Rail-less countries gaining their first length of railway

[PTR 444]

Looking at OpenRailMap, the following countries currently have no railways at all whatsoever:

Andorra
Bahrain
Bhutan
Burundi
Brunei
Central African Republic
Chad
Cyprus
Equatorial Guinea
Eritrea
Gambia
Guinea Bissau
Guyana
Haiti
Iceland
Kuwait
Lebanon
Lesotho
Libya
Malta
Nepal
Oman
Papua New Guinea
Qatar
Rwanda
San Marino
Sierra Leone
Somalia
Suriname
Yemen

Are these countries ever likely to build or reinstate any stretches of railway within their territory?

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Isn't Nepal due to be connected to the Indian network?
Some of these states had a railway in the past, but subsequently abandoned (eg Cyprus).
The newly constructed railways in eg Saudi Arabia and Tanzania, have prospects of expanding into some of the neighbouring rail-less states.

 

[Railsigns]

The Gulf Railway plans to connect some of the countries on that list.

 

[edwin_m]

I was involved in several studies for rapid transit within Reykjavik and/or an express to Keflavik airport between 2001 and 2008, idea abandoned due to the financial crisis, but I suspect someone over there is still pushing the idea.

Bahrain is building a metro and is looking at an additional causeway link to Saudi Arabia, which could include a link to the emerging Gulf Co-Operation Council rail network - I've been working on that one too. Qatar has a metro in Doha and a light rail line in Lusail. GCC rail is also planned to reach Qatar, Oman and Kuwait, no idea when that might be.

Burlusconi presented one of the Fyra trains to Gadaffi a few years before the latter's demise, so I presume Libya had some sort of functioning rail network at the time. Though that might be an unduly optimistic description for that particular design.

Malta is planning a metro.

 

[simonw]

Looking at OpenRailMap, the following countries currently have no railways at all whatsoever:

Andorra
Bahrain
Bhutan
Burundi
Brunei
Central African Republic
Chad
Cyprus
Equatorial Guinea
Eritrea
Gambia
Guinea Bissau
Guyana
Haiti
Iceland
Kuwait
Lebanon
Lesotho
Libya
Malta
Nepal
Oman
Papua New Guinea
Qatar
Rwanda
San Marino
Sierra Leone
Somalia
Suriname
Yemen

Are these countries ever likely to build or reinstate any stretches of railway within their territory?

Well Iceland did have a short railway

Why Are There No Trains in Iceland? | What's On in Reykjavík

In this article, we will look into the history of trains and railroads in Iceland, and we will talk about current plans for railways.

www.whatson.is

And there is some talk of a line to the airport.

I would guess a number of countries on your list previously had railways which have since closed.

Malta can be added to the list of places that once had a railway

Haiti as well.

 

[Gloster]

Burlusconi presented one of the Fyra trains to Gadaffi a few years before the latter's demise, so I presume Libya had some sort of functioning rail network at the time. Though that might be an unduly optimistic description for that particular design.

It was a Danish State Railways IC4 (set 09) that Berlusconi gifted to Gaddafi in 2009 without bothering to tell DSB: the first they knew was when somebody contacted them to ask about it and they thought they were being hoaxed. It was and probably still is sitting on a short piece of track, possibly about 3 km. long in the outskirts of Tripoli.

 

[artemic]

It was a Danish State Railways IC4 (set 09) that Berlusconi gifted to Gaddafi in 2009 without bothering to tell DSB: the first they knew was when somebody contacted them to ask about it and they thought they were being hoaxed. It was and probably still is sitting on a short piece of track, possibly about 3 km. long in the outskirts of Tripoli.

A Danish television crew (DR, think Danish BBC) visited it in 2013 where it was still in situ, and presented a print-out picture of the Danish King and Queen to the security (?) who were present.
It was still there in 2018 when CGTN Africa reported on plans to restart the railway, but nothing appears to have come of that.
Video (in Danish, except for some conversation with the Libyans in English) here

Iceland is in the peculiar position of having a train with [almost] no railway! If you zoom in to the harbour at Reykjavik on ORM you can see a tiny section of unelectrified track, home to the locomotive Minør of the aptly named Reykjavik Harbour Railway. This railway was also the site of Iceland's first railway accident. The other loco, Pioner, is also in preservation.

