Rail transport in Iran
| Rail transport in Iran | |
|---|---|
Iran railway 2020 | |
| Operation | |
| National railway | Islamic Republic of Iran Railways (RAI) |
| Major operators | RAI, Tooka rail, Samand rail |
| Statistics | |
| Ridership | 21 million |
| Passenger km | 13 billion |
| Freight | 31 million tonnes |
| System length | |
| Total | 12,998 kilometres (8,077 mi) |
| Double track | 1426 km |
| Electrified | 146 km |
| Track gauge | |
| Main | 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) |
| Electrification | |
| Main | 25 kV 50 Hz AC |
| Features | |
| No. tunnels | 105 |
| Tunnel length | 120 km |
| Longest tunnel | 3000 m |
| No. bridges | 350 |
| Longest bridge | 750 m |
| No. stations | 360 |
| Highest elevation | 2500 m |
| Lowest elevation | -20 m |
| Part of a series on |
| Rail transport |
|---|
|
|
| Infrastructure |
|
|
| Rolling stock |
|
|
| Urban rail transit |
|
|
| Topics |
| Transport portal |
Iran has a state-owned railway system built to standard gauge (1,435 mm (4 ft 8½ in)) which falls under the remit of the Ministry of Roads & Urban Development. The primary rail carrier is the Islamic Republic of Iran Railways (abbreviated as IRIR, or sometimes as RAI, or as IRI Railway) which is the national state-owned railway system of Iran
In 2008, the IR operated 11,106 km of rail with a further 18,900 km in various stages of development. Almost all of this is standard gauge of 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in), but 94 km are Russian gauge of 1,520 mm (4 ft 11+27⁄32 in) to link up to ex-Soviet Union border states. There is also the no-longer-isolated Indian gauge section of 1,676 mm (5 ft 6 in) from Zahedan to the Pakistan border that continues to Quetta and the Indian sub-continent. The extent of double-track lines is 1,082 km. The Jolfa–Tabriz line is electrified (148 km). In 2006, IR reported that it possessed 565 engines, 1,192 passenger coaches, and 16,330 wagons. The vast majority of the engines are diesel-powered.