Summary: According to Alireza Saadati, advisor to Iranian Railways Organization chief, Iran has 6264 kilometers of main railway lines and 662 kilometers of industrial and commercial lines. The annual statistics for the fatalities on the country's roads is about 20,000 people, however, the railroad in Iran is the safest in the world.
Text: The first railway of our country connecting Tehran and Bandar
Turkaman was put into
operation in 1937. During the following year, in 1938, the railway lines between Tehran and
Bandar Shahpoor (currently known as Bandar Imam) were laid. At present, 6264 kilometers of
main railway lines and 662 kilometers of industrial and commercial lines are at our disposal.
However, it is a pity that traveling by train, which is the oldest engine-propelled transportation
means, with its 170 years of world service, has not yet found its place in our country. Everybody
acknowledges that trains are one of the safest means of transportation, with reliable punctuality
as well as safe and built- up stations. Most of all, people enjoy the advantage of traveling in large
groups. However, they are not so popular among people as they should be. In tourism industry,
trains act as a very active arm and their diversity and low costs are of immense considerations.
Furthermore, they are constantly being updated to assume new attributes which add up to the
attraction of traveling on them.
In our country, trains hardly enjoy any popularity even for routes such as the one between
Tehran
and Isfahan. Some experts believe that trains' non-popularity in our country originates from their
being traditional. They are slow. Besides, they lack major renovation and entertainment.
Travelers complain of their being moved about just like parcels. Of course, this complaint is
refuted by rail-line management. In recent years, steps have been taken to make traveling by
trains more attractive. There are certain programs for more improvements in rail travels as well.
However, they have not been reflected in the mass media yet. Unfortunately, what is mostly
reported in the mass media is negative news related to crowded trains during New Year
Holidays, shortage of seats, and other discouraging news of this kind.
On long holidays, one may witness large crowds in search of some means of transportation
apart
from trains since they believe they would surely find a way and would not bother to check out
with the railroad to make sure of the unavailability of seats. Why is it so?
Delbar Tavakoli has shared some of the questions regarding traveling on trains, with
Engineer
Alireza Saadati, the advisor to the International Affairs Director of the Railroad Company and
the Head of the Ticket Commission and Tariffs:
Q: Why is it that we surely run into trouble to buy train tickets during the
New Year Holidays
and Summer time?
A: By and large, people do not follow a suitable pattern in their travels.
Either, they hardly take a
trip or if they ever travel, they all do it during the same period. We have tried to create a balance
during the rush periods by adding up to the number of the trains; however, this measure can
hardly answer the bottlenecks. We call it "Mismatch" at the railway company. The term refers to
the mismatch between supply and demand. In our management of demand, efforts are made to
shift the periodical peak of the demand to those periods when there's a noticeable fall in demand.
For instance, the retired who enjoy more leisure time and can travel at any time without worrying
about anything, should plan their trips in such a way so that room can be made for those who are
pressed for time, such as government civil servants and employees, students and others.
Sometimes we run some 14 extra trains in Mashad-Tehran route, which is our most traveled
route; nonetheless, even this number of trains sometimes is not enough.
Q: Why railway trains are not so well-recognized as a means of
transportation?
A: Public media, specially the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting
(IRIB) has been very
inconsiderate to us. Our media hardly give us any publicity, and when they do, it is usually in
negative forms such as delays and complaints. People do not care about their own safety. Despite
the fact that the use of seat belts in cars are much stressed for safety purposes, nonetheless,
people don't pay any heed to it. Railway trains are one of the safest means of transportation and
traveling. The annual statistics for the fatalities on the country's roads is about 20,000 people;
however, we haven't had even a single railway accident in recent years. The outstanding ratio of
20,000 to zero in fatalities speaks well of the safety of railway travels. Foreign tourists have
recently been making extended use of the railway trains. As a matter of fact, they pay the same
amount for their fares as Iranian citizens do, but they are well aware of how safe the trains are.
