The Ottoman railway system as of 1936; dashed lines portray railway connections that are still under construction
The railway system of the Ottoman Empire, once severely lacking behind its European counterparts, has been drastically expanded in the last few decades. Formerly limited to the urban areas on the Anatolian west coast, the Ottoman Railway Boom of the early 1900s, which led to the construction of the Berlin–Baghdad Railway and the Hejaz Railway, would kick off a period of continuous railway expansion all throughout the Empire. Now, as of the mid-1930s, direct travelling between continental Europe and the far-flung Ottoman outposts in Kuwait and Mecca is finally possible; The Middle East, the connecting piece between Orient and Occident, has finally been opened up to the sophisticated global traveller of today.
As of 1936, the following major railway connections exist within the Empire:
State-owned railways[]
Prior to the Weltkrieg, most railway lines in the Empire were owned by foreign companies, especially British, French, and, since the early 1900s, which saw close cooperation between the German Empire and Sultan Abdülhamid II, German ones. With the beginning of the war and at the very latest with the French Civil War of 1919/20 and the British Revolution of 1924/25 however, most of the French- and British-owned railways were nationalized and a government-owned national railway, the "Devlet Demiryolları Umum Müdürlüğü", or State Railways Administration, was founded during Mustafa Kemal Pasha's first tenure as Grand Vizier in the mid-1920s. Now, a vast portion of the Anatolian Railway Network is under government control. The Hejaz Railway, while in possession of the government as well, is a separate entity, however, and not subordinated to the State Railways Administration.
Anatolian Railway[]
Cigarette Card of Lambert & Butler's Cigarettes portraying a locomotive of the Ottoman Railway Company, issued in 1913.
The Anatolian Railway makes up the lion's share of the Ottoman railway system and incorporates many formerly foreign-owned railroad tracks: The İzmir–Aydın Railway (formerly known as the Ottoman Railway Company and owned by British shareholders) was already established in 1856 and is the oldest railway in the Empire still in operation. Orginally, the railway was used to transport minerals and fruit from the Aydın plain to the Port of İzmir to be exported, but now, it has become an important passenger transport line in urban Western Anatolia.
Modern locomotive introduced to the İzmir-Afyon/Bandirma Railway in 1934
The İzmir-Afyon/Bandirma Railway (formerly known as Smyrne Cassaba & Prolongements and owned by British/French shareholders) was established in 1863 and is the main railway route in Western Anatolia, connecting the Marmara Sea with İzmir and the French-owned Chemins de fer Ottomans d'Anatolie in the Anatolian inland. It is a convenient travel route between İzmir and Istanbul, as the latter can be easily reached via ferry from Bandirma.
German-produced locomotive operating on the Istanbul-Ankara/Konya Railway, 1910s
The Istanbul-Ankara/Konya Railway (formerly known as Chemins de fer Ottomans d'Anatolie and owned by French/German shareholders) was established in 1888 and is by far the busiest railway in the Empire and one of the two railways operating into Istanbul (via Haydarpaşa railway station), along with the Oriental Railway. The line services major cities such as İstanbul, İzmit, Adapazarı, Bilecik, Eskişehir, Ankara, Kütahya and Konya and operates the Port of Haydarpaşa and the Port of Derince, two important trading hubs by the the Marmara Sea. At its terminus, Konya, the railway is connected to the famous Baghdad Railway. Despite still partially in German hands, the State Railways Administration managed to acquire a majority of the company's shares and therefore excerpts huge influence over it.
Grand Vizier Mustafa Kemal Pasha examining the newly finished Ankara-Kayseri-Sivas Railway, 1930
The Ankara-Kayseri-Sivas Railway and the Sivas-Samsun Railway were only constructed a few years ago in the 1920s/30s and were never owned by a foreign company, but built from scratch by the State Railways Administration. The Ankara-Kayseri-Sivas Railway finally established a train connection into rural Central Anatolia, which had been a major site of the gruesome Armenian Genocide during the Weltkrieg. Via the Sivas-Samsun Railway, the port city of Samsun by the Black Sea is finally connected to the rest of the Empire. Another railway from Ankara to another Black Sea Port, Zonguldak, is planned, but not realized yet and currently ends at Çankırı.