Albania is probably in the opposite position - having had some 677 km of track in the late 80s, there was a point in 2021 where no trains operated at all (regardless of COVID).
At present 10 trains operate (presumably per day, although this could also be weekends only - reports are conflicting and the HSH website doesn't specify) - although the service doesn't serve the capital Tirana.

 

[181]

Isn't Nepal due to be connected to the Indian network?

According to a Wikipedia article, it already is, and closure of the old narrow-gauge line was in order to permit rebuilding to broad gauge: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaynagar–Bardibas_railway_line. If that's correct, total rail-less-ness was only ever planned to be temporary.

A short stretch of San Marino's railway has apparently been restored as a heritage line, with plans for extension:

(Tim Traveller video).

Various small island countries in the Pacific, Caribbean and elsewhere could probably be added to the list of rail-less countries.

 

[Gag Halfrunt]

Eritrea has one 950mm gauge line built during the Italian colonial era.

Eritrean Railway - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Sierra Leone has a 1067mm gauge line that carries iron ore from a mine to a port.

Rail transport in Sierra Leone - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

There used to be a small 762mm network that closed in 1974.

Sierra Leone Government Railway - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

The last railway services in Lebanon closed during the 1990s. A short section of the Syrian Homs-Tartus line passes through Lebanese territory.

Rail transport in Lebanon - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[edwin_m]

It was a Danish State Railways IC4 (set 09) that Berlusconi gifted to Gaddafi in 2009 without bothering to tell DSB: the first they knew was when somebody contacted them to ask about it and they thought they were being hoaxed. It was and probably still is sitting on a short piece of track, possibly about 3 km. long in the outskirts of Tripoli.

Thanks for the correction. I seem to recall the IC4 wasn't much better than the Fyra so perhaps the Danes were better off without it.

Now I think about it, I got an email one morning about 15 years ago asking me to apply for a Libyan visa to work on a Metro project for Tripoli. A quick phone call established this was a faint prospect someone in the marketing department had identified and we agreed it wasn't worth spending multiple hours and hundreds of £ on the application until it became a bit more likely to happen. I never heard from them again - if I had I might have been among the many non-railway collegues who had to be evacuated at very short notice when the regime fell. Consulting an old atlas, there was a coastal railway westwards from Egypt into eastern Libya (which passed through El Alamein) and several branches inland.

A consultant we employed wanted me to go to Ethiopia at one stage too, and had the Arab Spring not intervened I might have got a trip to Jordan as part of an idea to reinstate some of the Hedjaz Railway (as destroyed by Lawrence of Arabia) as an urban metro in Amman. I seem to get all the wacko jobs.

 

[Royston Vasey]

Doha has a reasonable Metro system opened in 2019, Qatar's first railway system.

 

[Sir Felix Pole]

Andorra has proposed a connecting railway to the Barcelona - Latour de Carol line near Puigcerdà - it is not clear whether it would be broad or standard gauge. It is certainly a country of adequate means to finance such a line.

Andorra

In excellent news for skiers who enjoy travelling by train, a new study by the Andorran Chamber of Commerce is proposing a new railway line to Andorran ski resorts via Seu d’Urgell.

Currently it’s only possible to travel to Andorra by road from neighbouring countries. However, the idea of a simple rail connection is attractive as the country believes it would increase accessibility and increase the length of stay, as well as the obvious benefits in terms of reducing emissions and road congestions.

A new airport ‘Andorra – La Seu’ with heliport has already been discussed, but a rail link has been under discussion for a long time, via the two closest Spanish regional capitals and La Seu d’Urgell, as well as the Tour de Carol on the French side.

