Italians to Build High-Speed Railway from Qom to Arak

The high-speed railway line between Qom and Arak, which will reach speeds of 250 kilometers per hour, will be constructed by Italian companies. Abbas Nazari, the director general of international affairs at the railway, stated: "The Qom-Arak high-speed line, which is 117 kilometers long, will be built by Italians, and the construction contract for this project is financed. The funding sources for the Qom-Arak high-speed line project will be 85% foreign and only 15% from domestic sources. The projected investment for this project is $1.2 billion, of which $1 billion will be for the construction of the line and $200 million for the procurement of rolling stock. The desired train speed is 250 kilometers per hour, and six train sets are planned for this route. Currently, feasibility studies and preliminary designs for this route have been carried out by the Italians. The duration of the project for the 117-kilometer high-speed Qom-Arak line is three years." Iran currently has an extensive program underway for railway development. With the help of foreign companies, more than $15 billion is expected to be invested in these projects. Besides constructing new lines, one of the main programs includes electrifying some lines and increasing the speed of others. Electrification of the Tehran-Mashhad route is among these cases. The Qom-Arak route, which is to be executed by Italian companies, is part of a branch from the Tehran-Isfahan route. Currently, plans are in place to make the Tehran-Isfahan and Tehran-Mashhad railways high-speed; among these two projects, the first high-speed train on the Tehran-Qom-Isfahan route, which is 412 kilometers long, is currently under construction and is planned to operate at a speed of 330 kilometers per hour. Abbas Nazari, the director general of international affairs at the Iranian railway, had previously stated: "According to the planned arrangements, Italy will make direct investments in two high-speed railway lines, Qom to Arak and Tehran to Hamadan, and will also have a serious presence in the field of supplying high-speed railway rolling stock." In other projects, the electrification of the railway from Bafq to Bandar Abbas and from Garmsar to Gorgan is underway. Most of Iran's railway locomotives are diesel-electric, as the railway lines in Iran, except for a few limited lines, are not electrified. The types of locomotives used in Iran's railway traction fleet were supplied by steam locomotives until 1957, and the first diesel locomotives entered the Iranian railway fleet in that year. Currently, diesel-electric locomotives manufactured by General Motors of the USA, Hitachi's diesel-electric shunting locomotives, General Electric's diesel-electric locomotives from Canada, and Alstom's diesel-electric locomotives are operational in Iran, with some of these locomotives being over 40 years old. Most of Iran's railway lines are old, and high-speed train operations are not feasible on them. Cooperation between the Iranian railway company and Talas regarding the high-speed axis of Tehran-Qom-Isfahan, the establishment of a framework for cooperation between the railway company and Siemens in the field of signaling, and the memorandum of understanding for cooperation between the railway company and Siemens to enhance the speed of the Tehran-Tabriz train axis are all aimed at addressing these weaknesses. The railway line between Chabahar to the Afghan border and Rasht to Astara are among the main lines currently being developed in Iran. In other plans, Bandar Abbas is set to be connected to Khorramshahr by railway, with another line branching towards Shiraz. The railway lines between Andimeshk to Kermanshah and Miyaneh to Tabriz are other lines planned for construction in Iran. After the opening of the Hamadan railway, Urmia is also expected to be connected to Iran's railway lines soon. It seems that for the construction of new lines and the development and upgrading of existing lines in Iran, in addition to billions of dollars in investment, there is also a need for new technologies in the construction of lines and modern trains; and German, Italian, French, Korean, and Chinese companies are expected to participate in the development of Iran's railway lines and rolling stock.