Hejaz Railway

Hejaz Railway
Hejaz Train Station in Damascus, the starting point of the railroad.
Technical
Line length	1320 km
Track gauge	1,050 mm (3 ft 5+1⁄3 in)
Minimum radius of curvature	100 m
Maximum incline	1,8 ‰
Route map Map of the Hejaz railway.

v • d • e Hejaz-Railway (Main Line)

Legend -6,0 Damascus–Kanawat 1906 extension 0,0 Damascus-Cadem Works Damascus-Cadem–Halep to Qatara 20,8 Kiswe 30,5 Der Ali 49,7 Mismije 62,6 Dschabab 69,1 Chabab 77,8 Mahadsha 84,6 Shakra 91,2 Esra formerly 600 mm (1 ft 11+5⁄8 in)-narrow gauge to As-Sawayda 106,1 Chibret al-Ghasali to/from Haifa 123,0 Dar'a Ghares 128,6 to Bosra wadi wadi 135,7 Nassib motorway Amman–Damascus border Syria/Jordan 140,1 Dschabir 161,7 Mafraq 185,3 Chirbet us-Samra wadi motorway Amman–Damascus wadi 194,0 Salis IPC-Refinery wadi 202,7 Az-Zarqa wadi Rossaifa street Rossaifa 222,4 Amman Railway Museum Jesin-viaduct 234,0 Qasr gallery motorway Amman Circular 248,8 Lubin wadi street Amman–Airport 259,7 Dshisa wadi wadi 278,7 Daba’a wadi wadi wadi 295,2 Chan uz-Zibib wadi wadi wadi wadi wadi wadi 309,3 Suaka wadi 326,2 Qatrana wye wadi wadi wadi 348,4 Menzil crossing wadi wadi wadi phosphate mine Abiad M 45 367,1 Faraifa Phosphate mine wadi el-Hassa 377,8 Al-Hassa M 45 397,4 Dschiruf ed-Derwish M 45 422,7 Anese to Hischech 440,5 Wadu Dshardum crossing Ma’an Old Station) to Naqb Ashtar 458,8 Ma'an 475,0 Gadir al-Hadsh 487,0 Shedija crossing 491,0 Abu Tarafa 500,0 Esch-Schifia 508,0 Fassua 514,2 Aqaba el-Hedschasije (Hattyia) 519,7 Batn al-Ghul 522,5 to Aqaba 530,0 wadi Rassim 545,0 Tel esh-Sham 572,0 Mudawarra border Jordan/Saudi-Arabia 583,0 crossing 591,0 Kalaat Amara 598,0 crossing 610,0 Sat ul-Hadsch 622,0 crossing 635,0 Bir Hermas 654,0 El-Hazim 667,0 Makhtab 681,0 crossing 692,0 Tabuk 706,0 crossing 710,0 wadi Atil 716,0 crossing 737,0 Sahr ul -hul 743,0 Dar ul-Hadsh 753,0 Mustabka 757,0 Al-Achdar 773,0 Chamis 794,4 Dissaid 830,0 Al-Muadhem/Muassam 844,0 crossing 855,0 Khism Sana’a/Hachim Sana 871,0 crossing 883,0 Al-Muteli 885,0 Dar al-Hamra 904,0 Mutali 912,0 Abu Taka 924,0 crossing 938,0 Al-Muzhim 946,0 Mabrakat al-Naka 958,0 Mada'in Saleh works & museum 973,0 crossingg 983,0 Al-`Ula 994,0 crossing 1003,0 Bedai crossing 1013,0 Mesched crossing 1025,0 crossing 1029,0 Sahil Matara crossing 1048,0 Zumrud/Sumruk 1060,0 crossing 1079,0 Bir Jehid 1099,0 Tuwaira crossing 1115,0 Waiban crossing 1126,0 Muderitsh crossing 1144,0 Hedia 1166,3 Dsheda 1176,0 Abu al-Na’am 1194,5 Stabl Antar 1215,0 Al-Buwayr crossing 1228,0 crossing 1245,0 Bir Nassif 1273,0 Hafire crossing 1290,5 Bir Abu Jabir/Muhid 1303,0 Buwata crossing 1309,0 Hafirah 1315,5 Bir Osman 1320,5 Medina 1322,0 Medina Citadel