 

[Thebaz]

I lived in Papua New Guinea 2004-5. It is a huge country with hundreds of islands but also extremely mountainous - so much so that the capital city Port Moresby is not connected by road to any of the other major cities. If railways were ever thought to be of use in PNG previous colonial occupiers (German, British, Australian) would surely have already built them. I haven't done any research into proposals but I cannot imagine there's a need for a railway. There's really not the economy for it and there's certainly not the culture for it.

 

[USRailFan]

Danish King

Do you Brits know something we Scandinavians don't?

 

[dutchflyer]

1.quite a few of these did have railways -of sorts- in the past. Whatever remains of it varies an awful lot. And if there are plans to revive these also.
2.quite a few smaller islands/nations are missing-as 181 already points at. As I just by coincidence was making lists of Caribbean and Pacific such states (to check other things, mostly if they would even have a bus-service) I noted that some of these are listed as having had a small tracks/railway-mostly for bringing exports to the nearest port. BTW-a fair nr of these states are in the GB-commonwealth and are listed on wiki as having Charles 3 as king.
3.several countries now only have railways for goods, not for passengers, like a brand new one in Abu Dhabi-UAEmirates.
4.I wonder myself what the minimum -in area, population etc is to sustain a railway. There is no rule that says that a country should have one.
The latest to have vanished from your list is likely the quite large but very thinly populated (former also communist) Laos-built by the Chinese as first step towards Bangkok/Thailand, with the Thai not being very fast in building their part-as hi-speed on normal gauge vs. the existing slow-speed on metergauge, though work on some sectors have now started.
And as also pointed out, Qatar does have a brand new, fully automatic and very cheap (single 50 cts, daypass 1,50-in € or $) 3-line metro network, complemented with a light rail and 2 different tramway systems- just used it a few weeks ago on a longer stopover.

And just by pure chance a mr. google led me to a site I did not know-a kind of competitor to the invaluable seat61: railwayhero.com. Offers very basic info on what runs in countries, seemed to be linked to the passes site of eu/interrail (heavily promoted and same format in the site).
It lists Eritrea as offering occasional touristy steam trains/excursions and more regular same for Colombia. I highly doubt if any tourist would be willing to visit Eritrea the last years, but thats beside this all.
And it seems one of these Caribbean commonwealth states- St.Kitts, is also listed as having a touristy excursion train, not daily. For me a definite first to see this. Well; nice this forum, will always bring some more unexpected news and info!

 

[Baxenden Bank]

Nepal had and still has railways.

1. Raxaul (India) to Birgunj Dry Port aka Sirsiya Inland Container Depot approx. 1.7km.
2. Raxaul (India) to Amlekganj, approx. 37.3km, operated from 1927 to 1965.
3. Jaynagar (India) to Kurtha, approx. 28km, operational 1937 to around 2014, regauged and reopened from 2018 onwards. Line continued to somewhere in the vicinity of Bizalpura (Bijalpura), a further approx 20km. A strange one as it was laid on the dry river bed when possible and removed when not.
4. Koshi Railway: A construction railway running from Bathnaha and Birpur in India along the Koshi river to Chatara and Dharan Bazaar, approx. 74km, opened in 1957, closed after the dam it was built to help construct was completed.
5. A new branch leaving the line between Bathnaha and Jogbani (India) to Katahari, approx 10.5km, opened 2018.

Nepal is building an east-west electrified line which will have a number of connections to the Indian network.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Andorra has proposed a connecting railway to the Barcelona - Latour de Carol line near Puigcerdà - it is not clear whether it would be broad or standard gauge. It is certainly a country of adequate means to finance such a line.

Andorra

Given the number of ski resorts in the Principality, it's slightly surprising that none of them have some sort of railed funicular system to get tourists up the mountainside.

 

[gysev]

Lesotho has a railway since 1905 and it is still in use: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rail_transport_in_Lesotho

 

[Baxenden Bank]

A more comprehensive reply.

