TURKEY, Syria and Jordan have reached preliminary agreement on a draft memorandum of understanding (MoU) to cooperate on the development of transport infrastructure, which includes reviving the Syrian section of the Hedjaz Railway which once connected Damascus with Medina in what is now Saudi Arabia.
The agreement was announced by Turkey’s minister of transport and infrastructure, Abdulkadir Uraloğlu, following a meeting held by the three parties in Amman, Jordan, earlier this month.
“The historic Hedjaz Railway is being revived,” Uraloğlu said. Turkey will provide assistance with replacing 30km of missing track in Syria, while Jordan will assess its technical capacity to support the maintenance, repair and operation of locomotives within Syria.
Built under the Ottoman Empire and originally planned to connect the imperial capital Istanbul with the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, the 1050mm-gauge Hedjaz Railway was completed between Damascus in Syria and Medina in 1908, running for 1300km.
The network contracted following the demise of the Ottoman Empire and the emergence of new nations in the Middle East, but passenger and freight services have latterly been operated on the 217km between Damascus and Amman by Jordan-Hedjaz Railway (JHR).
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