Although our highways are some of the best in the Middle East, tourists have been warned of
their being highly dangerous, mainly because of our drivers' inattention to the traffic regulations
and human factors. The picture our people have from railways and trains is an old and erroneous
one. We have enhanced the availability of our services. Without changing the price of the
tickets, we have established ticket offices even in those places where there are no railways. The
ticket prices are the same throughout the country. Nowadays, we have ticket offices in 24
provinces of the country. We are now offering some facilities that are unique in the world. One
such services is that when a traveler misses his train for whatever reason, he can hop on the next
one free of charge. Another is when a traveler loses his ticket or leaves it somewhere behind, he
would receive a substitute ticket free of charge to continue his trip. More than 750 train travelers
missed their trains this year in the Middle of Shaban (on the birthday of the last Shia Imam and a
public holiday). They were allowed to get on the next train with no problem whatsoever.
Travelers, who were left out for whatever reason, were forced to buy new tickets and buy their
return ticket at the destination. Nowadays however, people can reserve their round trip tickets
long before their actual trip and they will have no problems to make their plans in advance.
Unfortunately, in these days hardly does anyone know anything about railroad and jobs related to
trains. If you ask a child what do you want to be when you grow up, you won't hear any answers
such as locomotive engineer or the head of the railway company or other railway related jobs.
That's mainly because he hardly knows such jobs do exist at all. The common fallacy is that
people believe the railway switchman is the same as the road guard. However, these two perform
two completely different tasks.
Q: Don't you think Iran's lack of well-equipped high speed trains is one
the reasons why trains
are unpopular in our country as a means of transportation?
A: No, the fact is that nowadays our trains are different from those in the
past. Today, travelers
can make use of their dead time in trains. As a matter of fact, it is economic too, since if the
traveler spends the night in train during his round trip, he saves on the hotel charges. That's why
foreigners call railway trains "hotel train". They have well understood this fact. In the past, our
Tehran-Isfahan trains traveled the distance in 9 hours. The same distance is traveled in 7 hours
today. This is a 2 hour saving in time. However, people prefer to travel this distance by bus
because of their ignorance of these facts.
Q: What are the qualifications of train stewards and the railway chief?
A: A train steward must, at least, have a High School Diploma, be
married, and enjoy physical
health as well as moral rectitude. After taking a training course, including first aid instructions
and passing the final exams, the candidates will be allowed to start their career. Due to the
sensitivity of his job, the railway chief, however, has to have higher qualifications. To get this
job, the candidate is required to have a college degree and has to go through more courses. The
railway chief must be answerable to all probable dangers and problems that might arise. Indeed,
he is responsible for anything related to the railway trains.
Q: Do you have train stewardesses too?
A: Not for the time being. However, we are about to put a tourist train into
operation. The private
sector will provide the necessary capital. This is a highly detailed plan and it will be for Tehran-
Mashad route. The coaches are equipped with 4 bed compartments and there are special services.
The stewards and stewardesses will be married couples. God willing,the project will be offered
for other routes in future as well.
Q: What are the conditions of our trains as compared to the global
standards?
A: We have two generations of trains in the world. Traditional trains,
which run at a maximum
speed of 160 kilometers per hour. Our trains belong to such a traditional generation. We do not
have the technology for higher speed trains. Of course, our traditional trains are of high quality
and compete with the bests in Europe. The coaches containing 4 bed compartments enjoy a high
capacity. We are going to offer better services for Tehran-Isfahan route. The government is also
very serious about this project. Mr. Khatami himself made a direct reference to this plan while he
was visiting Isfahan. Later on, there were some more talks about it too.
Q: What are our tourist railway line routes?
A: There are railway lines for Mashad, Isfahan, Tabriz, Qom, Kerman,
and Bandar Abbas. The
railway line to Shiraz is being planned for and will be constructed. At present, Shiraz passengers
are traveling to Isfahan by rail and then continue their trip to Shiraz by bus. However, most of the
passengers' demand focuses on Mashad. We have provided first and second class coaches for this
route. Since there are many pilgrims traveling to Mashad, the railway coaches are usually full.
We have not been so successful in absorbing passengers for Tehran-Isfahan route. The reason is
that in the past trains used to run every other day and the seats were not fully taken up. Another
reason lies in the fact that the railway station is outside the city and passengers have trouble in
their commuting back and forth. However, now, we have trains running to Isfahan on everyday
basis and we have extended the ticket offices as well so that this route may find its position in
transportation. We intend to set up a railway route between Tehran and Islamshahr just like the
one between Tehran and Karaj.