The following on your list currently have railways:

• Brunei: has 13km
• Eritrea: has r118km.
• Guyana: has 127km.
• Lesotho: has 1.7km.
• Nepal: has multiple lines, see my comments above.
• Sierra Leone: Pepel to Farangbaya (7km SE of Bumbuna) approx. 196km re-opened 2021.

South Sudan has a railway, nominally operational, formerly part of Sudan (country and railways).


Using the UN list of member countries and their dependencies as a base:

There are 193 member states and 2 observer states (The Vatican / Palestine)


The following currently have no railways:

• Andorra: never had, some proposed, see post above.
• Antigua and Barbuda: once had.
• The Bahamas: never had.
• Bahrain: never had, 36km line proposed / under construction.
• Barbados: once had.
• Belize: once had.
• Bhutan: never had.
• Burundi: never had.
• Cabo Verde (Cape Verde): never had.
• Central African Republic: once had, a 7km portage line.
• Chad: never had, loosely proposed as part of a cross-Africa line.
• Comoros: had plantation lines.
• Cyprus: had once.
• Dominica: never had.
• Equatorial Guinea: had a short line on island north-east of country.
• Grenada: never had.
• Guatemala: once had.
• Guinea Bissau (Portuguese Guinea): possibly once had.
• Haiti: once had.
• Iceland: once had, as discussed in posts above.
• Kiribati: never had.
• Kuwait: 145km proposed / under construction.
• Lebanon: once had, as discussed in post above.
• Libya: possibly once had, as discussed in posts above.
• Maldives: never had.
• Malta: once had.
• Marshall Islands: never had.
• Mauritius: now has with a gap 1960’s to 2019.
• Micronesia: never had.
• Nicaragua: once had.
• Oman: 306km line proposed / under construction
• Palau: never had.
• Papua New Guinea: never had.
• Qatar: 283km line proposed / under construction. Plus previous comments.
• Rwanda: possibly once had, reference in Wikipedia but no mention anywhere else.
• Saint Lucia: never had.
• Saint Vincent and the Grenadines: never had.
• Samoa: never had.
• San Marino: see posts above.
• Sao Tome and Principe: once had.
• Seychelles: never had.
• Solomon Islands: never had.
• Somalia: once had.
• Suriname: once had.
• Syria: once had.
• The Gambia: never had.
• Timor Leste (East Timor): never had.
• Tonga: never had.
• Trinidad and Tobago: once had.
• Tuvalu: never had.
• Vanuatu: never had.
• Yemen (N & S Yemen / Aden): once had when Aden.

I'm well up for discussions / corrections to update my own list!

 

[Calthrop]

Burlusconi presented one of the Fyra trains to Gadaffi a few years before the latter's demise, so I presume Libya had some sort of functioning rail network at the time. Though that might be an unduly optimistic description for that particular design.

Thanks for the correction. I seem to recall the IC4 wasn't much better than the Fyra so perhaps the Danes were better off without it.

Now I think about it, I got an email one morning about 15 years ago asking me to apply for a Libyan visa to work on a Metro project for Tripoli. A quick phone call established this was a faint prospect someone in the marketing department had identified and we agreed it wasn't worth spending multiple hours and hundreds of £ on the application until it became a bit more likely to happen. I never heard from them again - if I had I might have been among the many non-railway collegues who had to be evacuated at very short notice when the regime fell. Consulting an old atlas, there was a coastal railway westwards from Egypt into eastern Libya (which passed through El Alamein) and several branches inland.

Following from @Baxenden Bank's mention in post #19 -- "Libya: possibly once had, as discussed in posts above" -- above-quoted here, by me -- one-time railways in Libya as per @edwin_m's old atlas (my information from Steam in Africa by Durrant / Lewis / Jorgensen) ... World War II-related circumstances caused extending of Egypt's north-coast line (standard gauge) into Libya as far as Tobruk; and there was a little standard-gauge construction by Libya's Italian owners, prior to their being dispossessed of the territory by wartime events. Some activity reckoned on these s/g sections, in the early post-war years.

