Afghanistan railways

[george matthews]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=s ... 0614215907

>>Karzai, on a weeklong visit to the United States, said current efforts to rebuild highways linking key parts of the country were not sufficient to cope with increasing trade with neighbouring states and prospective economic growth.

"We are trying to have railroads established in Afghanistan. That's part of our projects for the future, because as we see the volume of transportation today on the Afghan roads, we will not be able to sustain road transportation for many years," he said.

Karzai disclosed plans to build railroads from Afghanistan to Pakistan, Iran and Uzbekistan but he did not elaborate.<<

There have been plans for many years for Afghan railways. So far there are only the two bridgeheads built by the Soviet Union. I don't know whether any of these are in use. Aghjanistan borders on three different rail gauges: standard for Iran; Russian Broad and Indo-Pakistan Broad. It will be interesting to see which they would choose. The most likely first line would be Kabul to Pakistan, so the souther Broad is most likely. But standard with gauge changing equipment might be better.

[David Benton]

My 1980 's Thomas cook timetable actually shows a passenger service from Dushanbe in the then ussr , to Hairatan in afghanistan , what become of this , or did the borders move ?
I guess the kyberpass railway would not be considered as suitable ofr expanison to Kabul , due to its limited capacity .

[george matthews]

I think the branch to Hairatan from Dushanbe was mainly used by the Soviet Occupation troops and closed after the Soviet withdrawal.

In the famous newsreel of the last Soviet troops leaving they can be seen crossing the bridge which is dual use with a rail track set in the roadway.

The Kaiber pass line might be usable. Possibly the track would need renewal. If the traffic were available I am sure Pakistan Railways would reinstate the line.

But the choice of gauge for any new railways in Afghanistan would politically interesting. For example, if they extended the existing Russian connections (well, not Russia as such but Russian associate styates, it might be thought to make Russian interference in the country easier. Standard gauge might be interpreted as allowing Iranian interference.

Perhaps they should choose a fourth gauge.

[Jishnu]

. . . . . .

But the choice of gauge for any new railways in Afghanistan would politically interesting. For example, if they extended the existing Russian connections (well, not Russia as such but Russian associate styates, it might be thought to make Russian interference in the country easier. Standard gauge might be interpreted as allowing Iranian interference.

Perhaps they should choose a fourth gauge.

Metre Gauge with Janney type center couplers, as opposed to the Indian/Pakistani Metre Gauge type center-couplers. That way it will be guaranteed that there is no interference and interoperability with anything

[Jishnu]

Y'all might find this map interesting.

Also the Afghanistan Railway News page contains a lot of very interesting information about relatively recent developments.

The same website has an article on Railways in Afghanistan, past and future.

Interestingly, the survey that was done by the Indian Railways consulting arm [RITES] was for a 1.435m gauge railway. Looks like India and Iran have historically worked together in railway building schemes in Afghanistan. The Pakistanis apparently have proposed construction of an extension of the Quetta - Chaman line to Kandahar through Spin Bolduk, not clear what gauge they proposed to use, but one would assume 1.676m. Russians have had various grand plans using of course their 1.524m gauge.

[george matthews]

>> Also the Afghanistan Railway News page contains a lot of very interesting information about relatively recent developments.
The same website has an article on Railways in Afghanistan, past and future.<<

Yes, that is a very informative site. I am not sure about the map.

However, until Afghanistan has a government that actually controls the country outside Kabul these plans are very speculative.

[David Benton]

i quess with containerisation of most international freight , the rail gauge may not be that important . could be a case of who gets there first , or more likely , where's the aid money to pay for it coming from .

[Jishnu]

Also the Afghanistan Railway News page contains a lot of very interesting information about relatively recent developments.
The same website has an article on Railways in Afghanistan, past and future.

Yes, that is a very informative site. I am not sure about the map.

However, until Afghanistan has a government that actually controls the country outside Kabul these plans are very speculative.

Considering that some of these plans were quite speculative even with a considerably more stable government that had considerably better control over the rest of the country, I cannot help but agree completely with you on this point completely.