In the second half of the 19th century, during the time of Nasser-al-Din Shah, a short horse-driven suburban railway was established south of Tehran that was later converted to steam. This line was closed in 1952.
The Tabriz–Jolfa–Julfa (Russia) line (146 km) was opened in 1915 (in 1916 official opening), the Sufian–Sharafkhaneh (53 km) in 1916, and the Mirjaveh–Zahedan (93 km) in 1920. In 1915–1918, the Russians built and operated a military narrow-gauge railway Shakhtakhty (Russia) - Maku (Persia)- Bayazed (Turkey).
The 1,392 km (865 mi) long Trans-Iranian Railway from Bandar Shah on the Caspian Sea to Bandar Shahpur on the Persian Gulf was opened during the reign of Reza Shah Pahlavi in 1939. The railroad was built with rail weighing 67 pounds per yard (33 kg/m) and required more than 3000 bridges. There were 126 tunnels in the Zagros mountains. The longest was 1.5 miles. Grades averaged 1.5 percent south of Tehran, but then increased to 2.8 percent to cross the 7,270-foot pass between Tehran and the Caspian Sea. After the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran in 1941, this Persian Corridor became one of the supply routes for war material for the Soviet Union during World War II, (Railway trend in Iran). The British built a 75-mile (121 km) branch line from the 3000-foot (900-meter) bridge over the Karun River in Ahwaz to a new southern port at Khorramshahr on the Shatt al-Arab river. In 1943 3,473 American soldiers of the Military Railway Service began running trains between the Persian Gulf and Caspian Sea using ALCO RS-1 locomotives rebuilt with 3-axle trucks and designated RSD-1. [1] The Americans set up headquarters in Ahwaz, but were unable to tolerate the daytime heat, and generally operated the railway at night. [2]
After the transportation minister visited one of Japanese new high speed railway in 1975 he invited them to study a new high speed line between Tehran and Mashhad. a delegation came to Iran for this study and their proposal was prepared with three options:
1- Double tracking, signaling and electrification of existing route with 160 km/h speed.
2- Constructing a new dedicated high speed line with 210 km/h like japan as the second country in the world.
3- Constructing a new dedicated high speed line with 270 km/h that was more than Japanese one.
and for the third one they explained the 10 year duration of project that was enough to develop the new generation of high speed trains.
The Trans-Iranian railway traverses many mountain ranges, and is full of spirals and 1 in 36 ruling grades. Much of the terrain was unmapped when construction took place, and its geology unknown. Several stretches of line, including tunnels, were built through unsuitable geology, and had to be replaced even before the line opened. Nevertheless, the line was completed ahead of schedule.
In recent years the railways have undergone significant extensions including the 1977 linking to the western railway system at the Turkish border, the 1993 opening of the Bandar Abbas line providing better access to the sea, and the 1996 opening of the Mashad–Sarakhs extension as part of the Silk Road railway to link to the landlocked Central Asian Countries.
Route | Length in km | Date of Construction |
Tehran — Ray | 9 | 1884—1886 |
Mahmudabad — Amol | 16 | 1882—1887 |
Tehran — Karaj | 41 | 1895—1903 |
Tabriz — Jolfa | 148 | 1910—1914 |
Sufian — Sharafkhaneh | 53 | 1913—1916 |
Zahedan — Mirjaveh | 94 | 1912—1921 |
Tehran — Bandar Shah | 461 | 1928—1938 |
Tehran — Bandar Shahpur | 928 | 1928—1939 |
Ahvaz — Khorramshahr | 121 | 1942—1943 |
Sar Bandar — Mahshahr | 12 | 1950—1951 |
Garmsar — Mashhad | 812 | 1938—1958 |
Tehran — Tabriz | 736 | 1939—1959 |
Gorgan — Bandar Shah | 35 | 1960—1961 |
Tabriz — Bazargan | 192 | 1912—1971 |
Qom — Zarand | 847 | 1939—1971 |
Isfahan — Zarrin Shahr | 111 | 1969—1972 |
Zarand — Kerman | 80 | 1975—1979 |
Bafq — Bandar-Abbas | 626 | 1982—1995 |
Aprin — Maleki | 24 | 1993—1997 |
Aprin — Mohammediya-2 | 122 | 1994—1999 |
Chadormalu — Meibod | 219 | 1992—1999 |
Mohammediya-2 — Mohammediya-1 | 6 | 1994—1999 |
Bafq — Kashmar | 800 | 1992—2001 |
Isfahan — Shiraz | 506 | 2004—2009 |
Kerman — Zahedan | 546 | 2002—2009 |
Geographically, Iran is located in West Asia and borders the Caspian Sea, Persian Gulf, and Gulf of Oman. Its mountains have impacted both the political and the economic history of the country for several centuries. The mountains enclose several broad basins, on which major agricultural and urban settlements are located. Until the 20th century, when major highways and railroads were constructed through the mountains to connect the population centers, these basins tended to be relatively isolated from one another.
Iran has a long paved road system linking most of its towns and all of its cities. In 2011 the country had 173,000 kilometres (107,000 mi) of roads, of which 73% were paved. In 2008 there were nearly 100 passenger cars for every 1,000 inhabitants.
Bandar-e Anzali is a city of Gilan Province, Iran. At the 2011 census, its population was 144,664.
