Iraq Plans Railway Connection to the Persian Gulf via Turkey

Iraq’s Prime Minister, Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani, has announced plans for a railway and road corridor to Europe through Turkey, according to the railway portal Railway Supply, citing Railway Gazette.

The creation of a 1,200-kilometer line was announced on May 27 during a conference with representatives from the transportation ministries of Iran, Jordan, Syria, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE. The project, including a planned parallel railway, has an estimated cost of $17 billion.

“We see this project as the basis for a sustainable non-oil economy,” said Al-Sudani.

E-shotting to manufacturers and customers of railway industry

Inviting the participating countries to be part of the project, he stated that the proposed line would promote regional economic integration and create an important trade route for Iraq’s neighbors.

The planned line will start at the container port of Al-Faw in Basra, which is undergoing expansion, and will extend to the border with Turkey.

Al-Sudani did not specify whether the line would use existing tracks between Baghdad, Tikrit, and Mosul, new parallel lines, or a combination of both.

From Mosul, the railway line will continue near the Rabia border crossing with Syria, from where a new track will be constructed to the Turkish border crossing at Ovakoy.

Although the railway is primarily envisioned as a freight corridor, it will include 15 passenger stations.

Publication of the article on the Railway Supply portal

The project envisions Turkey extending and modernizing its existing line from Gaziantep and Nusaybin to Ovakoy, bypassing the current railway route to Iraq that passes through northeastern Syria.

In a conversation with Turkish media on June 6, Turkey’s Ambassador to Baghdad, Ali Riza Guney, confirmed that the project was discussed during Al-Sudani’s visit to Ankara in March of this year and that technical meetings and studies related to the project are ongoing.

Plans to improve railway connectivity between Turkey and Iraq have been discussed since 2004, following the fall of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

The two countries agreed to establish a technical committee between their national railways, TCDD and IRR, to develop the existing Nusaybin-Kamishli (Syria)-Mosul line to handle six trains per day and restore regular freight transport between Gaziantep and Baghdad and passenger transport between Istanbul and Baghdad.

However, all services between the countries were suspended over a decade ago due to the start of the civil war in Syria.

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