Aqaba Railway

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Aqaba Railway
Phosphate train at Wadi Rum
Phosphate train at Wadi Rum
Route length: 116.8 km
Gauge : 1050 mm
Legend
Route - straight ahead
 from Amman
Station, station
 0.0 Aqaba al- Hijaziyya (Hattiyya)
Station, station
 5.5 Batn al-Ghul
   
 to Medina
Station, station
 40.6 Disi
Station, station
 58.1 Wadi Rum
Station, station
 90.0 Umran
Station, station
 105.0 Dschutm
Station, station
 115.8 Aqaba depot
End station - end of the line
 116.8 Aqaba port

The Aqaba Railway is a railway line that was built to complement the Hejaz Railway network in Jordan . It is used to transport phosphate from the phosphate mines of Abiad and Wadi el Hassa to the port of Aqaba . The term is also used for the operating company, the Phosphat Railway Cooperation , which operates both this new line and part of the Hejaz Railway.

meaning

A branch line of the Hejaz Railway was to be realized as part of the construction of the main line at the beginning of the 20th century. But that failed because of the veto of Great Britain , which classified it as an economic competitor to the Suez Canal and, above all, as a military threat to the Canal. In order to prevent construction, the British Mediterranean fleet was even brought up in front of the Dardanelles and Istanbul in a military threatening gesture in May 1906 . Another attempt was made during the Second World War with the Ma'an – Aqaba railway project , construction of which began but was never completed. The Aqaba Railway was not put into operation until seventy years after the first attempt to build it.

Establishment

Phosphate wagon
Aqaba railway station (depot)
Special train at Wadi Rum station
Anese station on the part of the Hejaz Railway used by the Phosphat Railway Cooperation
Wadi Rum Railway Station - March 5th, 2020
New line west of Wadi Rum
Locomotive in the Aqaba train station

After fundamental investigations into a suitable system for this transport service, Jordan decided on a rail connection that

  • uses the section of the main line of the Hejaz Railway between the stations Faraifa and Batn al-Ghul and
  • from Batn al-Ghul to Aqaba required a new line.

In 1965 a German engineering office, with the help of the Deutsche Bundesbahn , submitted an expert opinion on route variants. The Batn al-Ghul – Aqaba branch line was built on this basis from 1972, and the main line of the Hejaz Railway was renovated in the section used. The phosphate mines were given sidings .

The Faraifa – Batn al-Ghul section is still owned by the Hejaz Railway, an inalienable religious foundation ( Waqf ), and is leased to operate by the Phosphat Railway Cooperation .

The project was financed with a long-term loan from the Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau to Jordan as part of German development aid for 232.7 million  DM .

On October 6, 1975, the then Jordanian Crown Prince Hassan ibn Talal opened the railway.

business

The traffic is operated by the Phosphat Railway Cooperation with about 800 men.

The entire route is secured by light signals . The mileage is from Aqaba al-Hijaziyya (Hattiyya) and counts towards Aqaba, while the historical mileage is used on the rest of the traveled section of the Hejaz Railway.

Today, three to six pairs of trains run daily on the route in double traction with a length of up to 32 cars. Special trips with cold steam locomotives pushed by a diesel locomotive are carried out for tourists on the route between Aqaba and Wadi Rum .

Locomotives

Type U17, 7 pieces, year of construction 1974

Type U18, 3 pieces, year of construction 1977

Type U20, 12 pieces, built in 1980

Type C24, 4 pieces, year of construction 2007

Freight wagons

Bar-Metro type, curb weight 21 t, payload 42 t, built in 1974

Type Gregg, curb weight 20 t, payload 42 t, built in 1979

Type Samsung, curb weight 18 t, payload 42 to 47 t, built in 1986

literature

  • Dieter Noll (Ed.): The Hejaz Railway. A German Railway in the Desert , Werl 1995, ISBN 3-921700-68-X
  • Exploration during a study trip of the DGEG in February 2007.
  • Neil Robinson: World Rail Atlas and historical summary . Volume 8: The Middle East and Caucasus, 2006.
  • Dirk Höllerhage: Aqaba-Bahn - A German Railway in the Desert , Eisenbahn-Kurier, Issue 1/2011, pages 72 to 76
  • Matthias Hille: Jordan and the Aqababahn , Fern-Express, issue 3/2015, pages 14 to 19

Web links