Celebrations were held at Naibabad freight terminal at 12.00 on February 3, when ‘a substantial reception party’ greeted the arrival of the first train carrying commercial traffic on the 75 km rail link between Hairatan and Mazar-i-Sharif. [more...]
Source: Afghan railway starts commercial traffic, Railway Gazette International, 3 February 2012
The train was hauled by locomotive 2ТЭ10М-2337, and comprised nine wagons carrying flour from Kazakhstan and three wagons of Siberian timber.
Design studies for the second Turkmenistan – Afghanistan railway line have been completed, and work will start “soon”, the Afghan President’s office reports following a meeting between Presidents Karzai and Berdimuhamedov in Türkmenbaşy on 25 January 2012.
… President Karzai met Wednesday morning President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov to discuss a number of important economic projects including the TAPI, the Afghan-Turkmenistan railway and electricity export to Afghanistan.
[...]
Accompanying the President on the trip was Afghan Mining Minister, who said a design and full study of a separate project involving the establishment of an 84 km of railway extending across the Atamyrat-Ymamnazar in Turkmenistan to Akina-Andhoi in Afghanistan had been finalized with actual work expected to begin soon.Source: Afghan and Turkmen Presidents Vow to Implement Critical Projects, Office of the President, Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, 26 January 2012
From Turkmenistan comes this report:
The Presidents also noted the great potential of cooperation in transportation and communications sector. They discussed the project on construction of the railway Atamyrat-Ymamnazar-Akin-Andhoy. A framework agreement on construction of this railway was signed during the official visit by the President of Turkmenistan to Afghanistan in May 2011. According to the interlocutors, construction and commissioning of the new railway will not only serve the development of transport infrastructure in Afghanistan but can become a significant element in the regional and international transit transportation in the long term.
Source: Turkmen-Afghan high level talks held in Turkmenbashi, Turkmenistan.ru, 26 January 2012
Here is a map I put together previously:
View Turkmenistan – Andkhoy railway plan in a larger map
There are downloadable MP4 format videos entitled Afghanistan Train Line, Coal Baghlan Province and Gold Mine on the website of Awaz News, “an Afghan independent news agency operating throughout Afghanistan and providing in-depth reporting to television and radio networks.”
On the “Economy/Infrastructures” section of the website, the “Afghanistan Train Line” (13 minutes) video includes images of bridges and construction sites, along with Iranian flags. While the commentary is not in English (presumably it is Dari – can anyone confirm?) there are some recognisable place names. From this, I think the video might well show hard evidence of construction works underway for the Iran to Herat railway. The video shows bridges and cuttings, but no sign of tracklaying or railway systems installation.
The computer generated impressions of trains are clearly not of Afghanistan – they appear to show Skoda CityElefant electric trains from the Czech Republic.
The “Gold Mine” video (12.12 minutes) has some brief railway shots, I suspect of the Karkar and Dudkash coal mines.
The mines are covered depth in the “Coal Baghlan Province” video (13.5 min) on the Natural Resources section of the Awaz News website, this video is well worth a watch if you are interested in industrial things.
A couple of photographs of Hairatan which the Asian Development Bank has uploaded to Flickr. They are dated 27 August 2011 – and I think they might have the captions the wrong way round.
“A private wagon enters from Uzbekistan to the border of Afghanistan Hiaratan in the new rail way line.”
“Main station of Rail way in Hairatan border between Uzbekistan and Afghanistan new rail way line. “
We saw the old trains of Kabul as well, which was very cool. I knew there was an original railway here but I didn’t know where or if it was still in Kabul.
A Day at the Afghanistan National Museum is an article by Jim Rentfrow at the website of the Green Gem Foundation, “new non-profit organization established to promote the development of ethical gemstones“.
He describes a visit to the museum on 17 December 2011, with some good photos of the “non-plinthed” Henschel steam locos, which along with the remains of the coaches seem to have gained a roof over them, which is good news.
Angle Iron Rail Project is Green Gem Foundation project to fund a “rudimentary rail system” based on trolleys running on angle iron tracks to ease work in gem mines in Kunduz, Nuristan or elsewhere. Apparently coal and peridot mines in Pakistan use this system.
It seems a test train ran on the Hairaton to Mazar-i-Sharif railway line on 21 December 2011.
The first journey on Wednesday was intended to test the track and signals, before the formal opening of the project at which President Hamid Karzai is expected to attend.
“This is a matter of pride for us and a very important issue for Afghanistan,” said Deputy Public Works Minister Noor Gul Mangal, who was there to watch the train arrive in Mazar-e-Sharif.
He said the government planned to build another line into Turkmenistan, to the north-west.
