General Discussion

lrfogle wrote:

Curious to know if any of the railroad system that was in Iraq has been restored and back operating again?  Who rebuilt it and do we know of any cost figures?  Is there any passenger service?

Trains magazine in July and September 2004 had then current articles on the railroad in Iraq.

 News about Iraq's railroads:

http://ccgi.ajg41.plus.com/

A couple other sites that may have info:

http://www.ajg41.clara.co.uk/iraqrailways.html

 http://www.usaid.gov/iraq/

lrfogle wrote:

Curious to know if any of the railroad system that was in Iraq has been restored and back operating again?  Who rebuilt it and do we know of any cost figures?  Is there any passenger service?

The IRR was never destroyed like a Lawrence of Arabia film.  It was looted badly, however -- the block signal system was wiped out for the copper, all the spare parts and tools were taken, structures were stripped to naked shells sans windows, doors, wire, and plumbing, and in some cases dismantled for the bricks, and a lot of locomotives and wagons were stripped out.  In the first few weeks after the war, the Bagdad-Basra-Umm Qasr main stem was restored to operation thanks to the dedication, moxie, and can-do attitude of Lt. Col Bob Pelletier, USA reserve, whose regular job is corridor manager for UP.  "Sheik Bob" figured out how to get the IRR people paid, how to get the US Military out of the way, and gave the IRR people the legal umbrella they needed to get back to work.  Operations were quickly extended from Baghad to Mosul and Rabiya, and Baghdad to Al Qaim and Akashat.  The Bayji-Tikrit line was severed in the invasion and still is not in operation (see below).  In 2004, that fell apart as the law-and-order vacuum created by the invasion was filled by all sorts of local mafias.  Operations were fitfully restored in 2005-06, and now the situation is much improved because the local mafias are now reconstitutued as "the government" ... at least on a regional basis ... and the economic system, which is pretty weird by our standards but works for them, is returning to functionality.

Portions of the Iraqi Republic Railways are in regular operation at present as follows:

1. Manifest freight Rabiya-Mosul, 1-2 trains daily (Rabiya is the interchange at the Syrian Border with Chemin De Fer Syriana, or CFS; the business is food and consumer goods that originate on TCDD in Turkey, or import flour and wheat from Tartous and Latakia, Syria)
2. Passenger, Baghad-Basra, each way daily 
3. Oil, Shoiaba Junction (refinery near Basra) to Doura (refinery on south side of Baghdad) -- consists mostly of #2 diesel fuel and residual fuel oil.
4. Phosphate ore, Akashat-Al Qaim (mine at Akashat, TSP fertilizer plant at Al Qaim)

I think that's pretty much it that's regular.  The line from Bayji to Tikrit is still severed at the Al Fat'ah Bridge, a high post-tensioned concrete girder-and-pier bridge over the Euphrates River which lost one of 25-odd spans to U.S. ordnance in 2003, and subsequently has been damaged heavily by fires from adjacent oil pipelines that have burst due to sabotage, corrosion, or whatever.  The Baghad-Al Qaim line is still severed at Falluja due to USMC action in 2004, but the USMC is in the process of repairing it.  The Bayji-Akashat line was blocked by drifted sand  (because all the drift fences were stolen for firewood when law-and-order vanished) but the USMC cleared it in 2006.  The Baghad-Bayji line has law-and-order issues.

Reconstruction work was performed almost 100% by the IRR itself and Iraqi contractors engaged by the U.S. Government, Project & Contracting Office, under the program management and funding disbursed by the Iraq Reconstruction Management Office.  About $280 million was programmed by Gordon Mott (CSX AVP, retired) which was far out of proportion to any other sector of the reconstruction effort -- Gordon was faster and smarter than the advisors for the other sectors.  Of the $280 million approximately $255 million has either been expended or is contractually committed.  The other $25 million was repurposed or withdrawn by the U.S. Government.  $200 million came from the Iraq Reconstruction Fund; the rest from Iraqi oil payments owed to the government of Iraq by neighboring countries that had not been remitted prior to the 2003 invasion.  The looting in the 2-3 weeks immediately subsequent to the invasion caused about $1 billion in immediate damage; general wear-and-tear and obsolescence caused by economic sanctions, the Iraq-Iran war and the decline in Iraq's fortunes between Gulf I and Gulf II resulted in maybe another $500 million in unmet needs -- I'm pulling both numbers somewhat out of air because it was never easy to get a grip on ground truth.

