The Islamic Republic of Iran Railways says it has set a record in passenger transportation.
A total of 9.6 million passengers were transported by railroad during the first four months of the current Iranian year (March 21-July 22), registering a 60% increase compared with the similar period of last year, says Mir Hassan Mousavi, the deputy head of IRIR, noting that the figure is a 10-year high.
“The record came despite the fact that social distancing was implemented in passenger trains due to the Covid-19 pandemic,” he was quoted as saying by the news portal of the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development.
The passenger-kilometer unit stood at 5.3 billion during the period, the official added.
A passenger-kilometer, abbreviated as pkm, is the unit of measurement representing the transport of one passenger by a defined mode of transport (road, rail, air, sea, inland waterways, etc.) over 1 kilometer.
The IRIR official noted that train delays decreased by 22% year-on-year during the period.
A total of 319 new or overhauled rolling stocks worth 9.46 trillion rials ($30 million) joined Iran’ rail fleet on July 4, during a ceremony attended by Minister of Roads and Urban Development Rostam Qasemi and CEO of the Islamic Republic of Iran Railways Miad Salehi.
The added fleet included 305 new freight wagons, six overhauled passenger wagons and one overhauled locomotive, IRNA reported.
The new fleet were produced or overhauled by Markazi Province’s Wagon Pars Company and Derakhshan Steel 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.
Investors in the project were Tejarat Kushesh Sepahan Company, Tuka Rail Company, Mobarakeh Steel Company, MAPNA Multimodal Transportation Company, Parto Bar Farabar Persian Gulf Company, Ehya Rail Iranian Company, Sina Rail Pars Company, Parsian Rail Sharq Company, Sepehr Zaveh Toos Company, Sepahran Rail Rasa Company, Raja Railway Transport Company and IRIR.
During the ceremony, Salehi said rail transportation of essential goods in the country experienced a 150% upsurge during the first three months of the current Iranian year (March 21-June 21).
Also known as necessity goods, essential goods are products consumers will buy, regardless of changes in income levels. These include wheat, rice, vegetable oils and sugar.
Railroad Expansion
Noting that Iran is self-sufficient in the production of train wagons and rails, Qasemi said, “At present there are 14,000 kilometers of railroads in Iran and 4,000 kilometers are under construction. We need to expand our fleet of wagons and locomotives as well as rail more than ever.”
According to Qasem Abdollahi, a member of Rail Transportation Association, about 150 locomotives owned by the government are currently grounded due to technical problems.
He noted that there is a need for 50-60 new locomotives in Iran every year.
Despite the benefits of rail freight transportation compared to other means, Iran has been suffering from a low share of railroad in the movement of cargo.
According to Qasemi, the share of railroad in freight transportation is less than 10%.
The low speed of cargo trains in Iran (currently at an average of 100 kilometers per hour), long distances between rail corridors and freight centers as well as the aging rail fleet of the country are the main reasons behind the lackluster performance of the rail sector, Mehr News Agency reported.
Rolling stock imports are banned and the market is entirely supplied by domestic producers, mainly Arak Province’s Wagon Pars Company, Isfahan’s Kowsar Wagon Company, Derakhshan Steel Company and MAPNA Company.
Iran unveiled its first domestically-manufactured locomotive in November 2020 after 10 years, called “Pars 33”, and with that, Wagon Pars Company, which had ceased manufacturing locomotives around 10 years ago, officially resumed locomotive production.
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. The company has also succeeded in manufacturing wagon brakes.
A total of 788 units of rolling stock, including passenger and cargo wagons as well as locomotives, were manufactured in Iran in the fiscal 2020-21.
A report, published by Research and Markets, an American-based specialist in business analysis, has singled out rail freight as a significant area of commercial growth in the years to come.
The report said the global rail freight transport market was valued at $247.39 billion in 2020, and anticipates a compound annual growth rate of around 2% over 2021-26. That makes rail freight a significant part of global economic recovery and has investors taking note.
“North America leads the global rail freight market,” says the company’s senior press manager, Laura Wood. “Asia-Pacific is expected to overtake North America during the forecast period. Moreover, the rise in global trade and various trade agreements are boosting global trade flows.”
While rail freight can play a role in globalization, the report notes that in many regions, rail freight is a factor in developing local economies.
“In some regions of Central Asia, Eastern Europe, South Asia, Southeast Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa characterized by groupings of many small countries, rail freight can increase economic integration by providing access to international and regional markets, and connecting landlocked countries,” Wood said.
