The huge cost of building and maintaining trans-national railways has put most governments off the idea. But a few countries, such as Jordan and Syria, are rehabilitating or replacing old track and rolling stock (see pages 49-50), while others, such as Saudi Arabia, are looking to build networks to support specific industrial projects. And these individual projects do still follow a broad, regional blueprint.

The Beirut-based UN Economic & Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) has published a report on priority railways in the Arab Mashreq, calling for the construction of 12,000 kilometres of regional rail links and extensive repairs to most of the remaining lines. Cost estimates were put at a stunning $600,000 million. The linchpin of the strategy is the Agreement on International Railways in the Arab Mashreq, adopted in April 2003. With nine signatories - Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, UAE and Yemen - and four ratifications - Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria - the agreement defines 16 priority routes. These include six north-south routes totalling some 11,132 kilometres and 10 east-west routes, totalling 8,396 kilometres, all with harmonised technical specifications.

Regional rail integration is still a distant prospect, even by the admission of ESCWA's transport division leader Nabil Safwat. 'About 60 per cent of the planned railway system is not even in existence, so this project is not going to happen any time soon,' he says. 'There is interest across the region, but this is by no means uniform. Plus, with regards to future profitability of some lines, economic feasibility studies so far have assumed certain passenger numbers, which is risky and inconclusive, as no-one really knows what demand will be.'

Digby Lidstone