© Sergey Bobylev/TASS
The Syrian government is now able to deliver humanitarian aid, using a railroad segment that has been restored by Russian forces.
On November 13, the Syrian government sent the first locomotive via a restored 65km stretch of track between the port of Tartus to the sea town of Jableh in the province of Latakia.
“Humanitarian cargo weighing 27 tons arrived by sea. It was loaded onto railway transport and will be delivered to Jableh, where it will be distributed locally among Syrians who are most affected by the fighting,” Colonel Aleksandr Gubanov, spokesman for the Russian center for reconciliation of opposing sides in Syria, said in a statement.
The restoration of the first section of the railroad network became possible after Russian specialists “set up loading and unloading stations and picked [intact] cars to carry both humanitarian cargo and construction materials” along the Tartus-Jableh stretch.
“We look forward to the resumption of rail services and to further cooperation with the Syrian side,” Gubanov added.
This is interesting, but this story only hints at bigger gaps: what is the state of railways in Syria? How useful are they? also, no fighting was here. why was the railroad unusable? Much needed background information is needed here.
Very little information is available since the war started.
Apparently, all railways are shutdown due to sabotage(IED’s on the tracks). This is probably the first train to run in syria(safely) since 2014.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/26/world/middleeast/damascus-syria-hejaz-railway-station.html?_r=0
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syrian_Railways
i’ve checked the railroad system in Wikipedia, and most of it is indeed in disuse because it links major cities which are under terrorist control, or goes through terrorist controlled territory. they’re probably conserving the running stuck until after the war. Thank you for the links! counterpunch article should have been used to complement the original article, it’s awesome! …but syria.direct is such a load of crap my eyes almost bled at the amount of stupidity there.
Here is another one: Latakia and Jarbous line. http://syriadirect.org/news/regime-opens-new-rail-line-in-coastal-heartland/
I don’t know what happened to my original post. But, it seems that since before 2015, the syrian train system was shutdown due to rebels placing IEDs on the tracks, since then the system has slowly been rebuilt.
Great and noble Russia indeed.. God bless all the good humans for their deeds regardless of who they are..
The globalists plans are just back-firing on them by the butt loads! EVERYWHERE THEY LOOK, something is going terribly wrong for them. America, Moldova and Bulgaria all elected anti-globalist presidents, Half of the EU is doing the same, TTIP is DOA – everywhere good people are undoing their dirty work around the globe. 2017 looks to be a wonderful year for new beginnings.