Sarıkamış railway station, currently the terminus of the Caucasus Railway in Eastern Anatolia. The connection to Sivas is still under construction and will only finish in the next few months.
The Sivas-Kars Railway (commonly referred to as Transanatolian Railway) currently is the most ambitious project of the State Railways Administration. Construction began in the late 20s and aims to establish a stable railway connection between the Anatolian Railway and the far-away Caucasus Railway, which is currently cut off from the rest of the Empire's railroad network and only accessible via the port city of Batum in Lazistan. Rudimentary construction attempts were already made by the Russians during the war and led to the expansion of the Russian Caucasus Railway almost up until Russian-occupied Erzurum, but the February Revolution and the Armistice of Erzincan prevented the continuation of the project. The line will service important cities in Eastern Anatolia such as Divriği, Erzincan, Erzurum and Sarıkamış before reaching Kars, the gateway to the Caucasus.
Hejaz Railway[]
The Hejaz always had been of major importance to the government in Constantinople, mainly due to the fact that the two most holy sites of Islam are located there: The cities of Mecca of Medina. Unfortunately, reaching the Hejaz always had been a difficult endeavour: The harsh desert environment made the construction of modern streets almost impossible, and therefore, government control had always been relatively loose down in the Arabian desert frontier by the Red Sea. This would change with the Railway Boom of the late 19th century.
The Hejaz Railway was a personal desire of Sultan Abdülhamid II; He wanted to portray himself as a strong Caliph who would stand up against foreign powers. Therefore, the construction would only be funded with money sponsored by faithful muslims from all around the world, but not with European loans.
The Ottoman government, who struggled with constant revolts down in Yemen, concluded that the only feasible means of transport for Ottoman soldiers traveling there was by rail. Calls for the construction of a railway in the Hejaz became loud, arguing it would be a necessity if security on the Arab Peninsula was to be maintained. However, the Western Powers were convinced that the Ottoman Empire would not be able to fund such a project: it was estimated the railway would cost around 4 million Turkish lira, a high sum for the constantly bankrupt Ottoman government. Therefore, Sultan Abdülhamid II called on all Muslims in the world to make donations to the construction of the Hejaz Railway; He argued that the construction of a modern railway would make the traditional Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca much more convenient than travelling along the old desert routes.
The Sultan was determined to fund the construction of the railway entirely without European capital (much different to for example the Anatolian or Baghdad Railway) to underline the sovereignty and power of the Sublime Ottoman State. He also wanted to set an example for the Muslim world to demonstrate his power as Caliph all all of Islam. Nonetheless, the construction management of the project still had to be entrusted to foreign engineers due to a lack of local specialists; "Meissner Pasha", a well known German railway engineer, was chosen, mainly because Sultan Abdülhamid had established very close relations with the German Empire, the only European superpower that wasn't opposed to the Sultan's plan of reviving his Empire's former strength on the Arab Peninsula.
Opening of the Hejaz Railway train station in Medina, September 1908
Access to resources was a significant stumbling block during construction of the Hejaz Railway. Water, fuel, and labor were particularly difficult to find in the more remote reaches of the Hejaz. Fuel, mostly in the form of coal, had to be imported from surrounding countries and was stored in Haifa and Damascus. Much of the construction work was completed by soldiers, who in exchange for their railway work were exempt from one third of their military service. Construction of the line began in 1900 and was completed in a record time of only eight years despite enormous difficulties caused by heat, sandstorms and water shortages. The first section of the railway (Damscus - Dara'a - Amman) was already opened in 1903 and the branch line from Haifa to Dara'a (Jezreel Valley Railway, see "Palestine Railways") opened in 1905. The complete line up until Medina was opened in September 1908.
