Rail Transport In Afghanistan

Afghanistan has four railway lines in the north and northwest of the country. The first is between Mazar-i-Sharif and Hairatan in Balkh Province, which then connects with Uzbek Railways of Uzbekistan (opened 2011). The second links Torghundi in Herat Province with Turkmen Railways of Turkmenistan (opened 1960). The third is between Turkmenistan and Aqina in Faryab Province of Afghanistan (opened in 2016), which extends south to the city of Andkhoy. The country currently lacks a passenger rail service, but a new rail link from Herat in Afghanistan to Khaf in Iran for both cargo and passengers is under construction. Passenger service is also proposed in Hairatan – Mazar-i-Sharif section and Mazar-i-Sharif – Aqina section.

Afghanistan's rail network is in the developing stage. The current rail lines are to be extended in the near future, with plans to include cargo and passenger services. This will connect the four subcontinents of Asia through Afghanistan.

History

Kabul tramway

In the 1920s, King Amanullah bought three small steam locomotives from Henschel of Kassel in Germany, which were put to work on a gauge roadside railway, long, linking Kabul and Darulaman. The December 1922 issue of ''The Locomotive'' magazine includes: "Travellers from Afghanistan state a railway is being laid down for a distance of some six miles from Kabul to the site of the new city of Darulaman, and also that some of the rolling stock for it is being manufactured in the Kabul workshops". The August 1928 issue of ''The Locomotive'' magazine mentions: "The only railway at present in Afghanistan is five miles long, between Kabul and Darulaman". The tramway closed (date unknown), and was dismantled in the 1940s, but the locomotives were held, outdoors, at the National Museum of Afghanistan in Darulaman.Kabul to Darulaman railway
Railways of Afghanistan

Proposed railways

Over the 19th century and a half, plenty of proposals have been made about building railways in Afghanistan. In 1885, the ''New York Times'' wrote about plans for connecting the Russian Transcaspian Railway, then under construction, with British India via Sarakhs, Herat, and Kandahar. When completed, the project would allow British officers to travel from London to British India, mostly by rail, in 11 to 12 days (crossing the English Channel, the Black Sea, and the Caspian Sea by boat).

About 1928, proposals were put forward for a railway to link Jalalabad with Kabul, eventually connecting to the then-British Indian system at Peshawar. Lines to join Kabul with Kandahar and Herat would follow later. Owing to political upheavals these plans were not implemented.

In 1930s, the Japanese Ministry of Railways proposed Eurasian high speed rail from Tokyo to Paris via Busan (through Korea Strait undersea tunnel), Beijing, Baotou, Turfan, Kashgar, Kabul, Tehran, Baghdad, Istanbul with connection to Berlin and Rome but never realised at the beginning of the World War II.

Industrial railways

In the 1950s a hydroelectric power station was built at Surobi, east of Kabul. Three Henschel four-wheel narrow gauge diesel-hydraulic locomotives built in 1951 (works numbers 24892, 24993, 24994) were supplied to the power station.

In 1979 mining and construction locomotive builder Bedia Maschinenfabrik of Bonn supplied five D35/6 two axle diesel-hydraulic narrow gauge locomotives, works numbers 150–154, to an unknown customer in Afghanistan.

Timeline

2019

* Aqina – Andkhoy railway line extension opened.

Track gauge

Until the 21st century, less than of railway existed inside Afghanistan, which was built to Russian gauge. For strategic reasons, past Afghan governments averted the construction of railways which could aid foreign interference in Afghanistan by Britain or Russia. The gauges in adjacent countries were:
* Iran, to the west, and China, to the east:
* Pakistan, to the south and east:
* Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan, to the north: .

In 2010, the international "standard gauge" was chosen to be the country's railway gauge. The Khaf-Herat railway, a joint project between Afghanistan and Iran completed in 2020, was built to that gauge. It is long, of which is in Afghanistan; the remainder is in Iran. It links Afghan with Turkey, Europe and Iranian ports in the Persian Gulf.

Railway stations

There are currently no passenger services or stations in Afghanistan. If any of the various cross-border links are completed and opened to passenger service, new stations will have to be built.

Proposed

Details of the preliminary list of stations to be served, which circle the central mountains of Afghanistan are available.

National Rail Authority

The Afghan government planned to form a railway construction commission with technical cooperation provided by the European Commission, which was discussed at the G8 meeting in July 2011. The commission would be responsible for supervising construction of a rail network within the country and its connection with the country's neighbors. In October 2011, the Asian Development Bank approved funding for Afghanistan's national rail authority. The Afghanistan Railway Authority has a website but, as of August 2017, there is very little on it. It does state that Afghanistan Railway Law (12 chapters and 105 clauses) was drafted in February 2013 and is awaiting approval from "relevant institutions". Training has been provided by the United States Army's Afghanistan Railroad Advisory Team (ARAT).

Current railways and future plans

Afghanistan–Iran rail service

On May 9, 2023, the first trial run of cargo from Iran to Afghanistan via the Khaf-Herat railway was completed. This shipment included 17 wagons that transferred 655 tons of railway equipment that will be used in the further construction of the rail line. The Khaf-Herat railway is 225 kilometers long, with 140 km of the track traversing Afghanistan and the remaining 85 km running through Iran. The construction of the Khaf-Herat rail line, which links Khaf in eastern Iran with Herat in western Afghanistan, began back in 2007.

