Rail transport in Afghanistan

In the 1920s, King Amanullah bought three small steam locomotives from Henschel of Kassel in Germany, and these were put to work on a 7 kilometres (4.3 mi) long 2 ft 6 in (762 mm) gauge[4] roadside tramway linking Kabul and Darulaman. The December 1922 issue of The Locomotive magazine mentions "Travellers from Afghanistan state a railway is being laid down for a distance of some six miles from Kabul to the site of the new city of Darulaman, and also that some of the rolling stock for it is being manufactured in the Kabul workshops". The August 1928 issue of The Locomotive magazine mentions "the only railway at present in Afghanistan is five miles long, between Kabul and Darulaman". The tramway closed (date unknown), and was dismantled in the 1940s, but the locomotives still exist at Kabul museum in Darulaman.[4]

Over the last century and a half, plenty of proposals have been made about building railways in Afghanistan. In 1885, the New York Times wrote about plans for connecting the Russian Transcaspian Railway, then under construction, with British India via Sarakhs, Herat, and Kandahar. When completed, the project would allow British officers to travel from London to India, mostly by rail, in 11 to 12 days (crossing the English Channel, the Black Sea, and the Caspian Sea by boat).[5]

About 1928, proposals were put forward for a railway to link Jalalabad with Kabul, eventually connecting to the (then) Indian system at Peshawar. Lines to join Kabul with Kandahar and Herat would follow later. Owing to political upheavals these plans were not implemented.

In the 1950s a hydroelectric power station was built at Surobi, east of Kabul. Three Henschel four-wheel 600 mm (1 ft 11 ⁵⁄₈ in) narrow gauge diesel-hydraulic locomotives built in 1951 (works numbers 24892, 24993, 24994) were supplied to the power station.

In 1979 mining and construction locomotive builder Bedia Maschinenfabrik of Bonn supplied five D35/6 two axle diesel-hydraulic 600 mm (1 ft 11 ⁵⁄₈ in) narrow gauge locomotives, works numbers 150-154, to an unknown customer in Afghanistan.[6]

Details of the preliminary list of stations to be served, which circle the central mountains of Afghanistan are available.[8]

In the early 1980s, the Soviet Union built an approximately 15 kilometers rail line from Termez in Uzbekistan to Kheyrabad in Afghanistan, crossing the Amu Darya river on the Afghanistan–Uzbekistan Friendship Bridge.[13] In January 2010, construction began on a 75-kilometer (47 mi) extension line between Afghanistan and Uzbekistan; this line is also 1,520 mm (4 ft 11 ²⁷⁄₃₂ in) gauge as the first one built by the Soviets.[14] By December 2010, it began carrying construction materials for other reconstruction projects in Afghanistan.[15]

The line, which starts from Hairatan to Maulana Jalaluddin Balkhi International Airport in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif, was completed and is operated by Uzbekistan's national railway Uzbekiston Temir Yullari for a three-year-term until Afghanistan's own railways department takes over. The first freight services began running around August 2011.[16][17][18]

Uzbekistan has pledged in 2018 to part fund a major 657 km rail link from Mazar-i-Sharif west to Herat, which could create a route from Iran via Herat to Central Asia and potentially China.[19]

A 10-kilometer long line extends from Serhetabat in Turkmenistan to the town of Torghundi in Afghanistan.[1] An upgrade of this Soviet-built line dating back to the 1960s, using Russian gauge, began in 2007.[20] In April 2016, an agreement was reached for a technical feasibility study for a proposal to extend this line approximately 100 km to the city of Herat,[21] where it could connect to the standard-gauge line to Iran that is being built. In accordance with earlier decisions, the line is likely to be standard gauge, with break of gauge at Torghundi. In April 2018 it was decided by the Turkmen government to build a railway from Galkynysh Gas Field in the direction of Afghanistan, towards Torghundi.[22][23]

Another rail line was opened further east in November 2016, connecting Aqina in Faryab province via Imamnazar with Atamyrat/Kerki in Turkmenistan.[2] A planned 58 kilometres (36 mi) extension to Andkhoy is under proposal.[24] It is planned to become part of a rail corridor through northern Afghanistan, connecting it via Sheberghan to Mazar-i Sharif and on to the border with Tajikistan,[25] although it is unclear when this will happen.[26]

Two broad gauge 1,676 mm (5 ft 6 in) Pakistan Railways lines with steep gradients terminate on the border at Chaman and Torkham. In July 2010, Pakistan and Afghanistan signed a Memorandum of understanding for going ahead with the laying of rail tracks between the two countries. The rail tracks would link Quetta in Pakistan with Kandahar in Afghanistan and Peshawar in Pakistan with Jalalabad in Afghanistan.[27] The project soon fell off.

On May 29, 2012, the section from Chaman in Pakistan to Spin Boldak in Afghanstan (12 km) was approved,[28] though this never started.