Empty phosphate train at Ram station, coming from Aqaba.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Hejaz Railway

The Hejaz Railway (also Hedjaz, etc.) was a narrow gauge railway (1,050 mm (3 ft 5+¹⁄₃ in) track gauge) that ran from Damascus to Medina, through the Hejaz region of Arabia, with a branch line to Haifa, on the Mediterranean Sea. It was a part of the Ottoman railway network and was built in order to extend the previously existing line between Istanbul and Damascus (which began from the Haydarpaşa Terminal) all the way to the holy city of Mecca (eventually being able to reach only Medina due to the interruption of the construction works caused by the outbreak of World War I).

The main purpose of the Hejaz Railway was to establish a connection between Istanbul, the capital of the Ottoman Empire and the seat of the Islamic Caliphate, and Hejaz in Arabia, the site of the holiest shrines of Islam and the holy city of Mecca, which is the yearly pilgrimage destination of the Hajj. Another important reason was to improve the economic and political integration of the distant Arabian provinces into the Ottoman state, and to facilitate the transportation of military forces in case of need.

The railway is remarkable both for having had no debt when completed and for having many miles of track below sea-level. The initial declared goal of laying the tracks all the way to Mecca was never achieved. In fact it never reached further south than Medina, 400 kilometres (250 mi) short of Mecca.

History

A railway had been suggested in 1864 to relieve the suffering of the hajis on their forty day journey through the wilderness of Midian, the Nafud, and the Hejaz Mountains. The railway was started in 1900 at the behest of the Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid II and was built largely by the Turks, with German advice and support. A public subscription was opened throughout the Islamic world to fund the construction. The railway was to be a waqf, an inalienable religious endowment or charitable trust.^[1] Before the construction, a German military adviser in Istanbul Auler Pasha estimated that the transportation of soldiers from Istanbul to Mecca would be reduced to 120 hours.^[2] Berlin to Baghdad Railway was built in the same time. Both railways were interrelated and aimed to strengthen the authority of the Empire over Arab provinces. Another intention was to protect Hejaz and other Arab provinces from a British invasion.

The railway reached Medina on September 1, 1908, the anniversary of the Sultan's accession. Certain compromises had had to be made in order to finish by this date, with some sections of track being laid on temporary embankments across wadis. In 1913 a new station, the Hejaz Train Station, was opened in central Damascus as the starting point of the line (Damascus to Medina is 1,300 kilometres (810 mi)).

The Emir Hussein ibn Ali viewed the railway as a threat to Arab suzerainty, since it provided the Ottomans easy access to their garrisons in Hejaz, Asir, and Yemen. From its outset, the railway was the target of attacks by local Arab tribes. These were never particularly successful, but neither were the Turks able to control areas more than a mile or so either side of the tracks. Due to the locals' habit of pulling up wooden sleepers to fuel their camp-fires, some sections of the track were laid on iron sleepers.

During World War I, the German Army produced shale oil from Yarmouk oil shale deposit to fuel locomotives operating on the Hejaz railway.^[3][4] The line was repeatedly damaged in fighting during the war, particularly at the hands of the guerrilla force led by T. E. Lawrence during the Arab Revolt, which ambushed Ottoman trains on the railway. The Turks built a military railroad from the Hejaz line to Beersheba, inaugurating the station on October 30, 1915.^[5]

