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John A Matel (talk | contribs) No edit summary |
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Line 18:
It is the terminus of a branchline of the national railway system. It serves a [[phosphate]] mine.
The railroad tracks stretch all the way east to Hadithah where they connect in the south to the Persian Gulf and northward eventually to Europe (remember the Kaiser’s Berlin to Baghdad RR dream). But just west of Akashat they run into the featureless desert and that is the end of them. The station in Akashat is deceptive. It looks like a hub, but a terminus is what it is really.
There are plans, actually at this point more like aspirations, to link this line to Syria and Jordan. The director of the phosphate quarry told us that in the early 1980s there were firm plans to connect the rail line with Jordan, but the war with Iran, followed by the war with Kuwait, the war with the UN, UN sanctions and the invasion by CF derailed this project. Saddam’s adventures were not good for business. The tracks are beautiful. They are well made, well installed and well maintained, or more correctly they require little maintenance out here in the desert w/o significant traffic. Most of the people who ran the railroad are still around. They have the skills to do it again. The sleepers are concrete, each emblazoned with the Iraqi Rail Road logo. The road beds are leveled and supplemented by the right size gravel. You have everything needed to run a railroad, except running trains because there is nothing much to carry.
The phosphate quarry sporadically sends a trainload of raw material to Al Qaim. Empty cars return. Even if/when the phosphate and cement operations in Al Qaim are working full out there still won’t be much to carry. The tracks leading nowhere often carry nothing. Practically, this situation is easily remedied. If these tracks were extended west across Jordan to the Red Sea or the Med, Akashat would be in the middle and this track would carry a prodigious amount of freight. I have heard estimates that containerized cargo going from the Med to Southern Iraq and the Persian Gulf could cut eight days off a trip through the Suez Canal around the Arabian Peninsula, not to mention the simple beginning of a distribution network for the whole of the Middle East. Iraq is shaped like a keystone and it is the geographical keystone of the region. Of course, political would far outweigh engineering challenges in this venture.
As I travel Iraq, I am always bolstered by the energy of people but saddened by the opportunity lost. This country is rich in many ways - water, soil, location, oil - but so much was wasted by dictators and bad choices. We did the right thing in removing Saddam. I am certain of that. I don't know if the people of Iraq, the region and the world will make the most of the opportunity we have now, but it would be a shame to waste it again.
== See also ==
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