About

Islamic Republic of Iran is a country in South-West Asia with a territory of 1,648,195 km2 and approximately 83 million of population, with a median age 32. It is the 19th most populated country in the world. Iran is a mountainous country with approximately 30% or 34 million hectares of desert territory. Communities are located in areas where there is water and cities are separated by hundreds of kilometres. Iran shares its land border with seven countries: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq and Turkey. Three of them are former USSR countries: Armenia, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan.

RAILWAY SYSTEM IN IRAN
The railway system in Iran is state owned, controlled by the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development. The canter of the railway network is Tehran, which is the capital of Iran and is connected to 21 local regions.

One of the outstanding engineering achievements of Iran was a construction of the Trans-Iranian Railway. Construction began in 1927 and was completed in 1938. It is a 1,394 km line with 90 stations along the route. The railway line stretches from the Caspian Sea through the central part of Iran to the border with Iraq. The railway runs along the highlands and reaches 2,000 m above sea level, passing over 3,000 bridges and through 126 tunnels in the Zagros Mountains. This railway played an important role in the Second World War as a route delivering supplies to the Soviet Union.

The railways in Iran use standard gauge and the majority of the railway lines are constructed with UIC60 rails on B70 concrete sleepers. Most of the Iranian railway network is a single track, which is approximately 82%, and 18% is double track. A large part of the railway network passes through desert. The RAI network includes 497 stations and 15951 km of line.

Also, there are several projects for electrification and upgrading existing lines. One of them is the 926 km double track Tehran-Mashhad, the busiest railway line in Iran. The line will be electrified, which will increase the speed of trains from 160 km/h to 200 km/h. It will reduce the travel time by almost half and increase the capacity of the line. Electrification of the line will increase traffic on the route from 17 to 40 trains per day in each direction, which permits an increase of the ridership from 2.7 million to 33 million and freight from 1.5 to 10 million tonnes per year by 2032. The total cost of the project will be around $6bn. This project is partially financed through Chinese loans. Iran has an ambitious plan to construct one of the largest HSR networks in the Middle East.

Iran has 1,336 km of HSR under construction, 177 km planned and 165 km long-term planning with an operational speed of 250 km (Uic.org, 2020). Construction of 410 km HSR Tehran-Isfahan, with operational speed up to 300 km/h is being carried out by the China Railway Engineering Corporation (CRECP).

IMPROVING THE LINKS TO NEIGHBOURING COUNTRIES
Iran is located between Europe and Asia and the Iranian network has nine major corridors which cross the country from North to South and from West to East. Iran has 13 rail borders, ten of them in operation and three under construction. Lately, Iran has increased cooperation with Turkish and Pakistan railways, also with parts of the former USSR.

Iranian railways have bogie-changing stations on the border with Azerbaijan-Jolfa station and on the border with Turkmenistan- Sarakhs station. Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan have 1520 mm gauge. Iranian railways have bogie-changing stations on the border with Pakistan, as Pakistan has 1676 mm gauge. One of the bogie-changing stations is the Zahedan station, which has been in operation since 2007. Iran and Pakistan are working on projects to increase the volume of freight transported by railway and the number of tourists and pilgrims from Pakistan to Iran and Iraq travelling by railway. There is a strong will from Iran and Pakistan to restore the Islamabad-Tehran-Istanbul railway network.

Russia is also involved in construction and modernization of Iranian railways. One of the joint projects was the construction of a new 160 km railway line Astara-Astara between Republic of Azerbaijan and Iran. The main feature of the project was to build a railway with a dual gauge 1520 mm and 1435 mm. This line is part of the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC) that connects Russia, Iran and India. The 7,200 km long corridor includes different transportation modes, such as shipping, rail and road. Studies have been made for a third railway link between Iran and Azerbaijan and further to Russia, the Ardabil-Parsabad railway.

Another large joint project of the Russian and Iranian governments is to electrify 495 km of the Gsarmsar-Inche Burun line near the border with Turkmenistan, with the estimated cost of $1.3bn and construction taking 4-5 years. This will allow an increase in speed and as a result will increase the capacity of the line to ten million tons per year. Russia and Iran have a long history of technical and military cooperation.

The Khaaf – Herat Railways between Iran and Afghanistan also started its operation in 2020ans is used for freight currently while the two countries are discussing to start their passenger service I future.

Shalmcheh – Basrah railways is another international project of the Iranian Railways which started its operation in multimodal mode since 2022. Tehran and Baghdad are jointly working on completion the construction of bridge on Arvand River which expected to complete till 2026.

All these projects show that the volume of freight and the number of passengers transported by railways in Iran is increasing.