Around the same time, the Empire was struck by the 1908 Young Turk Revolution, ending the autocratic rule of Sultan Abdülhamid II. The new liberal nationalist Young Turk Government was not interested in expanding the line to Mecca anymore, although material for it was already ready; It met continued resistance from local tribes. who feared for their influence and were not willing to give up their income from pilgrims' protection money and commercial transportation. Hussein bin Ali, Sharif of Mecca, viewed the railway as a threat to Arab suzerainty, since it provided the Ottomans with easy access to their garrisons in Hejaz, Asir, and Yemen, and soon, the railway became the target of vandalism. Also, the government wanted to focus their efforts on the Baghdad Railway instead, which was of even higher strategic importance. When political pressure to continue construction eased after the abdication of Sultan Abdülhamid II in 1909, construction of the last section of the Hejaz Railway to Mecca came to a complete halt.
In the early stages of the Weltkrieg, the Hejaz Railway would be used by the Ottoman military for supply transports.
With the beginning of the Weltkrieg in 1914, the Hejaz Railway would once again be the centre of everyone's attention. French-owned private railways in the region, namely the Société Ottomane du Chemin de fer Damas–Hamah et Prolongements (connections between Damascus and Aleppo, Damascus and Beirut, Damascus and Muzayrib & Homs and Tripoli) would be confiscated by the government and integrated into the Hejaz Railway. Additionally, the Hejaz Railway was placed under the control of the army high command, which pushed ahead with the expansion of the railroad in Palestine toward the Suez Canal.
The strategic position of the Hejaz Railway would come back to bite the Ottomans during the Arab Revolt, which started in 1916: The railroad tracks were repeatedly attacked by British and Sharifian troops, making it impossible for the Turks to efficiently transport material southwards. Ottoman trains were often ambushed by guerrilla forces, most prominently the ones of T. E. Lawrence, a British-sent operative working with the local Arabs. From 1917 onwards, the railway would also be bombed by British planes; The Ottomans eventually had to retreat to Nablus in Palestine, and therefore, by late 1918, all of the Hejaz Railway (except the Ottoman garrison of Medina) was under the control of the Entente, where it would remain until the end of the war.
Sharifian troops under Faisal bin Hussein attacking Hejaz Railway tracks near Tabuk, 1917
In April 1920, the Jerusalem Accord would be signed, leading to the withdrawal of all British troops from the Levant. Subsequently, the Hejaz Railway was finally under Ottoman control again. To crush the remnants of the Arab Revolt down in Hejaz, the railway was initially planned to be used to transport troops downwards, but it turned out that the tracks were too heavily damaged. Therefore, Ottoman troops under the lead of Mustafa Kemal Pasha had to march down into Hejaz by foot for one last time; By summer, the revolt had been finally crushed, most of the Hashemite leadership was either dead or exiled and Mecca was lying in ruins.
After the defeat of the revolt, the Hejaz Railway was slowly repaired and was finally fit for use again by 1923. Discussions started about an extension to Mecca, but these plans were postponed due to fiscal difficulties; The Ottoman economy laid in tatters after almost six years of conflict. Only in the late 1920s, with Mustafa Kemal Pasha's OHF government in charge, construction attempts finally started once again. Protests from the local tribal population were ignored this time and Bedouin revolts were suppressed with violence. In 1930, Mecca would be reached and therefore was finally connected to the rest of the Empire by train. Shortly after, a small extension to Jeddah on the Red Sea, the economic capital and home to most of the Ottoman administration in the Hejaz, was added, with the aim to deprive Mecca of political influence by shifting power to the more cooperative urban merchant class of Jeddah. However, one year later, the OHF lost the elections and further construction plans were put on ice for the time being.
In 1935, Mustafa Kemal Pasha was once again appointed Grand Vizier after two prior governments had collapsed; Since then, discussions about the extension of the Hejaz Railway have started once again. The OHF, concerned with the still increased autonomy in Yemen, plans to extend the railway up until Al Hudaydah, with the hope to establish closer government control on the other side of the Sarawat Mountains and project government influence on the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait, now that British presence in the region has effectively ceased to exist. As this proposal surely would cost high amounts of capital once again, it is nothing more than a dream of the future as of right now.
