The Hejaz Railway in Saudi Arabia

 

The Hejaz railway (الخَط الحَدِيدِي الحِجَازِي) can also be visited at some sections in Saudi Arabia [1]. I had visited the Hejaz Railway in Jordan three years ago and had already written about it [2]. The Hejaz Railway ran from Damascus to Medina. The name Hejaz Railway had been coined, because a very long stretch of the 1300 km was operating in the Hejaz region in Saudi Arabia. The Hejaz region is composed of Mecca, Medina, Ta'if and Al Abwa, with more 460,000 sqk, which would place the size of this region between the states of Cameroon and Papua New Guinea. Construction began in 1900 – according to an order issued by Sultan Abdul Hamid II in March 1900 – and parts of the railway opened in 1907. It operated between 1908 and 1920, with interruptions during World War I. The original idea was to shorten the travel time for pilgrims to Mecca, but it later became apparent that such a railway could be used for military transport. This is where Lawrence of Arabia comes into play, as he and Prince Faisal recruited in Wadi Rum and “fought a guerrilla-style war by disrupting train passages on the Hejaz Railway” [3].

Let's return to the pilgrims to Mecca. About 100 years ago, it took 40 days to travel from Damascus to Mecca. With the Hejaz Railway, this time was reduced to five days. Today, the railway is no longer needed for this purpose. While some pilgrims still arrive by ship across the Red Sea, their numbers are very small, as most arrive by plane, landing in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. King Abdulaziz International Airport operates a special terminal for pilgrims during the pilgrimage month of Dhu al-Hijjah [Dhu al-Hijjah ( ذُو ٱلْحِجَّة) ].

Now I saw three parts of the railway line and visited two stations:
Al-Buwayr Station (محطة البوير قطار الحجاز) محطة البوير قطار الحجا), about 100 km from  Medina and there the terminus: The Hejaz Railway Museum (متحف سكة الحجاز), Hijaz Railway Museum – Medina: "The museum is considered one of the historical tourist destinations in Madinah. It was established in 1419 AH, corresponding to 1998 AD, and was inaugurated by Prince Abdulmajeed ibn Abdulaziz. It is located on Omar Ibn Al-Khattab St, King Abdulaziz Square in Anbariya. It is about 1,020 meters away from the Prophet’s Mosque. Temporarily closed." [4]

I would have liked to see the old train station at Mada'in Saleh, which was only two kilometers as the crow flies from my hotel, but Hegra lies in between, so it wasn't possible to walk there; and then there wasn't time, and it didn't fit into the day's sightseeing and travelling schedule either, since the Al-Buwayr Station was being visited that day.

You can see entire trains and locomotives, and it's also possible to see the track gauge and the section of track. Both sites were currently closed. The building of the terminal station in Medina is built in the Ottoman style from basalt blocks and still looks impressive despite the high-rise buildings in Medina.

Even though the museum was closed, one could still get a good impression of the railway line. There were efforts underway to reopen it, but that's wishful thinking. The railway has made history, and that should be enough.

Links and Annotations:
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hejaz_railway
[2] The Hejaz Railway at Wadi Rum 
https://rheumatologe.blogspot.com/2021/12/the-hejaz-railway-at-wadi-rum.html
[3] https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/hejaz-railway-train-wadi-rum
[4] https://www.visitsaudi.com/en/madinah/attractions/hijaz-railway-museum-in-madinah

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The Hejaz Railway at Wadi Rum

 

When you spend your desert adventure in Jordan, you will do so most probably at Wadi Rum, retracing the steps of films like “The Martian” or “Lawrence of Arabia”. Your bus or jeep will also stop at an old train on the Hejaz Railway [1].

The Hejaz Railway ran from Damaskus to Medina [2]. The name Hejaz Railway had been coined, because a very long stretch of the 1300 km was operating in the Hejaz region in Saudi Arabia. The Hejaz region is composed of Mecca, Medina, Ta'if and Al Abwa, with more 460,000 sqk, which would place this region between the states of Cameroon and Papua New Guinea. Construction started in 1900 and parts were opened in 1907, the railway was operational in between 1908-1920 with interruptions during the World War I. The original idea was to shorten the time for pilgrims to Mecca, but later it turned out that such a railway could be use for military transport. That is where Lawrence of Arabia comes into play, as he and Prince Faisal recruited in Wadi Rum and „fought a guerilla-style war by interrupting train passages on the Hejaz Railway“ [3].

Jordan is still using parts or had been using until recently: from Amman to Damascus as the Hedjaz Jordan Railway, but this service has been suspeneded [4] and from the phosphate mines near Ma'an to the Gulf of Aqaba. The phosphate railway is also history; the Hejaz Railway had been abandoned long ago and from 1975 until 2018 there had been the Aqaba Rail, which had to be abandoned because the new habour of Aqaba is without railway connection [7] There had been rumours about establishing a Haifa – Riyadh railway using parts of the Hejaz Railway [6], but maybe COVID-19 has frozen the enthusiasm since 1918.

Maybe there is another problem – the track gauge. The Hejaz Railway uses a narrow gauge ot 1,050 mm, whereas most other railways use the 1,435 mm gauge [7].

Near Shakaria you can visit the refurbished locomotive and a couple of waggons, which are locked by the way, but you can climb up and take a picture  from the outside. I like the remnants of bygone eras and visited a few of them [8].

Links and Annotations:
[1] You can look at the spot on Google Maps: 29.69965678126896 N, 35.39611450921805 E. A settlement close by (southeast) is called Shakaria, but Google always wants to correct it to Shakira. If that nips you, nips don't lie.
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hejaz_railway  
[3] https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/hejaz-railway-train-wadi-rum
[4] https://www.seat61.com/Jordan.htm
[5] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aqababahn
[6] https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20180619-israel-saudi-preparing-for-railway-link/
[7] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_track_gauges 55% of world wide tracks use the 1,435 mm gauge.
[8] Here is a picture of the Uyuni railway graveyard: https://rheumatologe.blogspot.com/2021/06/lyrik-taschenkalender-2018_14.html I've also seen the train, which had been robbed by Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid – I haven't published this picture, yet. Or the train, in which Kim Song Il went to Pyongyang: https://rheumatologe.blogspot.com/search/label/NorthKorea     

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