Tabriz – Dscholfa railway line
| Tabriz – Jolfa | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Route length: | 140 km | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gauge : | 1435 mm ( standard gauge ) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Power system : | 25 kilovolts / 50 Hertz ~ | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Tabriz – Jolfa line was the first long-distance line in Iran . It is the only electrically operated railway line of the Iranian Railway (RAI).
history
As part of the British-Russian invasion of Iran in World War I , the Russian military initially built a short, 2.5 km long cross-border route from the Russian network to the Iranian Jolfa in 1914 . By 1916 this beginning was extended from the Russian / Iranian border in northwestern Iran by 146 km to Tabriz . Also in 1916 the main line received a 53 km long branch from Sufian on the main line to Sharaf Chanech on the shores of Lake Urmia . This branch line was to become the starting point for the Van – Tabriz railway line in the 1970s . The purpose of the railway construction was to bring Russian troops into Iran. Azerbaijan and all of northwestern Iran were occupied by Russian troops. Both Russians and British used Iran as a retreat for attacks on Ottoman troops in Iraq .
With the signing of the Iranian- Soviet friendship agreement in 1921, the railway facilities, insofar as they were on Iranian territory, were handed over to the Iranian state. Due to the war, these were in a hardly usable condition and had to be extensively repaired before operations could be resumed. But only after the Second World War, the Russian gauge was on standard gauge umgespurt . This means that all vehicles that want to cross the border have to pass through the gauge change facility in Dscholfa. Not before 1958, the island operation was connected to the rest of the Iranian railway network with the Tehran – Tabriz railway.
present
The line was the only rail link between the Soviet and Iranian rail networks. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the route led to the now independent Azerbaijan and its autonomous republic Nakhichevan . This exclave is surrounded by Armenia . Due to the hostility between Armenia and Azerbaijan, the route on the Azerbaijani / Armenian border is interrupted. The station of Jolfa was now only the Iranian border station for the rail traffic with the Autonomous Republic of Nakhichevan and so insignificant that it was closed. Since December 29, 2016, a cross-border pair of trains has been running between Naxçıvan and Mashhad every week . The function of the line as a connection to Azerbaijan and in the direction of Russia is to be taken over in future by the Qazvin – Astara – Baku railway line, which is further east and is currently under construction.
The track is in the usual way in Iran with 25 since 1975 kV and 50 Hz electrified .
literature
- Neil Robinson: World Rail Atlas . Vol. 8: The Middle East and Caucasus . 2006.
Individual evidence
- ^ H. Petrovitsch: Route electrification in Iran . In: Eisenbahn-Revue International 8–9 / 2017, p. 393f.
- ↑ Robinson, p. 18.
- ↑ Johannes Heger: The unofficial Homepage of the Iranian Railways ( Memento of the original from December 7, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ; Robinson, p. 18.
- ↑ According to Robinson, p. 21, note 2, this is said to have happened in 1946. The same author states elsewhere, however, that normal gauge operation was not started until 1958 (p. 20f); Sergej Tarchow: The Expansion of the Iran transport system states that this happened before 1957 (and probably after the Second World War).
- ↑ Robinson, p. 18.
- ↑ Robinson, pp. 20f.
- ↑ СОГЛАШЕНИЕ О СОВЕТСКО-ИРАНСКОМ ЖЕЛЕЗНОДОРОЖНОМ СООБЩЕНИИ (МОСКВА, 20 ЯНВАРЯ 1958 Г.) ( page no longer available , searching web archives ) Info: The link is automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Agreement on Iranian / Soviet Rail Transport of January 20, 1958 ( Russian ).
- ↑ hjs: route Culfa-Jolfa . In: IBSE telegram 314 (1/2017), p. 9.
- ↑ Robinson, p. 21, plates 36, 47; H. Petrovitsch: Line electrification in Iran . In: Eisenbahn-Revue International 8–9 / 2017, p. 393f.