The Trans-Asian Railway(TAR) is a project to create an integrated freight railway network across Europe and Asia. The project is of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP).
Ahvaz is a city in the southwest of Iran and the capital of Khuzestan province. Ahvaz's population is about 1,300,000 and its built-up area with the nearby town of Sheybani is home to 1,136,989 inhabitants. It is home to Persians, Arabs, Bakhtiaris, Dezfulis, Shushtaris, and others. Languages spoken in the area include Persian and Arabic, as well as dialects of Luri (Bakhtiari), Dezfuli, Shushtari, and others.
The Eurasian Land Bridge, sometimes called the New Silk Road, is the rail transport route for moving freight and passengers overland between Pacific seaports in the Russian Far East and China and seaports in Europe. The route, a transcontinental railroad and rail land bridge, currently comprises the Trans-Siberian Railway, which runs through Russia and is sometimes called the Northern East-West Corridor, and the New Eurasian Land Bridge or Second Eurasian Continental Bridge, running through China and Kazakhstan. As of November 2007, about one percent of the $600 billion in goods shipped from Asia to Europe each year were delivered by inland transport routes.
Arak is the capital of Markazi Province, Iran. At the 2011 census, its population was 526,182, in 160,761 families. The city is nicknamed the "Industrial Capital of Iran".
The Trans-Iranian Railway was a major railway building project started in Pahlavi Iran in 1927 and completed in 1938, under the direction of the then-Iranian monarch Reza Shah. It was entirely built with indigenous capital, and links the capital Tehran with Bandar Shahpur on the Persian Gulf in the south and Bandar Shah on the Caspian Sea in the north, via Ahvaz and Ghom. In 1961, under Reza Shah's son Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, it was extended from Bandar Shah to a new terminus in Gorgan. During the land reforms of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi in 1963, as part of the "White Revolution", the Trans-Iranian railway was extended to link Tehran to Mashhad, Tabriz and Isfahan.
Caspian Airlines is an airline headquartered in Tehran, Iran. Established in 1993, it operates services between Tehran and other major cities in Iran and international flights to Armenia, Syria, Turkey, United Arab Emirates and Ukraine. Its main base is Mehrabad International Airport, Tehran.
The Persian Corridor was a supply route through Iran into Soviet Azerbaijan by which British aid and American Lend-Lease supplies were transferred to the Soviet Union during World War II. Of the 17.5 million long tons of U.S. Lend-Lease aid provided to the Soviet Union, 7.9 million long tons (45%) were sent through Iran.
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The Islamic Republic of Iran Navy, officially abbreviated NEDAJA, is the naval warfare service branch of Iran's regular military, the Islamic Republic of Iran Army (Artesh). It is one of Iran's two maritime military branches, alongside the Navy of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
The Trans-Caspian Railway is a railway that follows the path of the Silk Road through much of western Central Asia. It was built by the Russian Empire during its expansion into Central Asia in the 19th century. The railway was started in 1879, following the Russian victory over Khokand. Originally it served a military purpose of facilitating the Imperial Russian Army in actions against the local resistance to their rule. However, when Lord Curzon visited the railway, he remarked that he considered its significance went beyond local military control and threatened British interests in Asia.
The Islamic Republic of Iran Railways is the national state-owned railway system of Iran. The Raja Passenger Train Company is an associate of the IR, and manages its passenger trains. The Railway Transportation Company is an associate of the IR, which manages its freight transport. The Ministry of Roads & Urban Development is the state agency that oversees the IRIR. Some 33 million tonnes of goods and 29 million passengers are transported annually by the rail transportation network, accounting for 9 percent and 11 percent of all transportation in Iran, respectively (2011).
The New Eurasian Land Bridge, also called the Second or New Eurasian Continental Bridge, is the southern counterpart to the Eurasian Land Bridge and runs through China and Central Asia with possible plans for expansion into South and West Asia. The Eurasian Land Bridge system is important as an overland rail link between China and Europe, with transit between the two via Central Asia and Russia.
The International North–South Transport Corridor (INSTC) is a 7,200-km-long multi-mode network of ship, rail, and road route for moving freight between India, Iran, Azerbaijan, Russia, Central Asia and Europe. The route primarily involves moving freight from India, Iran, Azerbaijan and Russia via ship, rail and road. The objective of the corridor is to increase trade connectivity between major cities such as Mumbai, Moscow, Tehran, Baku, Bandar Abbas, Astrakhan, Bandar Anzali, etc. Dry runs of two routes were conducted in 2014, the first was Mumbai to Baku via Bandar Abbas and the second was Mumbai to Astrakhan via Bandar Abbas, Tehran and Bandar Anzali. The objective of the study was to identify and address key bottlenecks. The results showed transport costs were reduced by "$2,500 per 15 tons of cargo". Other routes under consideration include via Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan.
The Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran or Anglo-Soviet invasion of Persia was the joint invasion of the neutral Imperial State of Iran by the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union in August 1941. The invasion, code name Operation Countenance, was largely unopposed by the numerically and technologically outmatched Iranian forces. The multi-pronged coordinated invasion took place along Iran's borders with the Kingdom of Iraq, Azerbaijan SSR, and Turkmen SSR, with fighting beginning on 25 August and ending on 31 August when the Iranian government formally agreed to surrender, having already agreed to a ceasefire on 30 August.
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Arme Construction Company has been one of Iran's and the Middle East's largest construction companies.
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