A total of 428 domestically-made/overhauled train wagons worth 16.18 trillion rials ($40 million) joined Iran’s rail fleet on Dec. 20, during a ceremony attended by Minister of Roads and Urban Development Mehrdad Bazrpash and the CEO of the Islamic Republic of Iran Railways Miad Salehi.
The addition included 405 new freight wagons, 11 overhauled passenger wagons, nine new and three overhauled locomotives, IRNA reported.
Investors in the project and buyers of these rolling stock were Ehya Rail Iranian Company, MAPNA Multimodal Transportation Company, Parsian Rail Sharq Company, Sepahran Rail Rasa Company, Tejarat Kushesh Sepahan Company, Azar Kia Tejarat Company, Alborz Nirou Company, Mobarakeh Steel Company, Parto Bar Farabar Persian Gulf Company, Sirjan’s Gohar Tarabar Company, Sina Rail Pars Company and IRIR.
Manufacturers and renovators of the fleet were Markazi Province’s Wagon Pars Company and Derakhshan Steel Company, MAPNA Locomotive Company, Isfahan’s Kowsar Wagon Company, Abhar’s Iranian Rail Industries Development Corporation, Green Plour Industrial Group, Novin Sanat Raja Company and Karaj Locomotive Renovation Factories Company.
Last month, another 413 wagons and locomotives joined the rail fleet, including 407 freight wagons, and seven new and overhauled locomotives.
In a recent interview with Ta’adol newspaper, Secretary of Rail Transportation Companies Association Sobhan Nazari said 500 locomotives are currently active nationwide.
Noting that many engines have been grounded due to technical problems, he said Iran needs many more locomotives to claim its fair share of the regional rail transit.
According to the official, the volume of foreign cargo transited by rail from Iran declined by 35% during the first half of the current Iranian year (March 21-Sept. 22) compared with the similar period of last year.
“The problem is that the [state-owned] Islamic Republic of Iran Railways insists on getting the repairing budget from the government so that it could remain the owner of these locomotives. This is while the private sector is ready and has expressed its willingness to repair the broken rolling stock and put them back to use in no time. IRIR cannot remain the owner of the entirety of Iran’s railroads and rolling stock forever and wasn’t a good manager of rail transportation to begin with,” he said.
The official said the government reportedly plans to purchase 500 new locomotives in oil barter.
“We need to take into account that for each locomotive we also need wagons as well as a trained locomotive driver and all of these need budget.”
“We need close to 1,000 more locomotives for our 14,000 kilometers of railroads. If this volume is procured, we can reach transit figures of up to 20 million tons per year, bringing in more than $20 billion in revenues for the country,” former roads minister, Rostam Qasemi, was quoted as saying by the Persian daily Shargh recently.
The problem, he added, is that local companies do not have the capacity to supply demand for locomotives, adding that manufacturing 1,000 locomotives will take Iranian manufacturers around 15 years.
“We plan to cooperate with foreign companies and link them to Iranian companies to supply this demand,” he said.
The minister added that freight transportation via railroad in Iran is very slow and many wagons are substandard.
According to the CEO of the Islamic Republic of Iran Railways, about 200 locomotives went out of service around 20 years ago, and since then their spare parts are being used to repair the locomotives in operation.
“Some 200 more became dilapidated during the period between 2018 and 2021 and about 60 others went out of order last [Iranian] year [March 2021-22],” he said.
IRIR data show transportation via railroad stood at 50 million tons in the fiscal 2018-19 and declined to 40 million tons in the fiscal 2021-22.
Rolling stock imports are banned and the market is entirely supplied by domestic producers.