In World War II the Samakh Line from Haifa to Deraa in the Syrian border and to Damascus was run for the Allied forces by the New Zealand Railway Group 17th ROC from Afula, with workshops at Deraa and Haifa. The locomotives were 1914 Borsig and 1917 Hauptman from Germany and Breda from Italy. The line, previously operated by the Vichy French, was in disrepair. Trains over the steep section between Samakh (now Ma’agan) and Derea were 230 tons maximum, with 1000 tons moved in 24 hours. The Group also ran 60 miles (95 km) of branch line eg Afula to Tulkarm ^[6]

After the fall of the Ottoman Empire, the railway never reopened south of the Jordanian-Saudi Arabian border. An attempt was made in the mid-1960s, but this was abandoned due to the Six Day War in 1967.^{[citation needed]}

Current status

Two connected but non-contiguously operated sections of the Hejaz Railway are in service:

• from Amman in Jordan to Damascus in Syria, as the "Hedjaz Jordan Railway" (suspended since mid-2006 due to track damage^[7])
• from phosphate mines near Ma'an to the Gulf of Aqaba, as the "Aqaba Railway".

Workers on the railway have restored many of the original locomotives. There are currently nine steam locomotives in Syria and seven in Jordan in working order. Since the accession of King Abdullah II, relations between Jordan and Syria have improved, causing a revival of interest in the railway. The train, however, no longer runs from the Hejaz Station but from Qadam station in the outskirts of the Syrian capital. In 2004 the Hejaz Station in Damascus was closed, pending a major commercial development project. On the 4th February 2009 the Turkish Transport Minister Binali Yildirim said in Riyadh regarding plans to rebuild the railway line:^[8]

The plan envisages restoration and modernization of the railway line by the Turkish government within its territory, while it calls on Syria and Jordan to rebuild the tracks on their sides ...
On the Saudi side, they do have an ambitious plan to set up railway projects, ...
So, when these four countries (Turkey, Jordan, Syria and Saudi Arabia) come together, the entire project would be completed.

Small non-operating sections of the railway track, buildings and rolling-stock are still preserved as tourist-attractions in Saudi Arabia, including the Medina Terminus, restored in 2005 with railway tracks and locomotive shed. The old railway bridge over the Aqiq Valley though was demolished in 2005 due to damage from heavy rain the year before.^[9][10] Trains destroyed by Lawrence can still be seen where they fell.

There are also plans by Israel Railways to rebuild the long-defunct Haifa extension of the railway (the Jezreel Valley railway) in Israel using standard gauge, with the possibility of later extending it to Irbid in Jordan.

In 2008 the "museum of the rolling stock of Al-Hidjaz Railway" opened in Damascus Khadam station after major renovations for an exhibition of the locomotives. The trains run from Khadam station on the basis of customer demand (usually German, British or Swiss groups). The northern part of the Zabadani track is no longer accessible. There is a small railway museum at the station in Mada'in Saleh^[11] and a larger project is the "Hejaz Railway Museum" in Medina that opened in 2006.^[12]

See also

• Transport in Jordan
• Transportation in the Arab League

References

Further reading

• Tourret, R. (1989). Hedjaz Railway. Tourret Publishing. ISBN 0-905878-05-1. 
• Nicolson, James. The Hejaz Railway. Stacey International Publishers. ISBN 190098881X. 
• Judd, Brendon The Desert Railway: The New Zealand Railway Group in North Africa and the Middle East during the Second World War (2003, 2004 Auckland, Penguin) ISBN 0143019155

External links

• Four podcasts about the Hejaz railway from BBC World service
• pictures and report of travelogue in the Saudi Section of Hejaz railway
• BBC: "A piece of railway history"
• BBC: "Pilgrim railway back on track"
• Extensive Hejaz Railway site at Nabataea.net
• http://www.hejaz-railroad.info/Galerie.html
• Pictures of Hejaz railway in Madina
• The demolition of hejaz railway bridge in Medina
• lots of pictures from the Hidjaz Railway stations from an 2008 trip across Syria