Pak-Iran-Turkey freight train from Aug 14

Society Pakistan & World Affairs
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Pak-Iran-Turkey freight train from Aug 14: Bilour Updated at: 0319 PST, Wednesday, August 05, 2009

ISLAMABAD: Minister for Railways Haji Ghulam Ahmed Bilour here on Tuesday said the Pakistan Railways would launch Islamabad-Tehran-Istanbul international freight train service from August 14, and it will reach its destination within 15 days.

He was addressing at a press conference, the minister said that Iran will provide transshipment facilities in Zahedan till a standard gauge line is laid between Zahedan and Mirjaveh.

The Minister also told about the successful visit of China, said that with the cooperation of China government six projects would be launched soon for the development of the country.

Pakistan and China would construct these projects including, Hoshab to Rawalpindi, Karachi to Torkham, Torkham to Kabul and Tajikistan, Gawadar to Quetta, Quetta to Iran and Quetta to Peshawar.

He said that six-member committee would look after the completion for these projects, three members from China and three from Pakistan, while China has finalized and Pakistan would soon finalize the names of three members.

He said out of total 6,506 kilometers Islamabad-Istanbul rail track, the train service would cover about 1,900 km of the distance in Pakistan, 2,570 km in Iran and 2,036 km in Turkey.

The minister said the planned train service will be operated as pilot project of Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) in line with agreement signed by the three countries in March this year.

He said the service would be of great advantage to the business community of Pakistan, Turkey and Iran because earlier the containers used to be sent to Karachi by ship and after unloading them here used to be sent forward to respective destinations in the country either by road or rail and this was costing them quite high.

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Re: Pak-Iran-Turkey freight train from Aug 14

They should also have a couple of cars for the tourists in there.

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Hope very soon

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Don't worry, the cars will have tourists (wanted or not) anyway :D

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Hope not :smiley:

Pakistan should really consider co-sponsoring mag-lev or other highspeed train service if this becomes successful. It would do wonders to boost relations between the countries.

On a funny side note, can you imagine the train stopping just before leaving Pakistani Border; reason: Load Shedding, and the train isn’t getting any electricity to power it. Please wait 4 hours while train operator calls WAPDA and power is restored. :rotfl:

What's with the Opera??
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Re: Pak-Iran-Turkey freight train from Aug 14

Indeed good move by the govt.

Govt must not stop here they need to replicate the same with Central Asian States and China, giving them access to Arabian see and giving access to Pakistani traders to those markets..

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Re: Pak-Iran-Turkey freight train from Aug 14

when the Indian laborers have finished making the roads in Afghanistan and the workers go home, and they will ;), Pakistan can use those highways to connect Pakistan/Afghanistan/Iran and onwards into middle east. This will open up more modes of transportation, road and rail in addition to air. This will benefit all involved, especially with establishment of tolls along the way. Revenues can help rebuild Afghanistan, and help pay for maintenance of highway(s) within concerned nations.

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Not funny. Electric operated engines run between Khanewal and Lahore. So no need to worry. Locomotives have diesel engines which are capable of running generators to light a small town. These generators provide electric power to motors attached to six axles of DE locomotive.:)

The only problem is blasting of track in Baluchistan which can disrupt the movement causing heavy losses to railways. Another problem is guage of railway track. Pakistan has broad guage. If Iran and Turkey have different gauges, the train can not move from broad guage to any other type of guage.