Q: Do you have any plans for taking tourists on tours by trains?
A: The IRI Railway lines would not get into the act directly, but we are
paving the way for others
to embark on this venture. We are cooperating with 140 Travel Agencies and they may start on
this business themselves. A part of our job is promotion of tourist industry and certain policies
we have implemented have helped this industry as well. Being a member of the IRI Railway
lines board of directors, Mr. Moezedin's presence has contributed to this objective a lot.
Transportation is in the service of tourism. Apart from other general and specific activities that
we have carried out in this line, the fact that we have allowed the travel agencies to sell train
tickets is a kind of support for this plan. Some travel agencies make most of their money through
selling train tickets. They have invested in tourist sector and we have given them the priority.
Some travel agencies have hotels of their own which means giving more service to their
customers and making still more money in this manner. On the other hand, travelers are given the
chance to reserve rooms in hotels of their choice at the time of their buying train tickets. So when
they arrive at their destination, they will have no accommodation problems. We also have
another unit called group traveling unit. To those who refer to this unit directly and would like to
travel in groups, we allocate private compartments in coaches. If the need arises, we can even
add to the number of coaches. Foods and refreshments will be served on trains adequately. This
unit is located at the IRI Railway Lines Office. We offer rebates for group travels as well. For
instance, those who would like to have private compartments, can buy their tickets for all the
available seats at half price ( if four people would like to have a six seater compartment, they pay
half price for the two vacant seats.) We also have special compartments for those ladies who
travel alone. Four and six seater coaches are equipped with restaurants. Food can be served even
in the compartment. All these explanations are mentioned at the time trains start on their
journeys.
Q: Do you offer special facilities on trains to attract more tourists? Do you
give tourists gifts or
allow them to enjoy the scenery and learn more about things?
A: We have transferred the responsibility of selling tickets to private
offices. We expect them to
offer such services. We have also allowed the private sector to renovate the coaches. As a matter
of fact, we have done away with regulations in order to save as much time as we could to
implement different activities, while at the same time we have made different travel stages as
transparent as possible. We are trying very hard to boost the passenger market and would like to
increase the number of passengers up to 18 million people.
Q: What would you do if a tourist faces some kind of trouble while he is
on the train?
A: The Chief of the Train would definitely help him. Most of them more
or less know a foreign language. If a tourist does not have a guide he can ask the train chief
to
help him.
Q: How are we linked with the railways of other countries?
A: We are linked with the Trans European railways. Our rail lines are of
standard width. We are
linked to Istanbul through Azerbaijan border; at present, this route is shut down, but it is
supposed to become active soon in near future. We are also linked to the Republic of
Nakhichevan through Jolfa border with Nakhichevan and through Mir Javeh border we are linked
with Pakistan through Zahedan Mir Javeh lines. Zahedan is also linked with Quetta in Pakistan.
Through Sarakhs border, we are linked with Turkmenistan. Of course, in the past we had Tehran
Moscow lines too, which is not active nowadays. Most of these connections are commercial and
our freight trains are active in these routes. However, during the meeting of the ECO (Economic
Cooperation Organization), which was held in Alma Aty, there was the talk of setting up the
Trans Asia Railway lines, which was approved. The railway lines are supposed to pass through
Alma Aty, Tashkent, Turkmenistan, Sarakhs, Mashad, Tehran, Tabriz and up to Istanbul. Its
inauguration has been put off to the year 2001, which is the year for Dialogue Among
Civilizations.
Q: What are your slow times for passengers? Have you ever had to call off
a trip because of
passenger shortages?
A: We face passenger shortages and slow activities in the month of Ramadan. The same problem exists in the month of Ordibehesht (April-May). However, our busiest active months are during summer and the month of Farvardin (March-April). It should be noted that our Mashad bound trains are always full. The arrangement for the ticket sale is in a way to exclude our cancelling a scheduled train run since we always start filling coaches from the beginning to the end. So empty coaches will be separated from the whole and the train starts on its journey with only full coaches for which tickets have been sold and they run. The condition for a trip not to take place is when no tickets have been sold.
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