Making an old line new
More than ten years ago Turkey, Iran and Pakistan initiated a joint project for a seamless container train linking the three countries. The undertaking was shelved in the interim. Now there’s life in the old lines yet, as the Iranian Railways’ Ali Abdollahi told the ITJ.
What if the Covid-19 downturn, of all things – it hit Iran, Pakistan and Turkey particularly hard, after all – fills a defunct supra-regional project with new life again? Ali Abdollahi, of the Iranian Railways’ international affairs department, is optimistic. “The three railway enterprises are planning to launch the ITI cargo train in June.”
They’ve got the support of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO), an organisation with ten regional members founded by Pakistan, Iran and Turkey in 1985. Now the governments in Islamabad, Tehran and Ankara have expressed their support at the highest level.
The trial run of the Istanbul–Tehran–Islamabad cargo train (ITI) took place in 2009. In 2010 most of the UN humanitarian aid to people suffering from floods in Pakistan was transported on this route. After that, however, operations stopped – officially due to operational problems.
A strategic alternative
The project was rejuvenated after the ITI container train’s high-level working group (HLWG) held its eleventh virtual meeting in October 2020. It underlined the importance of the ITI corridor, especially to increase levels of regional trade, and also for regional security and stability.
Traders and shippers reported high demand for the train, welcoming its advantages with regards to a maritime route. The HLWG thus requested the three national railway enterprises to resume operations from January 2021. The ITI container train coordination group was then established. It met weekly to discuss issues relating to the resumption of operations, including tariffs, timetables, wagon supply and so on.
Abdollahi is the representative in the coordination group of the Islamic Republic of Iran Railways. “The group conducted a study,” Abdollahi said, “and decided that the train shouldn’t only carry containers, but that conventional wagons could also be transported in the corridor. The train’s name was thus changed from ITI container train to ITI cargo train.”
A series of technical problems led to another five-month delay. One of the main problems was that the train had to stop for a long time at Zahedan station (Iran), 98 km away from Pakistan. This is where Pakistan’s 1,676 mm broad-gauge railway network meets Iran and Turkey’s standard gauge 1,435 mm network. Cargo thus has to be transhipped to Pakistani wagons in Zahedan station – if they arrive on time. There’s no guarantee, however, as the Pakistani line from Quetta to Taftan is old and needs rehabilitation.
Three times faster
Abdollahi reports that “after negotiations in the ITI working group the railways agreed on the timely supply of Pakistani wagons in Zahedan, the timely transport of cargo in Pakistan, a timetable for the train and on competitive rates.”
In the last meeting of the ITI coordination group, which was held early in May, the three railways even reduced the tariff for conventional wagons again, to enhance its ability to compete with the maritime route. The tariff to transport empty containers on the corridor will be half of that for loaded containers. Agreements signed between the three countries envisage that the train will travel from Istanbul to Islamabad in twelve days – which represents an enormous time saving vis-à-vis the maritime route. Cargo from the Turkish port of Mersin to the Pakistani port of Karachi takes 35 to 40 days. Cargo transported from Turkey to Iran has to cross lake Van, where the containers and wagons benefit from regular ferry boats already operated by the Turkish railways.
Iranian Railways has put the construction of a standard-gauge line, right next to the present broad-gauge line from Zahedan to the Pakistani border, on its agenda. Pakistan is also going to rehabilitate and renovate the Taftan–Quetta rail line. Abdollahi is convinced that these investments will pay off. “The route can also be used to transport cargo from Russia and the CIS through Iran to Pakistan.”