During Libya's spell as an Italian possession in the early-ish 20th century: smallish local public rail systems came into being on the Italian 950mm "sub-standard" gauge, totalling about 400 km. at maximum: a system around Tripoli (three lines), and another around Benghazi (two lines): first section opened in 1912, last section closed in 1965, well after independence. In Italian days, these lines were worked by 2-6-0Ts and 0-8-0Ts, plus a bit of action by Mallet 0-4-4-0Ts as used in Eritrea (Steam in Africa has a couple of rather charming photographs of action on this scene, taken very shortly post-WWII).

 

[Baxenden Bank]

Proposals:
Burundi: various proposals over the years. Currently out to tender for a link to Tanzania, 367km approx, Musongati to Keza (a point on a section of the new lines proposed / under construction in Tanzania).
Central African Republic: pre-feasibility study into a line to Sudan, 280km approx, via Biro to Nyala.
Chad: proposals as part of the Dakar - Port Sudan Railway, approx 4,000 km, Sudan - Chad - Cameroun. A section at Abeche in Chad was stated as under construction back in 2012.

 

[stuu]

Most of central America has no rail now. I believe only Costa Rica and Panama have functional railways

 

[NorthernSpirit]

I was involved in several studies for rapid transit within Reykjavik and/or an express to Keflavik airport between 2001 and 2008, idea abandoned due to the financial crisis, but I suspect someone over there is still pushing the idea.

If Iceland were ever to build a rail network, focused on Reykjavik it could be based on the Merseyrail network with one line going from north to south, another performing an airport to city centre loop and another going from the docks to a town somewhere east with all of the terminating stations being a park and ride with one depot and signalling centre built next to a central station (in similar stance to Exeter St. Davids albeit smaller taking in the population of Iceland as a whole). Its likely that they may opt for trams instead.

 

[Sir Felix Pole]

If we consider British Overseas Territories Bermuda had a short lived standard gauge railway 1931 - 1948. Gibraltar had an extensive Dockyard Railway, including a line through the Rock.

Jersey had two railway systems (3ft 6in and standard gauge) and Guernsey standard gauge. Alderney still has its railway, although it needs a replacement loco.

 

[Baxenden Bank]

Rwanda: various proposals over the years. Latest is a link to the new Tanzanian standard gauge lines mention previously.

Burundi - a correction - I got the proposals mixed up. The scheme out to tender is from Uvinza (again on the new Tanzanian line) to Gitega in Burundi.

Previous suggestions were for a link from the Kenya standard gauge line, extended through Uganda, to both Burundi and Rwanda.

 

[artemic]

Do you Brits know something we Scandinavians don't?

In my defence, that's what he says in the programme!
I had presumed Henrik was king consort (despite this being rarely used) but on a second look he does appear to have only been prince consort...
Maybe a letter to DR to let them know of their egregious mistake is in order

 

[USRailFan]

In my defence, that's what he says in the programme!
I had presumed Henrik was king consort (despite this being rarely used) but on a second look he does appear to have only been prince consort...
Maybe a letter to DR to let them know of their egregious mistake is in order

AFAIK he had the same status in Denmark as Prince Philip had in England

 

[Cloud Strife]

A railway in Cyprus really should be created. There is a strong argument for building a line from Nicosia to Larnaca Airport in phase 1, followed by a coastal line from Larnaca to Limassol.

Some issues/observations:

Nicosia wouldn't make sense unless the terminal station was underground in the vicinity of Eleftheria Square. That means a 6km tunnel and underground station, although it could be possible to have an arrangement where trains would run from a Nicosia Central to a Nicosia Main Station near the GSP Stadium. Cyprus wouldn't need a hugely intensive rail service, so trains could run in a single track tunnel from the Nicosia Main Station to Nicosia Central and back.

In Larnaca, the most obvious terminal station is in the airport. This would finally provide a good public transport link between Nicosia and the airport.

A suburban-type operation would make the most sense for Cyprus. They don't need fast trains, but rather something operating at 100-120km/h maximum.