In round numbers, the reconstruction money was spent as follows (this is from memory; I'm not going to dig out records tonight ... so all these numbers are a bit approximate):

$25 million went to construct a replacement main track between Umm Qasr and Shoiba Junction, approximately 50 miles.  The existing main track was in extremely poor condition and not repairable due to failure of the tie/rail fastening system.

1. $60 million for renovations to stations and shops damaged by looting and general obsolescence
2. $60 million for a digital microwave communications backbone and Communications-Based Train-Control System
3. $25 million for 200 intermodal spine wagons, 8 HEP power cars, 12 Tulomsas 1,500-hp shunters (very sweet locomotives), and 250 or so oil tank wagons.
4. $25 million for track-maintenance machinery consisting of Harsco tampers, ballast regulators, tie inserters, and a dynamic track stabilizer; Holland flash-butt welding trucks and hydraulic rail puller trucks; 20 Geismer ganger trolleys (a type of self-propelled MOW vehicle that's the equivalent of a 3-axle hyrail rail truck) and a Russian track-laying train
5. $25 million for spares for locomotives, wagons, track, and power tools, hand tools, and safety equipment
6. $20 million for miscellaneous projects

MWH

lrfogle wrote:

Thanks, have read those. Just wonder if there are any further developments for the rail service that was destroyed in the last war that might have more current information.  Didn't know if any of our "retraining" efforts being performed by the US military has included rebuilding the rail system.

The U.S. Military did not provide a training program.  There are stories floating around that the Army's remnant Railroad Battalions were activated and "ran the railroad in Iraq," a fiction that has been created by a few Walter Mittys who managed to get themselves into Iraq as reservists or KBR contractors who had absolutely no involvement with the IRR, or hid out inside their FOB because it was dangerous out there, but now are passing themselves off as tough guys who took big risks to tell our beknighted friends how to run a railroad.  Rick Degman, who served as the IRR's Deputy Rail Advisor in 2005, ran into one of these goofs on a steam fan trip last year, and called him on it.  The guy decided he had better get off the train mid-trip.

Actually the IRR railwaymen are as good as railroaders you will find in any country, and better in some aspects.  Certain technologies new to Iraq they have received focused training on -- such as the maintenance and computer programming for the flash-butt welders and the tampers, and for the microwave system and train-control system.  Our conclusion after each class is that the IRR men are faster, smarter, and better students than the attendees sent for the same training by U.S. railroads.  Not a good comment on us.

We tried at various times to get the USA to reactivate one of the rail battalions but we were never successful.  Their primary role would have been to give the IRR an "American face" in order to keep the U.S. government and military at arm's length so the Iraqi railwaymen could get things done and run trains. 

MWH

MWH ....

Glad to see you back!

....Hello Mark.  Best wishes to you.

  "KBR" Contractor?

MW Hemphill wrote:

The U.S. Military did not provide a training program.  There are stories floating around that the Army's remnant Railroad Battalions were activated and "ran the railroad in Iraq," a fiction that has been created by a few Walter Mittys who managed to get themselves into Iraq as reservists or KBR contractors who had absolutely no involvement with the IRR, or hid out inside their FOB because it was dangerous out there, but now are passing themselves off as tough guys who took big risks to tell our beknighted friends how to run a railroad.  Rick Degman, who served as the IRR's Deputy Rail Advisor in 2005, ran into one of these goofs on a steam fan trip last year, and called him on it.  The guy decided he had better get off the train mid-trip. MWH

Nice update.

Good thing the guy got off the train when he did as Degman could hardly have been blamed if he had helped him off the train during a run at track speed.

Having gotten the story from articles, correspondence and some conversation with Degman, Gordon Mott and Mark Hemphill, I have to say that they achieved a remarkable success with the rebuilding of the IRR.  It is probable that they spent more time outside the "safety" of the US Embassy Compound than the next 50 US civilians assigned to that post.  In addition to the daily menu of IED's, assasins, kidnappers, launched grenades, rockets and mortar fire, they also had to battle a totally unfunctional bureaucracy.  Getting any task accomplished required an array of approvals from people in US agencies who, in the parlance of the military, probably didn't give a rat's behind if the railroad ever ran again.

IMO the Iraq Railroad could be considered one of the very few reconstruction projects that came anywhere close to being a success.