The Iranian railhead closest to the Afghan border is at Khaf near Mashhad, and this is a standard gauge freight line. Since 2002, Afghan and Iranian officials have been working to extend this line east to Herat in Afghanistan. The line is currently operational to as far as Rozanak station in the Ghorian District of Herat Province.

The Khaf-Herat rail route has four sections, two in Iran and two in Afghanistan. Within Iran, section 1, running from Khaf to Sangan (), was completed in September 2016. Section 2, from Sangan to the Afghanistan–Iran border at Shamtiq (), was completed in October 2017. Section 3, running within Afghanistan from the border at Shamtiq–Jono to Rozanak in Ghorian District () was completed in December 2020. Section 4 is the line from Rozanak to Guzara District (). Work is ongoing on this section, which ends at an industrial area next to Herat International Airport.

Afghanistan–Pakistan rail service

There is currently no rail link between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Two broad gauge Pakistan Railways lines with steep gradients terminate on the border at Chaman and Torkham. In July 2010, Pakistan and Afghanistan signed a memorandum of understanding for the laying of rail tracks between the two countries but the project was soon canceled. It was to connect Quetta in Pakistan with Kandahar in Afghanistan and Peshawar in Pakistan with Jalalabad in Afghanistan. On May 29, 2012, the section from Chaman in Pakistan to Spin Boldak in Afghanistan () was approved, though it never started.

Afghanistan–Tajikistan rail service

A multination rail link was planned between Afghanistan and Tajikistan in 2013. The Tajikistan section has been partly implemented in 2016.

In 2018 a extension from Kolkhozobod in Tajikistan to the Afghan border town of Sher Khan Bandar in Kunduz Province was approved with construction expected to start that year.

Afghanistan–Turkmenistan rail service

A line extends from Serhetabat in Turkmenistan to the town of Torghundi in Afghanistan. An upgrade of this Soviet-built line dating back to the 1960s, using Russian gauge, began in 2007. In April 2016, an agreement was reached for a technical feasibility study for a proposal to extend this line approximately to the city of Herat, where it could connect to the standard-gauge line to Iran that is being built. In accordance with earlier decisions, the line is likely to be standard gauge, with break of gauge at Torghundi. In April 2018 it was decided by the Turkmen government to build a railway from Galkynysh Gas Field in the direction of Afghanistan, towards Torghundi.

Another rail line was opened further east in November 2016, connecting Aqina in Faryab province via Ymamnazar with Atamyrat/Kerki in Turkmenistan. Work on a extension to Andkhoy soon began, which was completed in January 2021.

It is planned to become part of a rail corridor through northern Afghanistan, connecting it via Sheberghan to Mazar-i Sharif and on to the border with Tajikistan,

Afghanistan–Uzbekistan rail service

In the early 1980s, the Soviet Union built an approximately rail line from Termez in Uzbekistan to Kheyrabad in Afghanistan, crossing the Amu Darya river on the Afghanistan–Uzbekistan Friendship Bridge.

In January 2010, construction began on a extension line between Afghanistan and Uzbekistan; this line is also Russian gauge as the first one built by the Soviets. The line, which starts from Hairatan to Maulana Jalaluddin Balkhi International Airport in Mazar-i-Sharif, was operated by Uzbekistan's national railway Uzbekiston Temir Yullari for a three-year-term until Afghanistan Railway Authority (ARA) took over responsibility. The first freight services began running around August 2011.

Uzbekistan has pledged in 2018 to part fund a major rail link from Mazar-i-Sharif west to Herat, which could create a route from Iran via Herat to Central Asia and potentially China.

North–South Corridor

In September 2010, China Metallurgical Group Corporation (MCC) signed an agreement with the Afghan Minister of Mines to investigate construction of a north–south railway across Afghanistan, running from Mazar-i-Sharif to Kabul and then to the eastern border town of Torkham. MCC was recently awarded a copper mining concession at Mes Aynak which would be linked to this railway. MCC is constructing a gauge railway line that will link Kabul with Uzbekistan in the north and Pakistan in the east.Construction on Kabul-Torkham Railway to Start Soon, Ministry of Mines Says
. Tamim Shaheer, October 18, 2011.

Breaks of gauge

The initial phase of railway construction from 2010 sees the creation of five break-of-gauge stations.

* Kandahar /
* Khyber Pass /
* Torghundi /
* Mazar-i-Sharif /
* Sher Khan Bandar /

In late 2016 updates, there are multiple breaks-of-gauge. These include: / in the northern area, and // at Herat.

See also

* Transport in Afghanistan
* Khyber train safari
* Khyber Pass Railway
* Eurasian Land Bridge
* North-South Transport Corridor
* Ashgabat Agreement, a Multimodal transport agreement signed by India, Oman, Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, for creating an international transport and transit corridor facilitating transportation of goods between Central Asia and the Persian Gulf.
* Broad gauge
* Dual gauge

References

Further reading

* Grantham, A
Railways in Afghanistan
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* Afghanistan demain le rail pp. 6–14 + 27 pictures – vie du rail – n°1542 – 09/05/1976

External links

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