Railroad officials in President Hassan Rouhani’s two-term government pursued rail infrastructure development as one of their main priorities from the onset.
Railroads have expanded from 10,223 kilometers in 2013 when he first took office to 11,773 kilometers at present.
The figure is estimated to reach 13,000 kilometers by the end of his second tenure (June 2021), IRNA reported.
The June 18 presidential elections will see a new head of government to replace Hassan Rouhani.
The total number of rail fleet, including locomotives, cargo, passenger and self-propelled wagons, stood at 25,113 in 2013, which figure is expected to reach 29,804 by June.
According to the IRNA report, the share of railroad in goods transit stood at around 4% in 2013, which has now grown to 9% this year.
Priority Projects
A total of five railroad projects stretching around 650 kilometers will be inaugurated by the end of the first half of the current Iranian year (March 20-Sept. 22), according to the deputy head of the Construction and Development of Transportation Infrastructure Company for Railroad, Ports and Airports Expansion.
“These five projects are the 275-kilometer Yazd-Eqlid railroad, Bostanabad-Tabriz (44 kilometers), Hamedan-Sanandaj (150 kilometers), Zahedan-Khash (150 kilometers) and Rasht-Caspian (35 kilometers),” Abbas Khatibi was quoted as saying by the news portal of the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development.
According to Khatibi, some 300 kilometers of railroads were inaugurated in the last Iranian year (March 2020-21).
“Eight projects, i.e., a total of 1,100 kilometers of railroads, have been prioritized for completion by the end of the current [fiscal] year [March 2022]. These were selected because they either connect provincial capitals to Tehran, complete local or international corridors, or link the country’s railroads to the neighboring states,” he said.
Saeed Rasouli, managing director of the Islamic Republic of Iran Railways, told a virtual meeting of the 36th conference of the Organization for Cooperation of Railways (April 19-23) that Iran’s rail freight transport grew by 29% in the last fiscal year compared with the year before, despite border closures during the first four months of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Exports by the Islamic Republic of Iran Railways increased by 5% in the last fiscal year (March 2020-21) compared with the year before. More than 650,000 tons of cargo were carried across Iran-Turkey rail border crossing [Razi border terminal, Iran’s sole rail connection with the neighboring country], reaching a record high in the past 10 years,” IRNA quoted him as saying.
Noting that freight transport via Sarakhs rail border [with Turkmenistan] in Khorasan Razavi Province grew by 173%, the official said, “The broad gauge line at Inche-Boroun Station located in Iran’s northeastern Golestan Province was also connected to border station of the neighboring Turkmenistan to facilitate bogie exchange process and increase the carrying capacity of wagons.”
Rasouli said Iran connected its eastern rail network to Afghanistan (Khaf-Herat Railroad Project) in December and negotiations were carried out with Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Russia and official of other regional railroads, which would hopefully result in positive changes and improvements in international rail transportation, adding that Iran is trying to secure permits to operate freight trains across the Commonwealth of Independent States.
On Nov. 24, Iran unveiled its first domestically-manufactured locomotive after 10 years, called “Pars 33”, and with that, Wagon Pars Company, which had ceased manufacturing locomotives around 10 years ago, officially resumed its activity in the field of locomotive production.
According to Mohammad Reza Mokhtari, Wagon Pars CEO, Iran has also succeeded in manufacturing wagon brakes.
“We had managed to manufacture some parts of this system before, but this is the first time that 100% locally-made wagon brakes have been installed in our rail fleet,” he added.
Wagon Pars, launched in 1974 in the city of Arak in Markazi Province, is a subsidiary of the Industrial Development and Renovation Organization of Iran and the largest manufacturer of freight, passenger and subway wagons in the Middle East.
“Very soon, we will become self-sufficient in all railroad requirements, including passenger wagons and locomotives as well to play a more significant role in the country’s economic developments,” Minister of Roads and Urban Development Mohammad Eslami was quoted as saying by the news portal of the ministry.
According to the minister, a total of 788 units of rolling stock, including passenger and cargo wagons as well as locomotives, were manufactured in Iran during the last Iranian year (March 2020-21), showing a 30% increase compared with the year before.
“All the manufactured rolling stock were 100% locally-made. The process will continue in the current year and the years to come, and domestic wagon and locomotive construction firms keep receiving orders from rail transportation companies,” he said.
“With the aim of reducing road traffic and battling air pollution, the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development has placed the development of Iran’s rail sector on top of its agenda.”
Iran’s Sixth Five-Year Development Plan (2017-22) has tasked the government with increasing the share of rail in cargo and passenger transportation from the current 12% and 8% to 30% and 20% respectively by the end of the plan.
Iran, Iraq Near Historic Rail Deal
Talks to build a short rail link between the Iraqi southern port city of Basra and the Iranian town of Shalamcheh are nearing completion, according to a tweet from the office of Mustafa Al-Kadhimi, Iraq’s prime minister.
Although the line would run for only 30 km and cost around $150 million, it would be the only rail connection between the two countries and vastly improve communications in the wider region by connecting China’s Belt and Road network to Iraq and bring Iran closer to Syria, Global Construction Review reported.
The office of the Iraqi prime minister tweeted: “The negotiations with Iran to build a railroad between Basra and Shalamcheh have reached their final stages, and we have signed 15 agreements and memorandums of understanding with Jordan and Egypt regarding energy and transportation lines.”
Funding for the project, which was approved by the Iraqi Cabinet in April, will come from Iran's Mostazafan Foundation.
The link, which has been discussed for many years, was first announced in November 2018, when the Islamic Republic of Iran Railways announced that it hoped to build a line between the two cities.
The Al-Monitor news site reported at the time: “The railroad is part of Syria’s reconstruction deal … promoting religious tourism among Iran, Iraq and Syria. Syrian opposition parties, however, have rejected the railroad, believing it will entrench Iranian influence and help provide the logistic services necessary for its presence in Iraq and Syria.”
IRNA reported that Iraj Masjedi, Tehran’s ambassador in Baghdad, argued that the rail line could make Iraq a regional transport hub.
He said Iraq could become one of the “largest transit countries in the region” and that “Iraq can be connected to China through the railroads of the Islamic Republic of Iran and increase its strategic importance in the region”.
Masjedi noted that the rail line could lead to an expansion of Basra’s port facilities.
“Now only small ships can dock in this port, but the development and equipping of the port along with the dredging of Arvandroud river can change the situation and promote the port’s prosperity and ‘Transit Iraq’,” he said.
