Rail transport in Lebanon

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Map of the Lebanese rail network when it was in operation.

Rail transport in Lebanon began in the 1890s as French projects under the Ottoman Empire but largely ceased in the 1970s owing to the country's civil war. The last remaining routes ended for economic reasons in the 1990s. At its peak Lebanon had about 408 kilometres (254 mi) of railway.[1]

History

Ottoman Empire

Laying the last rail of the Beirut–Damascus line on 25 June 1895. By this time, the railway had become known as the Damascus–Hama and Extensions (DHP).
The bridge at Khan-M'rad, with a DHP train
The tunnel at Medarije
A train at Yahfufah Station
The steep incline at Tekieh

Ammiyya Revolt broke out among the Druze and other Syrian farmers. The Ottoman response to the insurrection included a number of railway concessions—quickly sold to foreign interests—to improve the development and centralized control of the region.[4]

Beirut
, depicting the original Beirut–Damascus–Hauran Railway and planned route of the DHP

Hasan Beyhum Efendi received a concession to construct a tramway between Beirut and Damascus in 1891.[5] Beyhum sold the concession later that year to the French Beirut–Damascus Tramway (French: Compagnie de la voie ferrée économique de Beyrouth–Damas)[5][6] or Lebanon Railway, which was anxious to forestall two mooted British lines, one from Jaffa[7] and another from Haifa,[6][2][n 1] either of which would have undercut Beirut's status as the primary port of the northern Levant.[2] In the event, the Jaffa line was never extended towards Damascus and the Haifa line ran out of money having completed just 8 km (5.0 mi)[8] or 21 mi (34 km)[6] of track.

Around the same time, the French Damascus Tramways (Compagnie des tramways de Damas et voies ferrées économiques de Syrie)

pilgrim caravans during the Hajj
.

The two lines quickly merged as the Société des Chemins de fer Ottomans économiques de Beyrouth–Damas–Hauran

Beidar (37 km or 23 mi from Beirut) 1,487 m or 4,879 ft above sea level.[10] The railway completed its port at Beirut in December 1892.[11]

In 1893, the company received a concession for a line from Damascus to

Hejaz Railway (HRR)[n 2] expanded from Damascus south to Medina, with a branch to Haifa opened in 1906.[11] The HRR was built to a 1.05-meter gauge to match the Beirut–Damascus Railway[13] and absorbed both the former British concession and the DHP's line south from Damascus.)[6]

Wheat from the

Fr in 1909.[15]

HRR
's parallel track through the Hauran

The line suffered a serious accident at Aley on 12 April 1904. Aley had grown with the railroad and functioned as a summer resort for the people of Beirut. Part of the locomotive exploded on the 7% incline east of town and, not thinking to apply the brakes, the train was allowed to fly back through the station. Two cars were completely destroyed upon the rocks on the other side, killing 8 and seriously injuring 21.[16]

The Aleppo Railway

Baghdad Railway reached Aleppo in 1912, connecting the line with Istanbul
.

The concession for the

First World War, however, its track was removed for use elsewhere.[12]

A separate 1,050 mm (3 ft 5+11⁄32 in)-gauge coastal railway, the Lebanese Tramway (Tramway Libanais) began service in 1895 and reached

Maameltein in 1908.[12]

During the

First World War, the Ottoman Empire seized control of all foreign-owned railways in the country, including the DHP.[19] The entire Hauran line was disassembled to extend the Palestine Railways toward the Suez Canal.[citation needed
]

French Mandate

The CIWL's Taurus Express network c. 1930.

Following the

Syrian railway rights.[20]

From around 1930, the Aleppo Railway formed a stage on the

Baghdad Railway as a subsidiary of the DHP.[citation needed
]

Jewish insurgency in Palestine destroyed the bridges near the tunnels at Ras al-Nakura. An earlier attempt by Haganah forces to attack the HBT in two places near Nahal Kziv during the Night of the Bridges in 1946 was unsuccessful. Nowadays the only portion of the HBT still in operation is the Coastal Railway between Nahariya
and Haifa in northern Israel.

Independent Lebanon

United States Marines patrol a CEL railway as part of the Multinational Force in Lebanon in August 1983
Ruin of the train station in Bhamdoun (2012)

General

Polish diesel locomotive class SP45 for this line continued to be run once a month at the Furn el Shebbak stockyards as late as 2002,[12]
but service was not resumed.

Syria

Only a very short length of the

Chemins de Fer Syriens
).