Afghan railway: First train runs on new line in north BBC News, 21 December 2011
Locomotives had conducted test runs on the new line but would haul their first commercial cargo on Wednesday in the form of a wheat shipment belonging to the World Food Programme, the UN relief agency, said an ADB official in Kabul.
Afghan rail plan to boost mineral exports, Matthew Green, Islamabad, Financial Times, 20 December 2011
Call it the ultimate in military logistics. As land routes from Pakistan into Afghanistan are cut, sabotaged or otherwise interrupted, the U.S. military has developed alternative railroad routes that make the Orient Express look like a branch line.
They are called — rather prosaically — the Northern Distribution Network, or NDN. The main route begins at the port of Riga in Latvia, from where freight trains roll across Russia, and continues along the edge of the Caspian Sea. It crosses the deserts of Kazakhstan and into Uzbekistan. About 10 days after beginning their odyssey, the containers cross into Afghanistan, carrying everything from computers and socks to toilet paper and bottled water.
[More...]
Source: To Afghanistan, on the slow train, Tim Lister, CNN, 29 November 2011
An ISAF press release on the work of its Railway Advisory Team.
“Afghanistan has only 75 kilometers of railway right now” is clearly referring to the Mazar-i-Sharif line, but interestingly the release says it “is currently not operational.”
The reference to Iraq doesn’t really make it clear that Iraq had a fairly well-developed railway system, and going by comments from people who went out there, Iraqi Republic Railways did not really lack skills and knowledge, instead the local railwaymen lacked access to resources and security.
Railway project gets on track
By U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Kristopher Levasseur
International Security Assistance Force Headquarters
Kabul, Afghanistan (Dec 07, 2011) – Mining minerals and raw materials is one of the most profitable businesses in the world. Whether its coal or raw metals, it’s one industry that Afghanistan cannot afford to miss out on, but in order to do that, they need a way to transport the materials.
That is where the Railway Advisory Team comes in.
“The Railway Advisory Team is here to create a railroad authority in Afghanistan much like those found in the U.S. or Europe,” said Army Maj. Timothy Christensen, International Security Assistance Force Headquarters Afghanistan Railway Advisory Team. “We are capacity building and teaching Afghans about railroading.”
The Afghanistan Railway Authority, which is waiting for approval from the Afghanistan presidential cabinet, will be set up to monitor and regulate the railway industry in the country.
“We are teaching the Afghan people from the ground up on how to run a railway and connecting them with international industries to get that extra piece of knowledge so they can become the regulators of the railways in Afghanistan,” said Christensen.
They are here to help build the infrastructure for the Afghans and teach them about the railway industry. The next step is to help them build a national rail plan for all of Afghanistan, he said.
“Afghanistan has an amazing amount of mineral wealth in the ground, a lot of it is in coal and iron ore,” said Christensen. “Those two commodities cannot be moved economically without a railroad. In order to develop Afghanistan’s economy to its fullest potential, a railroad will be necessary.”
Afghanistan has only 75 kilometers of railway right now, which is currently not operational.
This isn’t the first time this has been done in a foreign country. According to Army Maj. Scott Meyer, ISAF Headquarters Afghanistan Railway Advisory Team, this is the same concept that was put into action in Iraq. Similar practices will be put in place in Afghanistan. Currently, the Railway Advisory Team has several Afghans working with them to learn the process.
“We will eventually begin training the Afghanistan Railway Authority personnel how to plan and operate a railway,” said Army Sgt. 1st Class Shawn Stokes, ISAF Headquarters Afghanistan Railway Advisory Team. “Right now we are trying to build a training plan for the ARA.”
Christensen added that eventually, the Afghans will be able to train their fellow countrymen and continue the program. “The members we will train will become the future leaders of the ARA.”
Source: Railway project gets on track, ISAF, 7 December 2011
Afghan Railways: From the Great Game to the Modern Silk Road by Jared Nolan at War News Radio.
Afghanistan is at the crossroads of Central Asia–between East and South Asia, the Middle East, Russia, and Europe–and was an important stop on the Silk Road. War News Radio’s Jared Nolan uses historical perspective and geopolitics to define Afghanistan’s current transportation industry and determine what the future may hold. This is part of War News Radio’s ongoing series on the state of the Afghan economy.
NATO TV visits Mazar-e-Sharif, the capital of the northern province of Balkh, seven months after the first round of transition. Since July, Afghan forces have been fully in charge of Mazar’s security, with ISAF forces only operating in a supporting role. We talk to local people and the police chief for an update on the security situation.
Includes brief TEM2 action at 0:12.
News from Railway Gazette International