International Railroad Discussion > Global Construction Review - Iran's expanding rail map

This article is from December 2015, but it has interesting information and maps that I haven't found elsewhere more recently. I've been looking on Google Maps at Iranian rail lines, and between the map and satellite images, there are frequently lines that aren't marked on the map but are visible in the satellite images, as well as grading for future routes. I've found these all over.

So, that article is helpful because it has dates on the different legs of the network. I was surprised by how many of the routes were built from the 90's to the present. That is partly shown in looking at close-up maps when you see how frequently the stations are on the outskirts of cities. Then, the under-construction map shows about a doubling of the network. Some of that seems like it may have been completed by now. For example, Kermanshah isn't marked on Google Maps, but in the satellite images there is a whole station built, and a rail junction on the route departing it, which has, I'm guessing, the beginnings of a route to the Iraqi border.

Another area where Google Maps doesn't show nearly all the track is Esfahan, which is a quite a junction, with loops everywhere, a station, a turntable, a yard, and graded future routes. Farther southeast, there are two massive steel mills near Zarinshar with several yards and some double track freight mains around them. 
 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/16/18 07:52 by inCHI.

Thanks, Interesting stuff. Positive or neutral articles about Iran (and Russia) in the Mainstream US media are almost non-existant. The entire Silk Road project is facinating, with so many sub-projects. I didn't realize Iran was undertaking massive electrification.

It is, everything I find surprises me. I was curious how traffic from China could get to Iran, as there were news reports earlier this year of the first train arriving. I was ignorant of what western China had in terms of railroads and population, and expected that looking at those routes I would find a single track line across vast expanses of nothing. Instead, when I looked at Ürümqi, I found a double track electrified mainline with many industrial spurs that leads to a hump yard on the west side of the city. And then I found that there is a high speed line to there, which truly defies what you always here about high-speed rail and distance. I can't believe that was built over such a vast terrain.

Iran needs to show the world why they need those nuclear power plants. If no use for the electricty need it must be for bombs.

Iran is on one branch of the Chinese Belt and Road project. Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Turkey.

The Chinese are making no small plans, that's for sure.

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