Background on trains from Istanbul to Syria: A brief history of the Taurus Express

Agatha Christie wrote the first part of her novel Murder on the Orient Express during her stay in room 203 in Baron Hotel in Aleppo.[22] The novel doesn't start in Istanbul, or on the Orient Express. It opens on the platform at Aleppo, next to the two blue-and-gold Wagons-Lits sleeping cars of the Taurus Express bound for Istanbul. The Taurus Express was inaugurated in February 1930 by the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits, the same company that operated the Orient Express and Simplon Orient Express, as a means of extending their services beyond Istanbul to the East. It ran several times a week from Istanbul Haydarpaşa station to Aleppo and Baghdad, with a weekly through sleeper to Tripoli in Lebanon. After the second world war, the Wagons-Lits company gradually withdrew and operation of the Taurus Express was taken over by the Turkish, Syrian and Iraqi state railways. Up until the late 1980s, a twice-weekly Istanbul-Baghdad service was maintained, with weekly through seating cars from Istanbul to Aleppo. For political reasons, the through service to Baghdad was suspended and the main train curtailed at Gaziantep, but the weekly through seat cars Istanbul-Aleppo were maintained. In 2001, the Aleppo portion of the Toros Express was speeded-up and given a proper Syrian sleeping-car instead of the two very basic Turkish seat cars. You could once again travel in the security and comfort of a proper sleeper from Istanbul to Syria, and it was a great way to go.[23]

Trains functioning in Syria:

  • LDE DE (Diesel-electric)
  • DMU-5 DH (Diesel-hydraulic): Multiple units from Hyundai Rotem, Korea for Aleppo-Damascus/Latakia long-distance services. 222-second class, 61 first class.

Networks:

Israel

Israel's national railway operator,

the absence of diplomatic relations between the two countries
.

Trains functioning in Israel:

  • Siemens Desiro HC (Electric)
  • Siemens Viaggio Light (Diesel-electric)
  • Bombardier Double-Deck Coach (Electric and Diesel-electric)

Networks:

  • Beersheba - Kiryat Gat - Ramla - Lod - Tel Aviv - Herzliya - Haifa - Nahariya
  • Beersheba - Kiryat Gat - Ramla - Lod - Tel Aviv - Herzliya - Hadera - Haifa - Karmiel
  • Modi'in - Ben Gurion Airport - Tel Aviv - Binyamina - Haifa - Nahariya
  • Jerusalem - Ben Gurion Airport - Tel Aviv - Herzliya
  • Atlit - Haifa - Afula - Beit She'an
  • Beersheba - Netivot - Ashkelon - Lod - Tel Aviv - Herzliya - Netanya - Hadera - Binyamina
  • Ashkelon - Rishon LeZiyyon - Tel Aviv - Rosh Ha'Ayin - Kfar Saba - Herzliya
  • Beit Shemesh - Ramla - Lod - Tel Aviv - Herzliya - Netanya
  • Beersheba - Dimona
  • Beersheba - Ramat Hovev (freight only)
  • Beersheba - Dimona - Rotem (freight only)
  • Hadera - Kfar Saba - Rosh Ha'Ayin - Lod (under construction)
  • Rishon LeZiyyon - Modi'in (under construction)

Rolling stock

Retired

Class Image Axle Formula Number Year in Service Power
[kW] 		Constructor Notes
Uerdingen railbus 12 Former German railbuses, in 1982–83 acquired from DB via MAS. Last one delivered in 1986–87. Apparently all destroyed during Lebanese Civil War.

798 672-2 > A 10450
998 143-2 > B 10450
998 771-0 > C 10450
798 789-4 > A 10451
998 032-7 > B 10451
998 876-7 > C 10451
798 707-6 > A 10452
998 010-3 > B 10452
998 672-0 > C 10452
798 708-4 > A 10453
998 153-1 > B 10453
998 862-7 > C 10453[26]

Planned revival

Beirut Railway Station
in 2007
Saïda
in 2007
A Lebanese locomotive at Tripoli in 2007
Baalbek Railway Station in 2009

There have been a number of proposals for reviving the Lebanese railway system, but as yet, none have come to fruition.

