Afghan railway: First train runs on new line in north

[John Ashworth]

Afghan railway: First train runs on new line in north

BBC 21 December 2011 Last updated at 18:07 GMT

A train has run for the first time on Afghanistan's only major railway, between the Uzbek border and the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif.

The seven-carriage train pulled into a new station in the city after travelling the 75-km (47-mile) route without any cargo.

The line was completed last year at a cost of $165 million (£105m).

The authorities hope to open up new trade routes and link Afghanistan to its neighbours' rail networks.

The new line could also become a key supply route for Nato forces in Afghanistan and help take military equipment out when the international troops withdraw, starting in 2012.

The US has been shifting its supply lines into the north and away from the volatile route from Pakistan.

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.

Bottleneck

The new line to Mazar-e-Sharif runs from the border town of Hairatan, which is currently a major bottleneck for goods entering Afghanistan.

Supplies have to be taken off Uzbek trains and loaded on to trucks to continue their journey.

The railway should enable goods to be taken straight to Mazar-e-Sharif, avoiding the queues and significantly increasing the volume of goods that can be transported.

Afghanistan's neighbours, including Pakistan and Uzbekistan, have good railway networks built by their former rulers, Britain and Russia.

However, Afghanistan has never had a functioning rail system.

Railway projects were started several times in the 19th and 20th centuries, by British and then Soviet authorities, only to be abandoned for political reasons.

Afghanistan has long been the missing link between the rail networks of China, India and the Middle East.

The new railway is part of the Central Asia Regional Economic Co-operation (Carec) project, under which it is intended that these networks will be joined up by 2,000km (1,300miles) of new track.

The plan is funded by the Asian Development Bank, the UN, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, but so far it is a very long way from being completed.


Afghanistan's first major railway opens up supply route to the north

New railway line is first part of plan to link Afghanistan to its neighbours' networks

Associated Press, Kabul
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 21 December 2011 14.31 GMT

Operators ran the first train down Afghanistan's first major railway on Wednesday, clearing the way for a long-awaited service from the northern border that should speed up the US military's crucial supply flow and become a hub for future trade.

A cargoless train chugged into a newly built station in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif after a 47-mile trial run from the border with Uzbekistan, said deputy public works minister Noor Gul Mangal, who was on hand for the arrival.

The new rail line is the first stage of an ambitious plan to link landlocked Afghanistan to its neighbours' extensive railways for the first time, eventually opening up new trade routes for goods travelling between Europe and Asia.

Afghanistan has never had a functional rail network, though many projects have been begun and later abandoned, victims of manoeuvres of the 19th-century Great Game rivalry between Russia and Britain, and then political bickering in the early 20th century. Soviet occupiers abandoned a few rail projects in the 1980s, and later years of bitter civil war made such construction impossible.

So the line from the border town of Hairatan to Mazar-i-Sharif marks a milestone in a country eager for good news on the horizon. It also could be a key route for the US troop withdrawal beginning next year and, eventually, a gateway for Afghan exports, said Fred Starr, chairman of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute at Johns Hopkins University in Washington.

"It's actually a big deal. It's very significant both practically and symbolically," Starr said.

In the short term the service will help release a bottleneck at Hairatan dry port that is now holding up goods – including fuel and other supplies for American troops – while they are loaded from trains and onto trucks for a hazardous journey over Afghanistan's northern mountain roads.

"This port of Hairatan is where the bulk of commercial cargo is coming from into the country, so it is very important," said Juan Miranda, head of Central and West Asia department of the Asian Development Bank, which funded the $165m project.

Allowing trains to come straight in will help Hairatan handle up to 10 times as much cargo, from 4,000 tons a month now to 25,000-40,000 tons a month once the service is fully operating, the ADB says. Once in Mazar-i-Sharif the goods can be transferred to most of the rest of Afghanistan on surface roads.

Uzbekistan's state-owned SE Sogdiana Trans will run the commercial train service, ADB's Afghanistan representative Noriko Sato said.

A US military spokesman says the new railway will be key to supplying American troops – and possibly also withdrawing non-lethal cargo during the American troop pullout set to begin next year.

"We do not have numbers yet, [but] we anticipate that the rail line will be able to speed the transit of cargo into Afghanistan and out of it," said Cmdr Bill Speaks of the office of the secretary of defence.

The US has recently shifted much of its supply line to the north from routes going through Pakistan, and the northern routes' importance was brought into sharp focus last month when Pakistan – angered by a disputed Nato strike that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers – closed its two border crossings for US supplies.

Just three years ago about 90% of nonmilitary supplies to Afghanistan went through Karachi, Pakistan. Today close to 75% of cargo is shipped through the northern network.

Just as the Pakistani supply line has been attacked by insurgents, the newer northern routes through Mazar-i-Sharif and other cities are likely also to become targets. In 2009 Taliban forces in the northern province of Kunduz hijacked two fuel trucks, resulting in a Nato airstrike that killed dozens.

While many fear instability or even civil war in Afghanistan after 2014 when most foreign forces leave, others are busy planning for a future in which the country could be a hub in a New Silk Road reconnecting spice and silk routes from centuries past.

The 10-country Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation project – supported by the ADB along with the UN, World Bank and International Monetary Fund – envisions a network of some 2,250 miles (3,600kms) of roads and 1,250 miles (2,000kms) of railway linking China and India to the Middle East and Europe, although the project is far from complete.

For years Afghanistan's poor roads and rails have been the project's missing link to much of that network.

With the northern Hairatan rail line ready to open for business, Afghan officials are already planning to expand its infant railroad with another proposed line to Turkmenistan to the north-west, Mangal said on Wednesday.

He said a delegation would meet with Turkmenistan officials to discuss the expansion at the official inauguration for the Hairatan to Mazar-i-Sharif line, which he said would come soon.

"This is the first railway in Afghanistan and of course when we inaugurate it there will be a big ceremony, Mangal said.