Transport in Iraq consists of railways, highways, waterways, pipelines, ports and harbors, marines and airports.

Railways

''total:'' 2,272 km
''standard gauge:'' 2,272 km For more than two decades there have been plans for building a metro system in

Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon ...

. It is possible that part of the

tunnel A tunnel is an underground passageway, dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, and enclosed except for the entrance and exit, commonly at each end. A pipeline is not a tunnel, though some recent tunnels have used immersed tube cons ...

s have been built, but that they are now used for military, shelter, hiding, and escaping purposes. U.N. inspectors have heard of the tunnels for years, but have not found their entrances
map
In November, 2008, an overground service dubbed the

Baghdad Metro The Baghdad Metro is a proposed rapid transit in the form of an elevated railway, network for the Iraqi city of Baghdad. Construction is expected to start around Q2 2022 and finish in 2027. Background Commuter rail service The Baghdad commuter ...

began service. Local government in Baghdad is arranging feasibility studies for the construction of two new underground lines A 37 km monorail is planned in Najaf, which would link three Shi'ite holy sites. The first

Iraqi Republic Railways Iraqi Republic Railways Company (IRR; ar, الشركة العامة لسكك الحديد العراقية) is the national railway operator in Iraq. Network IRR comprises of . IRR has one international interchange, with Chemins de Fer Syri ...

train to

Basra Basra ( ar, ٱلْبَصْرَة, al-Baṣrah) is an Iraqi city located on the Shatt al-Arab. It had an estimated population of 1.4 million in 2018. Basra is also Iraq's main port, although it does not have deep water access, which is han ...

since the overthrow of

Saddam Hussein Saddam Hussein ( ; ar, صدام حسين, Ṣaddām Ḥusayn; 28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. A leading member of the revolutio ...

's regime arrived on 26 April 2003. British troops hope to use the 68 km long railway to transport much-needed aid supplies from the port town of

Umm Qasr Umm Qasr ( ar, أم قصر, also transliterated as ''Um-qasir'', ''Um-qasser, Um Qasr'') is a port city in southern Iraq. It stands on the canalised Khawr az-Zubayr, part of the Khawr Abd Allah estuary which leads to the Persian Gulf. It is se ...

to Basra. In June 2011, it was announced that planning had begun for a new high-speed rail line between Baghdad and Basra, with a memorandum of understanding with

Alstom Alstom SA is a French multinational corporation, multinational rolling stock manufacturer operating worldwide in rail transport markets, active in the fields of passenger transportation, signalling, and locomotives, with products including the A ...

having been signed.

Maps

UNHCR Atlas Map

UN Map

Railway links with adjacent countries

All adjacent countries generally use , but may vary in couplings. Neighbours with electrified railways – Turkey and Iran – both use the world standard 25 kVAC *

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula ...

– via Syria *

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

– one link partially under construction and a second link planned ** Iraq-Iran Basra-Shalamcheh line – almost complete (2006) **

Kermanshah Kermanshah ( fa, کرمانشاه, Kermânšâh ), also known as Kermashan (; romanized: Kirmaşan), is the capital of Kermanshah Province, located from Tehran in the western part of Iran. According to the 2016 census, its population is 946,68 ...

, and the Iraqi province of Diyala – construction commenced. *

Kuwait Kuwait (; ar, الكويت ', or ), officially the State of Kuwait ( ar, دولة الكويت '), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated in the northern edge of Eastern Arabia at the tip of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to Iraq–Ku ...

– no railways *

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the Ara ...

- *

Jordan Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...

– partially constructed –

break of gauge With railways, a break of gauge occurs where a line of one track gauge (the distance between the rails, or between the wheels of trains designed to run on those rails) meets a line of a different gauge. Trains and rolling stock generally cannot ...

/ gauge *

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

– same gauge – at Rabiaa/ al-Ya'rubiya

Road Transport

An overland trans-desert bus service between

Beirut Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...

Haifa Haifa ( he, חֵיפָה ' ; ar, حَيْفَا ') is the third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropol ...

Damascus )), is an adjective which means "spacious". , motto = , image_flag = Flag of Damascus.svg , image_seal = Emblem of Damascus.svg , seal_type = Seal , map_caption = , ...

and

was established by the ''

Nairn Transport Company The Nairn Transport Company was a pioneering motor transport company that operated a trans-desert route from Beirut, Haifa and Damascus to Baghdad, and back again, from 1923. Their route became known as "The Nairn Way". The firm continued, in vari ...

