History
The first railway in Syria opened when the country was part of the Ottoman Empire, with the 1,050 mm (3 ft 5 1⁄3 in) gauge line from Damascus to the port city of Beirut in present day Lebanon opened in 1895. The famous Hejaz railway opened in 1908 between Damascus and Medina in present day Saudi Arabia also used 1,050 mm gauge. Railways after this point were built to 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) standard gauge, including the Baghdad Railway. The French wanted an extension of the standard gauge railway to connect with the Palestine Railways and so agreed the building of a branch line to Tripoli, Lebanon, operated by Société Ottomane du Chemin de fer Damas-Hama et prolongements, also known as DHP.
The Baghdad Railway had progressed as far as Aleppo by 1912, with the branch to Tripoli complete, by the start of World War I; and onwards to Nusaybin by October 1918. The Turks, who sided with Germany and the Central Powers, decided to recover the infrastructure south of Aleppo to the Lebanon in 1917. The Baghdad Railway created opportunity and problems for both sides, being unfinished but running just south of the then defined Syrian/Turkish border.
Post war, the border was redrawn, and the railway was now north of the border. DHP reinstated the Triopli line by 1921. From 1922 the Baghdad Railway was worked in succession by two French companies, who were liquidated in 1933 when the border was again redrawn, placing the Baghdad Railway section again in Syrian control. Lignes Syriennes de Baghdad (LSB) took over operations, a subsidiary of DHP.
The next big developments in Syrian railways were due to the political manoeuvering leading up to and during World War II. As Turkey had sided with Germany in World War One, the Allies were concerned with poor transport in the area, and their ability to bring force on the Turks. Having built railways extensions in both the Eastern and Western deserts of Egypt, they initially operated services via the Hejaz Railway, but were frustrated by the need to transload goods due to the gauge break. They surveyed a route from Haifa to Rayak in 1941, but decided there were too many construction difficulties. The standard gauge line from Beirut to Haifa was eventually built by Commonwealth military engineers from South Africa and Oceania during WWII, in part supplied by a 1,050 mm gauge railway to access materials. Eventually Turkey remained neutral and refused the Allies access to their jointly-controlled sections of the Baghdad Railway, although by then the Allies had driven the Palestine Railway through to Al Akkari, Homs, Hama and onward to connect with the Baghdad Railway at Aleppo.
Locomotives servicing the Allied war effort included the British R.A. Riddles designed WD Austerity 2-10-0, four of which post war went into Syrian service, designed CFS Class 150.6.
In 1956, all railways in Syria were nationalised, and reorganised as CF Syriennes (CFS) from 1 January 1965. Expanded with monetary and industrial assistance from the USSR, the agreement covered the joint industrial development of the country. Covering the development of the ports of Tartus and Latakia, they were initially connected by rail to Al Akkari and Aleppo in 1968 and 1975 respectively. An irrigation project on the Euphrates, resulting in the construction of the Tabqa Dam, drove the connection of Aleppo to Al-Thawrah (1968), Ar-Raqqah (1972) Deir ez Zor (1973), reaching the old Baghdad Railway at Al Qamishli in 1976.
Read more about this topic: Rail Transport In Syria
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