Other Railway Connections[]
The famous Orient Express in 1934, Europe's most iconic luxury express line.
The Oriental Railway (formerly known as the Chemins de fer Orientaux and owned by French/German shareholders) was established in 1870 and operates exclusively in the European part of the Empire; Formerly stretching up until Belgrade, the Balkan Wars have limited the Ottoman European territories to Thrace, therefore government control over the railway ends at the Bulgarian border town of Svilengrad.
The Oriental Railway is one of the two railways operating into Istanbul (via Sirkeci railway station), along with the Anatolian Railway. To this day, the railway is one of the most important railroad lines of the Balkans, hosting famous passenger trains such as the legendary Orient Express and establishing a stable connection to Continental Europe: Via the Oriental Railway, important capital cities such as Sofia, Belgrade, Budapest, Vienna, Berlin and Paris can be reached. Like with the Anatolian Railway, the Ottoman government has acquired a majority of the formerly European-held shares in the 1920s.
Passenger trains for foreign tourists have become a common sight on the old Adana–Mersin Railway in pittoresque Cilicia.
The Adana–Mersin Railway, established in 1886, is a formerly French, British and German-owned railroad track in Cilicia, connecting the Mediterranean port city of Mersin with Tarsus and Adana, two important trading and industry hubs in Southern Anatolia. Like with the Anatolian Railway and the Oriental Railway, the Ottoman government has acquired a majority of the formerly European-held shares in the 1920s, making it the principal shareholder. Nowadays, the railway line is attached to the Baghdad Railway and therefore finally connected to the rest of the Empire's railroad network and an important touristic route.
Train decorated with Ottoman flags arriving at Narlı station near Pazarcık (midway between Antep and Maraş) in 1932, commemorating the glorious Battles of Antep and Maraş 14 years prior.
The Adana-Diyarbakır Railway is one of the most recent projects of the State Railways Administration and finally established a modern railway connection into the untamed plains of Southeastern Anatolia, especially into the majority Kurdish Diyarbakir & Van Vilayets. Attempts to establish the line were already made in 1912, but only reached the city of Fevzipaşa near Antep. Work was only continued in the 1930s and now finally connects Adana with the city of Diyarbakır at the Tigris river, serving cities such as Pazarcık, Malatya and Elazığ on the way. An expansion up until Kurtalan or Van via Bismil and Batman is still in its early planning stage.
Foreign-owned railways[]
Baghdad Railway[]
By the late 19th century the Ottoman Empire was at the absolute lowest point of its entire history: Cheap imports from industrialized Europe and the effects of the disastrous Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878 had left the once mighty Empire bankrupt, humiliated and dependent on foreign powers. The country's finances were controlled by the Ottoman Public Debt Administration, composed of and answerable to the Great Powers. The Europeans saw great potential to exploit the resources of the weakening Empire - but to do that, modern infrastructure was needed.
Construction plan of the Baghdad Railway.
In the 1870s, the Ottoman government retained German railway engineers to develop plans for railways in Anatolia and Mesopotamia. However, private enterprises were not willing not build the railways without subsidies, so the Ottoman Government had to reserve part of its revenues to financially support its construction, thus increasing its debt to the European powers. The process of constructing a rail line from Constantinople to Baghdad began during 1888 when Alfred von Kaulla, manager of Württembergische Vereinsbank, and Georg von Siemens, Managing director of Deutsche Bank, created a syndicate and obtained a concession from Turkish government officials to extend the Haydarpaşa – İzmit railway to Ankara: The aforementioned Anatolian Railway. The line would later be expanded to Konya and was completed in 1896.
Georg von Siemens as a railway attendant of the Baghdad Railway: Caricature of the Lustige Blätter from 1900. The caption: "Full steam ahead to Baghdad! Clear the way for the German cultural work in the Orient!"
