diyala.

Two new railways will be built in the second project linking Baghdad with Iraq’s southern sea ports for travel, tourism or commerce: Baghdad-Kut-Nsiriyya-Basra and Baghdad-Kut-Imara-Basra lines, at an estimated cost of $3 billion.

25 medium to large stations will be built along the lines, in addition to 20 interchange stations connecting to other railways, and a freight goods yard.

No details of completion dates were given in the report.

Sadiq revealed that a $2 billion railway to connect northern Iraq with Iran is in the planning stage, and will connect several major cities in the Iraqi Kurdistan region.

The 430km Baghdad-Kirkuk-Irbil-Mosul railway will serve as the central feeder line between Baghdad and the north, with central stations in Kirkuk and Mosul will feed two lines to Iran: Khanaqin-Munthiriyya-Khisravi-Qsr-Shirin-Kermanshah; and Khanaqin-Munthiriyya-Iran.

He did not give any details of where the line will run in Iran or the names of Iranian partners involved in the project.

Iraqi Railroads Company is undertaking modernization work on Iraq’s dilapidated railway infrastructure, the report said, highlighting efforts to install a fibre optic laser signaling system, signals, and a communications network, as well as announcing plans to integrate Iraq’s railways with neighbouring countries to increase tourism and commercial exchanges.

The Danish and German governments this week agreed to go ahead with a planned fixed link between Puttgarden and Rødby, which will replace the current “Vogelfluglinie” train ferry service.

This seemed as good a time as any to upload a couple of articles I wrote for Eagle, the journal of the Cambridge University Railway Club, about a trip from Hamburg to Copenhagen via the train ferry service, and a brief visit to a corner of Sweden.

Information about the Iraq Transportation & Communications Technology Summit to be held in Dubai on 9-10 October 2008.

One key area of precedence is that of the country’s rail networks, with a large number of projects being run through the State Company for Railways, including a new project for connecting Iraq with Iran, the modernisation of the existing networks, developing communications and signalling networks and restoring power supplies to stations across the country. The Ministry is also looking to purchase new rolling stock and other railway-related equipment such as cranes for equipment, freight trucks, emergency services vehicles and replacement train engines.

More.