On February 22, 2020 the first cargo train bound for Afghanistan left Karachi, Pakistan with a load of containers. Pakistan Railways Chairman Habib-ur-Rehman Gilani inaugurated the train on Saturday which departed from the Pakistan International Container Terminal in Karachi with 35 containers on board for the country’s southwest Chaman city bordering Afghanistan. From there, the goods will be shifted across the border via road, the Nation reported.[29]

A multination rail link was planned between Afghanistan and Tajikistan in 2013.[30] The Uzbekistan section has been partly implemented in 2016.

In 2018 a 50 km extension from Kolkhozobod in Tajikistan to the Afghan border town of Sher Khan Bandar in Kunduz Province was approved with construction expected to start that year.[31]

In September 2010, China Metallurgical Group Corporation (MCC) signed an agreement[32] with the Afghan Minister of Mines to investigate construction of a north-south railway across Afghanistan, running from Mazar-i-Sharif to Kabul and then to the eastern border town of Torkham. MCC was recently awarded a copper mining concession at Mes Aynak which would be linked to this railway. MCC is constructing a 921 km long 1,676 mm (5 ft 6 in) gauge railway line that will link Kabul with Uzbekistan in the north and Pakistan in the east.[33]

India-Iran-Afghanistan transport corridor map. A rail link is proposed to replace the highway section between Iran and Afghanistan, linking to the railhead at Zahedan.

The railhead in Iran closest to the Afghan border is at Khaf near Mashhad, and this is a 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 ¹⁄₂ in) standard gauge freight line.[34] This line is currently being extended 202 kilometers east to Herat.[35][36] On April 17, 2007 Afghan Foreign Minister Rangin Dadfar Spanta said that work on the Khaf-Herat railway (freight only) project had already begun in 2006. In September 2012, it was reported that the Herat-Khawaf railway, 70 km of which is inside Afghanistan and 60 km inside Iran, was 90% complete.[37] In May 2015, it was announced that the line would be operationalised by April 2016. The date passed, and in February 2017, a completion date of March 2018 was announced.[38]

This rail route (Khaf-Herat) has four sections, two in Iran and two in Afghanistan. Within Iran, section 1, running from Khaf to Sangan (14 km), was completed in September 2016. Section 2, from Sangan to the Iran-Afghanistan border at Shamtiq (62 km), was completed in October 2017. That same month (October 2017), section 3, running within Afghanistan from the border at Shamtiq–Jono to the town of Ghurian (61.2 km) was completed. Section 4 is the line from Jono to Herat (63 km) which is being supported by Italy.[39][40] This seems to be still pending.

India and Afghanistan are working on extending this rail route from Herat to Mazar-i-Sharif.[41] Mazar-i-Sharif is already linked with Uzbekistan and Tajikistan via rail routes.[2][41] Herat also is already linked with Turkmenistan via rail and road routes.[2] India is also finalizing a plan to construct a 900-km railway line that will connect the port of Chabahar in Iran, being built with Indian help, to the mineral-rich Hajigak region of Afghanistan.[42][43] As far back as 2011, seven Indian companies had acquired rights to mine central Afghanistan’s Hajigak region, which contain Asia’s largest deposit of iron ore. The Government of India has pledged to spend $2bn in developing supporting infrastructure.[44]

In May 2016, during Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's trip to Iran, an agreement was signed to develop two berths at Chabahar port and to build a rail connection from Chabahar to the existing Iranian railway network. The link line would connect a point somewhere near the town of Bam to Chabahar port, as part of North–South Transport Corridor. Ircon International, a subsidiary of the state-owned Indian Railway, has been tasked with this project.[45] The establishment of the port of Chabahar's connection to the country’s railway plan, is under study and consideration. With completion of the Kerman–Bam-Zahedan railway and its future connection to the port of Chabahar, this port will connect to the Trans-Iranian Railway, and thus to both Afghanistan and Central Asia.

The initial phase of railway construction from 2010 sees the creation of five break-of-gauge stations.[8]

• Kandahar 1,676 mm (5 ft 6 in) / 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 ¹⁄₂ in)
• Khyber Pass 1,676 mm (5 ft 6 in) / 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 ¹⁄₂ in)
• Torghundi 1,520 mm (4 ft 11 ²⁷⁄₃₂ in) / 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 ¹⁄₂ in)
• Mazar-i-Sharif 1,520 mm (4 ft 11 ²⁷⁄₃₂ in) / 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 ¹⁄₂ in)
• Sher Khan Bandar 1,520 mm (4 ft 11 ²⁷⁄₃₂ in) / 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 ¹⁄₂ in)

In late 2016 updates, there are multiple breaks-of-gauge. These include: 1,520 mm (4 ft 11 ²⁷⁄₃₂ in)/1,676 mm (5 ft 6 in) in the northern area, and 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 ¹⁄₂ in)/1,520 mm (4 ft 11 ²⁷⁄₃₂ in)/1,676 mm (5 ft 6 in) at Herat.