Infrastructure Lebanese officials promote revival of rail network By Nadim Kawach January 23, 2025, 12:12 PM Alamy via Reuters An abandoned train at a station in Lebanon. The railway could form a major trade link Railway ceased operation in 1975 Links vital for trade Companies want to invest Lebanon is promoting the revival of the country’s defunct railway system that could link to neighbouring Syria and Iraq and become part of China’s proposed Belt and Road Initiative in the region. The train transport system in Lebanon had linked the capital Beirut with Tripoli near the Syrian border before it came to a standstill with the eruption of the devastating 15-year civil war in 1975. Calls by Lebanese officials and private sector leaders to successive governments to restore the railway fell on deaf ears due to political and security upheaval and the ensuing financial crisis in 2019. But Sajee Atiyya, chairman of parliament’s Public Works Committee, said this week: “The rail system can be revived as there are big companies which want to invest in this project. “We intend to make fresh attempts to push the government to re-open the project file. We are planning to follow it up continuously and put pressure on the authorities to work on this file,” Atiyya told Lebanon’s MTV channel this week. MTV also quoted Carlos Naffa, who heads the pro-train project group known as “Train Train”, as saying his group has drawn up a transport plan to be presented to the new president Joseph Aoun and prime minister Nawaf Salam. He said rehabilitation of the rail system would help Lebanon in its efforts to overcome its worst financial and economic crisis, adding that the project could be carried out by the government in partnership with the private sector. “We are presenting a comprehensive plan that secures the connection and inter-connection of all Lebanese regions. “The plan can only be adopted by a government which is capable of endorsing a strategy that includes cooperation with international agencies and the foreign private sector,” Naffa said. “I hope prime minister Nawaf Salam would pick the right public works and transport minister who can make this strategic project a reality.” Lebanon’s 408km of railway once connected Beirut to the Syrian capital Damascus and Haifa before Israel was created in 1948, but it ceased operation at the beginning of the civil war that ended in 1990. Lebanon’s journey to renewal starts now Investment and trade are on a steady eastward trajectory “Resurrecting the rail project was demanded several years ago,” Jack Sarraf, ex-chairman of Lebanon’s Association of Industrialists, said. “Now with the election of President Aoun, we hope that the project will materialize. “The rail could connect Beirut Port with the mountains and Beqa in East Lebanon. “I stress again that this project is a necessity because it could connect Lebanon with Syria and Iraq and could be part of China’s Belt and Road Development Initiative,” Sarraf told MTV this week.