Syrian Railways

Chemins de fer Syriens
Euphrates former Baghdad Railway north to Ankara east from Al-Rai to Nusaybin[11]  Turkish border Maydan Ikbis Al Qamishli Aleppo-Ansari Deir ez-Zor Raqqa Deir ez-Zor freight depot Al-Yaarubiyah (former Baghdad Railway) Hamah Abu Kemal Latakia  Iraqi border Tartus east to Mosul Al Akkari Euphrates Homs Homs freight depot  Lebanese border Palmyra freight only south to Tripoli│to Beirut Damascus Kadam Damascus al-Hijaz Qatana Sheikh Miskin Zayzun Dera'a Suwayda  Jordanian border south to Amman
Key
1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) standard gauge 1,050 mm (3 ft 5+11⁄32 in) narrow gauge
in use out of use under construction planned

Today, all 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) network and trains are operated by CFS. Using all diesel-electric powered traction, the main routes prior to the Syrian Civil War were:[4][12]

• Damascus - Homs - Hamah - Aleppo - Maydan Ikbis (- Ankara TCDD)
• Aleppo - Latakia - Tartus - Al Akkari - Homs
• Homs - Palmyra: freight only, opened for phosphates traffic, destined for the port of Tartus, in 1980
• Line runs from the oilfields of Al Qamishli in the north to the port of Latakia (750 km)
• Al Akkari (- Tripoli CEL, out of use)
• Aleppo - Deir ez-Zor - Al-Qamishli (- Nusaybin TCDD)
• Extension from Homs southwards to Damascus (194 km) was opened in 1983
• 80 km (50 mi) Tartus-Latakia line in 1992
• Al Qamishli - Al-Yaarubiyah (- IRR Iraq, out of use)
• Damascus - Sheikh Miskin - Dera'a: under construction, to replace a section of Hejaz railway
• Sheikh Miskin - Suwayda (under construction)
• Palmyra - Deir ez-Zor - Abu Kemal (- IRR Iraq) (planned)

Prior to the war there was a proposal for a connection with Iraq between Deir ez-Zor and Al Qa’im.[13] However, all international routes operated by Syrian Railways were suspended due to the outbreak of the Syrian Civil War.

The restoration of the rail link with Iraq (IRR) and the proposal to extend the railway from Al-Qaim in Iraq through Al-Bukamal in Syria to Homs for a total distance of 270 kilometers and thence to Tartus are as of 2022 under discussion.[14][15]

These were the figures prior to the ongoing Syrian conflict:

• total: 2,750 km (1,710 mi)
• standard gauge: 2,423 km (1,506 mi) 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) gauge
• narrow gauge: 327 km (203 mi) 1,050 mm (3 ft 5+11⁄32 in) gauge (2000) Chemin de Fer de Hedjaz Syrie

The headquarters of CFS, Aleppo

The network is designed wholly around diesel-electric traction. For operational purposes CFS is divided into three regions: Central, Eastern and Northern. At the end of 2004 CFS employed around 12,400 staff.

The system has a low level capacity, with top speed usually limited. A 30 km (19 mi) section of the Damascus - Aleppo line was designed for speeds reaching 120 km/h (75 mph), but most of the track has a limit of 110 km/h (68 mph). Most tracks of the CFS are limited to 80 km/h (50 mph). Operational train speed is also limited by a lack of interlocked signalling, with most of the system operating by informal signalling. The Damascus al-Hijaz railway station, which lies in the city centre, is no longer operational, and the railway connections with other cities depart from the suburban station of Qadam.

The result is that most passenger traffic has moved to air-conditioned coaches, and freight traffic dominates the operational trackage. The 2005 introduction of South Korean-built DMUs, where drivers were trained using a simulator,[16] on the Damascus - Aleppo route, and the high traffic Aleppo - Latakia route where intermediate stations are bypassed, resulted in higher usage and occupancy levels.

The only remaining section of narrow gauge line, running from a point on the outskirts of Damascus into Jordan, is operated by Hedjaz Jordan Railway.

The only international connection was with Turkey, but that link was halted due to the Syrian Civil War.[17] The link with Iraq, severed in the war of 2003, was restored for a time but closed again; there was a plan to reopen it in June 2009.[18] In 2008 it was proposed to open a joint rolling stock factory with Turkish State Railways at Aleppo.

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.[19] 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.[20]

The motive power in 2009 was noted as:[21][22]

Class	Image	Axle Formula	Number	Year in Service	Power [kW]	Max.Speed [km/h]	Traction Type*	Notes
unknown								Steam locomotive in Bosra
LDE-650		Bo-Bo	9	1968	478		DE	Shunting locomotives built in France
LDE-1200		Co-Co	11	1973	883	100	DE	TEM2 Shunting locomotives built in USSR, 346 kN tractive effort
LDE-1500		Co-Co	25	1982	1102		DE	Czechoslovakia, similar to ČSD (ČKD) ČSD Class T 669.0[23]
LDE-1800		Co-Co	26	1976	1323		DE	American built General Electric U17C export model. 30 originally built in 2 batches
LDE-2800		Co-Co	77	1982	2058	100	DE	Russian TE114, 110 originally built. Partly modernised by General Electric in 2000 by fitting 12cyclinder GE FDL of 3000 hp[24]
LDE-3200		Co-Co	30	1999	2400	120	DE	French Prima DE 32C AC diesel locomotives, engines by Ruston 3,200 hp (2,400 kW).[25][26]
DMU-5			10	2006	1680	120/160	DH	Multiple unit from Hyundai Rotem, Korea for Aleppo-Damascus/Latakia long-distance services. 222 second class, 61 first class
* DH = Diesel-hydraulic, DE = Diesel-electric

The railway possessed:[21]

• Passenger carriages: almost all OSShD-Y obtained mainly from the former Deutsche Reichsbahn of German Democratic Republic, the newest of which were obtained from Căile Ferate Române of Romania and Polish State Railways.

CFS dining car (2007)

• The stock of 483 carriages includes: 19 restaurant, 45 sleepers and 33 baggage vans. In 2001, Iranian company Wagon Pars refurbished some stock which is still in use, while the remaining unused stock lie rotting in sidings.

Class	Image	Number	Year in Service	Notes
Type Y[27]		358	1982-'83	Original built for Damascus - Homs-line by VEB Bautzen. Delivered in orange-cream Städteexpress livery
Cars for DMU-5		N/A	2006	Built for Aleppo - Latakia line by Hyundai Rotem

CFS phosphate mineral wagon (2007)

• Goods wagons: freight trains are organised into block workings, covering shipments of: oil, natural gas, phosphates, grain, cement, containers, construction materials and other transports. Most of 4319 vehicles were built between 1960 and 1975, with the most modern stock the grain wagons imported from Iran in the early 1990s. Approximate figures for stock:
  • 1294 Heavy Flat wagons
  • 846 Open wagons
  • 818 Oil tankers
  • 762 Covered wagons
  • 597 Grain wagons
  • 323 Phosphate wagons
  • 178 Sliding wall wagons
  • 146 Self unloading wagons
  • 53 Flat wagons
  • 50 Natural gas tankers
  • 45 Cement wagons
  • 20 Water tankers
  • 19 Tippers