NGO, Train Train. Maalouf is planning to relaunch the line between the coastal cities of Byblos and Batroun, to show the feasibility of having trains running again. The project, with a budget of £430,000, should take only a matter of months to complete, but as of 2014, Maalouf was still waiting for the green light from the Lebanese government.[29]

According to a study funded by the

Syrian Civil War.[1]

In 2011, Dr. Maroun Kassab, an architect and assistant professor, proposed a coastal metro system that can capitalize on the existing lands owned by the ministry and that can run underground from Tyr to Tripoli.[30]

In February 2022 media reported a proposed Spanish grant for the reestablishment of Lebanese railways.[31]

See also

Notes

  1. Syria Ottoman Railway Company, which lost its 1890 concession a year later after having failed to construct any track and ultimately was nationalized by the Ottomans in 1900 along with the British Haifa–Darʾa Railway after both ran into financial difficulties after only completing 8 km (5.0 mi) of track each.[8]
  2. Hejaz Railway was also an Ottoman response to a local uprising: in its case, the Hauran Uprising of 1898.[4]

References

Citations

  1. ^ a b c d "Syria's destruction revives a dream of rebuilding Lebanon's railway". The Economist. 5 October 2017.
  2. ^ a b c d e Burns (2005), p. 257.
  3. ^ a b c Freeman, Lewis R. (1915), "The Railway Lines of Syria and Palestine: Resumé of Conditions before the War; Well Managed Lines of Syria Compared with Run-down Hedjaz Railway", Railway Age Gazette, vol. 59, Simmons–Boardman Publishing Co., pp. 199ff
  4. ^ a b c Schilcher (1998), p. 104.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Bilmez (2008), p. 195.
  6. ^ a b c d Anderson & al. (1918), p. 208.
  7. ^ a b c "Un bref aperçu de l'histoire des chemins de fer au Liban [A Brief History of Railways in Lebanon]", Section Libanaise de l'Association Française des Amis des Chemins de fer [Lebanese Section of the French Railway Friends Association], retrieved 24 August 2008. (in French)
  8. ^ a b c d Bilmez (2008), p. 196.
  9. ^ a b c d e f g Ludvigsen, Børre (2008), "CEL: Chemin de Fer de l'Etate Libanais: The Lebanese State Railway Company", Al Mashriq: The Levant, Halden: Østfold University, retrieved 16 September 2015.
  10. ^ a b c d e Knowles, J.W. (June 1974), "The Beirut Damascus Railway", Continental Railway Journal, vol. No. 18, pp. 117–123 {{citation}}: |volume= has extra text (help).
  11. ^ a b c d e Schilcher (1998), p. 97.
  12. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Ludvigsen, Børre (2008), "Background", Al Mashriq: The Levant, Halden: Østfold University, retrieved 16 September 2015.
  13. ^ Burns (2005), p. 258.
  14. ^ a b c d Schilcher (1998), p. 100.
  15. ^ a b c Schilcher (1998), p. 105.
  16. ^ "Unfall auf der Hauranbahn [Accident on the Hauran Road]", Die Lokomotive: Illustrierte Fachzeitung, Vienna: Kaiserlich-Königliche Hofbibliothek, May 1904, p. 49. (in German)
  17. ^ a b Reports and Papers, vol. Vol. CXVI, London: House of Commons, 1908, p. 810 {{citation}}: External link in |volume= (help).
  18. ^ a b Ludvigsen, Børre (2008), "Riyaq–Homs", Al Mashriq: The Levant, Halden: Østfold University, retrieved 16 September 2015.
  19. ^ Burns (2005), p. 259.
  20. ^ Schilcher (1998), p. 98.
  21. ^ Australian Railway Construction in the Middle East Knowles, J.W. Australian Railway Historical Society Bulletin, November, 1978 pp. 244–259
  22. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 20 May 2017.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link
    )
  23. ^ "How to travel by train from London to Syria | Train travel in Syria".
  24. ^ "Error" (PDF).
  25. ^ "Error" (PDF).
  26. ^ HaRakevet: Rothschild PhD, Rabbi Walter (March 1991), Schienenbusse for Lebanon. Issue 12
  27. ^ Section Libanaise de l’Association Française des Amis des Chemins de fer. Actualité Archived 24 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 24 August 2008.
  28. ^ Lebanese railway revival to be studied [1]. Retrieved 23 August 2013.
  29. ^ Van Tets, Fernande (19 October 2014). "All aboard the Lebanon express: Nostalgia and a desperate need could revive Arab world's first railway". The Independent. Retrieved 6 April 2015.
  30. ^ Kassab, Maroun. "PROPOSAL FOR A LEBANESE COASTAL METRO SYSTEM".
  31. ^ "Lebanon to get Spanish funds for railway revival plan: minister - Al-Monitor: The Pulse of the Middle East". www.al-monitor.com. Retrieved 19 March 2022.

Bibliography

External links

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