'' of Damascus in 1923.

Roads

''total:'' 44,900 km
''paved:'' 37,851 km,
''unpaved:'' 7,049 km (2002)

Waterways

5,729 km (

Euphrates The Euphrates () is the longest and one of the most historically important rivers of Western Asia. Tigris–Euphrates river system, Together with the Tigris, it is one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia ( ''the land between the rivers'') ...

River (2,815 km),

Tigris River The Tigris () is the easternmost of the two great rivers that define Mesopotamia, the other being the Euphrates. The river flows south from the mountains of the Armenian Highlands through the Syrian and Arabian Deserts, and empties into the P ...

1,899 km, Third River (565 km)); Shatt al Arab is usually navigable by maritime traffic for about 130 km. The channel has been dredged to 3 m and is in use. The Tigris and Euphrates Rivers have navigable sections for shallow-draft watercraft; the Shatt al Basrah canal was navigable by shallow-draft craft before closing in 1991 because of the Gulf War.

Pipelines

crude oil 5,432 km; natural gas 2,455 km; refined products 1,637 km; liquid petroleum gas 913 km

Ports and harbors

Persian Gulf

* Umm Qasr Port * Khawr az Zubayr * Al Basrah has limited functionality *

Al-Faw Al-Fāw ( ar, ٱلْفَاو; sometimes transliterated as ''Fao'') is a port town on Al-Faw Peninsula in Iraq near the Shatt al-Arab and the Persian Gulf. The Al Faw Peninsula is part of the Basra Governorate. History The town lies at the ...

Merchant marine

''total:'' 32 ships (with a volume of or over) totaling /
''ships by type:''

cargo ship A cargo ship or freighter is a merchant ship that carries cargo, goods, and materials from one port to another. Thousands of cargo carriers ply the world's seas and oceans each year, handling the bulk of international trade. Cargo ships are usu ...

14,

passenger ship A passenger ship is a merchant ship whose primary function is to carry passengers on the sea. The category does not include cargo vessels which have accommodations for limited numbers of passengers, such as the ubiquitous twelve-passenger freig ...

1, passenger/cargo 1,

petroleum tanker An oil tanker, also known as a petroleum tanker, is a ship designed for the bulk transport of oil or its products. There are two basic types of oil tankers: crude tankers and product tankers. Crude tankers move large quantities of unrefined cr ...

13, refrigerated cargo 1,

roll-on/roll-off ship Roll-on/roll-off (RORO or ro-ro) ships are cargo ships designed to carry wheeled cargo, such as cars, motorcycles, trucks, semi-trailer trucks, buses, Trailer (vehicle), trailers, and railroad cars, that are driven on and off the ship on their o ...

2 (1999 est.)

Airports

Iraq has about 104 airports as of 2012. Major airports include: *

Baghdad International Airport Baghdad International Airport , previously Saddam International Airport ( ar, مطار بغداد الدولي, Maṭār Baġdād ad-Dawaliyy) is Iraq's largest international airport, located in a suburb about west of downtown Baghdad in th ...

Basra International Airport Basrah International Airport ( ar, مطار البصرة الدولي, Maṭār al-Baṣrah ad-Duwaliyy) is the second largest international airport in Iraq, and is located in the southern city of Basra. History Construction The airport was bu ...

Mosul International Airport Mosul International Airport is an airport located at Mosul, capital of Nineveh Governorate, Iraq. It became a civil airport in 1990 with the rebuild of the runway (from asphalt to concrete) and construction of a new terminal. After undergoing maj ...

Erbil International Airport Erbil International Airport ( ku, فڕۆکه‌خانه‌ی نێوده‌وڵه‌تیی هه‌ولێر), is the main airport of the city of Erbil in the Kurdistan Region, Iraq. It is administered by the Iraqi Government and the Kurdistan Reg ...

Sulaimaniyah International Airport Sulaimaniyah International Airport is an airport 14 kilometers (9 miles) outside the city of Sulaimaniyah, in Kurdistan Region, Iraq. History Following the removal of Saddam Hussein, the construction of the airport began in November 2003, and ...

Railways

Maps

Railway links with adjacent countries

Road Transport

Roads

Waterways

Pipelines

Ports and harbors

Persian Gulf

Merchant marine

Airports

Airports – with paved runways

Airports – with unpaved runways

Heliports

See also

References

External links