Train Service for Afghanistan

[The Davy Crockett]

Our tax dollars at work? Link: http://www.wtop.com/?nid=220&sid=2678330

 

[jis]

Currently this appears to be a critical link to keep the NATO forces fed and supplied, given how unpredictable and unreliable the link from Karachi to Afghanistan has become. This is a cheaper alternative to flying all supplies in which would be a greater burden on our tax dollars, given that we are going to hang around in Afghanistan for a while yet.

 

[The Davy Crockett]

Currently this appears to be a critical link to keep the NATO forces fed and supplied, given how unpredictable and unreliable the link from Karachi to Afghanistan has become. This is a cheaper alternative to flying all supplies in which would be a greater burden on our tax dollars, given that we are going to hang around in Afghanistan for a while yet.

I'm not saying that creating a rail link to the outside world is a bad idea. I'm just saying I bet I know where this project got most of its funding from.

 

[Anderson]

This is actually a good idea...and I'm inclined to think that it is more easily secured than a truck convoy, since you can keep a substantial troop contingent on hand with the train, use more heavily-armored cars, put gun emplacements on the top of the train...there are a lot of possibilities for securing a train against an assault that you simply can't quite manage with trucks.

In the meantime, it's great to see Afghanistan be brought surging into the 19th Century in yet another way.

 

[George Harris]

From the BBC item on the same: www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-16287929

75-km (47-mile) route
The line was completed last year at a cost of $165 million (£105m).

. . .

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

Hairatan is on the border with Uzbekistan where it connects with the Uzbek railway system. which via the Russian railway is connected to the rest of the world.

Wonder if this was built to 5 foot gauge? Ought to be since tha that is the gague of the Russian/Uzbek system.

$165 million is $3.5 million per mile, which is fairly cheap as these things go.

 

[Texan Eagle]

Wonder if this was built to 5 foot gauge? Ought to be since tha that is the gague of the Russian/Uzbek system.

That's what I am wondering too. Since it is built (probably) by US money for the benefit of US troops, it would be Russian 5 foot gauge, but if this is the first installment of a long term plan to have a cross-country railway line across Afghanistan going into Pakistan at the other end, thereby providing a trans EurAsian rail link (without having to go through Iran), it will need a change-of-gauge somewhere to align with the 5.5 feet Indian Broad Gauge used in Pakistan and India.

 

[George Harris]

For a lot more than most of us would have any interest in knowing, go to

www.andrewgrantham.co.uk/afghanistan/railways/the-great-game/

This is the first page of a multi-page web site that has the whole history of the Afghan railway schemes through to the current works and on to dreams adn schemes for the future.

The pages that discusses the present activity are:

www.andrewgrantham.co.uk/afghanistan/news/

www.andrewgrantham.co.uk/afghanistan/railways/hairatan-to-mazar-i-sharif/

One piont of interest relative to the current work: The bridge across the river separating Uzbekistan and Afghanistan will built by the Soviets in 1980 as part of a plan on their part to subdue the country.

A 15 km railway line was built running east from Termez in Uzbekistan, then over the River Amu Amu-Darya (Oxus) into Afghanistan. It terminated at a transhipment point at Hayratan, near Kheyrabad. Termez has rail connections eastwards to Dushanbe in Tajikistan, and westwards via Kerichi in Turkmenistan to the Uzbek cities of Bukhara and Samarkand.
Work on the 34m rouble combined road, rail and oil pipeline "Friendship Bridge" began with the Soviet intervention in the winter of 1979-1980. An agreement for use of the 1 000 m bridge was reached between the Afghan and Soviet authorities in May 1982,1 and it opened that June.

The bridge strengthened the strategic transport capabilities of the USSR by establishing a railhead on the south side of the river,

Of course, at that tine the "authorities" on the Afghan side of the agreement were Soviet puppets, so the agreement was solely for show.

 

[jis]

The Hairatan - Mazar link is indeed Russian 5' gauge. It is a loooong way from Mazar to Jalalabad, figuratively speaking, since the mighty Hindu Kush stands in its way.

BTW, the river in question at Hairatan is the Oxus or Amu Darya which forms the border between Afghanistan and Uzbekistan.

My somewhat educated guess is that a rail corridor along the Herat - Kandahar - Spin Boldak - Chaman - Quetta axis will be built way before anything is built across the Hindu Kush, or the even more unlikely Wakhan Corridor link to China. This could possibly be in conjunction with the Iran - Afghanistan - Pakistan - India Oil/Gas pipeline which almost everyone in the area seems to think should be built. Current speculation is that the gauge break between 1435mm and 1676mm will be, if such a line were to be constructed, in Kandahar or its vicinity.