I would follow the A1, A2 and A3 motorways as closely as possible. This would allow for a Parkway type station near the A2/A3 junction, which would later allow for the building of a coastal line from Ayia Napa to Limassol.

 

[John-H]

A more comprehensive reply.

The following on your list currently have railways:

• Brunei: has 13km
• Eritrea: has r118km.
• Guyana: has 127km.
• Lesotho: has 1.7km.
• Nepal: has multiple lines, see my comments above.
• Sierra Leone: Pepel to Farangbaya (7km SE of Bumbuna) approx. 196km re-opened 2021.

South Sudan has a railway, nominally operational, formerly part of Sudan (country and railways).


Using the UN list of member countries and their dependencies as a base:

There are 193 member states and 2 observer states (The Vatican / Palestine)


The following currently have no railways:

• Andorra: never had, some proposed, see post above.
• Antigua and Barbuda: once had.
• The Bahamas: never had.
• Bahrain: never had, 36km line proposed / under construction.
• Barbados: once had.
• Belize: once had.
• Bhutan: never had.
• Burundi: never had.
• Cabo Verde (Cape Verde): never had.
• Central African Republic: once had, a 7km portage line.
• Chad: never had, loosely proposed as part of a cross-Africa line.
• Comoros: had plantation lines.
• Cyprus: had once.
• Dominica: never had.
• Equatorial Guinea: had a short line on island north-east of country.
• Grenada: never had.
• Guatemala: once had.
• Guinea Bissau (Portuguese Guinea): possibly once had.
• Haiti: once had.
• Iceland: once had, as discussed in posts above.
• Kiribati: never had.
• Kuwait: 145km proposed / under construction.
• Lebanon: once had, as discussed in post above.
• Libya: possibly once had, as discussed in posts above.
• Maldives: never had.
• Malta: once had.
• Marshall Islands: never had.
• Mauritius: now has with a gap 1960’s to 2019.
• Micronesia: never had.
• Nicaragua: once had.
• Oman: 306km line proposed / under construction
• Palau: never had.
• Papua New Guinea: never had.
• Qatar: 283km line proposed / under construction. Plus previous comments.
• Rwanda: possibly once had, reference in Wikipedia but no mention anywhere else.
• Saint Lucia: never had.
• Saint Vincent and the Grenadines: never had.
• Samoa: never had.
• San Marino: see posts above.
• Sao Tome and Principe: once had.
• Seychelles: never had.
• Solomon Islands: never had.
• Somalia: once had.
• Suriname: once had.
• Syria: once had.
• The Gambia: never had.
• Timor Leste (East Timor): never had.
• Tonga: never had.
• Trinidad and Tobago: once had.
• Tuvalu: never had.
• Vanuatu: never had.
• Yemen (N & S Yemen / Aden): once had when Aden.

I'm well up for discussions / corrections to update my own list!

Saint Lucia in 1978 had some very narrow gauge lines carrying bananas, and remanants of a broader gauge line.

 

[Baxenden Bank]

Saint Lucia in 1978 had some very narrow gauge lines carrying bananas, and remanants of a broader gauge line.

Yes, there are many such lines in places otherwise considered to be railwayless.

It comes down to what each researcher defines as 'having a railway'. Some suggestions:

• One or more rails on which carts are hand pulled.
• One or more rails on which carts/wagons are animal hauled.
• One or more rails on which wagons are hauled by powered 'beasts', that is locomotives.
• A line which is exclusive to a particular organisation e.g. docks, plantations, mines.
• A line which is open to others by agreement.
• A line which is open to all i.e. 'common carrier'.
• A line which has or once had passenger services.

Then there is whether to consider 'mainline', 'metro', 'light rail' and 'tramway'.

One excellent source of information is the International Steam website (link here) which brings together travel reports from those really keen on searching out relics. Combined with the Jim Fergusson mileage charts now hosted by the Branch Line Society (link here) you can get a good basic worldwide knowledge. Open Street Map and Open Railway Map are certainly useful but not comprehensive.

For example Aruba, in the list of countries with no railways, actually had a few industrial lines, more detail here.