Konya was chosen as the starting point of the Baghdad Railway and the terminus of the Anatolian Railway. Construction started around the turn of the century and once again, the construction concession was awarded to the German bank syndicate; Similar well-financed plans by Russian, British and French companies had been rejected, fearing it would strengthen said countries' geopolitical influence in Constantinople. Many European powers would be concerned about the fact that Germany had been allowed to construct the railway; the German scheme to construct a great Berlin-Baghdad Railway became apparent. A railway that would link Berlin to the Persian Gulf would provide Germany with a connection to its southernmost colonies in Africa and would have shifted the balance of power in the region drastically.
To appease the British and Russians, the Germans and Ottomans entered into negotiations with them and came to an agreement shortly before the Weltkrieg: No lines would be planned into Kurdish or Armenian areas in Eastern Anatolia and British trade influence in Mesopotamia would be protected by giving them a monopoly on steamship liners in the Persian Gulf and recognizing southern Mesopotamia, as well as central and southern Persia, as the exclusive field of operations of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company.
"Meissner Pasha", a highly-respected German railway engineer responsible for the construction of the Baghdad Railway, the Hejaz Railway and several Palestinian military railways during the Weltkrieg.
Alongside the German banks, the main sponsor of the railway project was the German government, mainly because of the aforementioned great value the railway posed to German imperialist ambitions. Prestigious German companies such as Philipp Holzmann AG, Krupp AG, Borsig, Sächsische Maschinenfabrik, Hanomag, Henschel & Son and Maffei were invited to supply high-quality building material and locomotives and the construction was overseen by "Meissner Pasha", one of Germany's leading railway engineers. The railway was supposed to pass through the following cities: Konya - Karaman - Ereğli - Yenice - Adana - Rajo - Aleppo - Tall Abyad - Nusaybin - Mosul - Baghdad - Basra.
However, war began on 1 August 1914, and all prior plans and agreements were thrown into disarray. By 1915, the railway ended some 80 kilometres east of Diyarbakır. Another spur, heading east from Aleppo, ended at Nusaybin. Additional rails were laid starting in Baghdad reaching north to Tikrit and south to Kut. This left a gap of some 480 kilometres between the railway lines. Also, there were three mountains which the railway was supposed to go through, but the tunnels through these three mountains were not completed yet. So the railway was, in fact, broken into four different sections at the start of the war - and therefore practically unusable. The total time to get from Constantinople to Baghdad during the war was 22 days.
The "Berlin-Bagdad-Bahn" was an important part of anti-German British propaganda during the war; The British feared that the railway would undermine their own interests in the Middle East in the long-term.
The gaps in the railway meant that the Ottoman government had significant difficulties in sending supplies and reinforcements to the Mesopotamian Front; The British had already advanced deep into Ottoman territory. During the conflict, Turkish and German workers, together with Allied prisoners of war, laboured to complete the railway for military purposes but with limited manpower and so many more important things to spend money on, only two of the gaps were closed. From 1915 on, the railway was also used for the deportation of Armenian women and children as part of the Armenian Genocide: The railroad was deployed to deport hundred thousands of Armenians into the Syrian Desert, where they would be sent on harsh death marches which would cost innumerable lives; This period is considered to be one of the darkest chapters of Ottoman history.
In general, the whole German vision of the "Berlin-Bagdad-Bahn" did not really work out; German trains were not able to reach the Ottoman Empire until 1916, as the train tracks passed through the hostile Serbia, already cutting off the railway connection on the Balkans. Only when Bulgaria entered the war on the side of the Central Powers in October 1915, Serbia fell to invading Austro-Hungarian and Bulgarian troops and a stable railway connection to Anatolia was finally given once again. Nonetheless, the Baghdad Railway saw not very frequent use in the later stages of the Weltkrieg; Most railway transport was centered between Berlin and Constantinople, while the Baghdad Railway would be primarily used for the aforementioned deportations and Turkish supply transports to Mesopotamia.
During the war, the Baghdad Railway would be used to deport hundred thousands of Armenians into the Syrian desert, where they would be left to starve or forced to do hard labour.
By late 1919, the war was over, and yet, many Ottoman territories found themselves under British occupation and the Empire in general was close to collapse. In April 1920, the Jerusalem Accord would be signed; While it introduced a seemingly stable geopolitical solution for the future of the Middle East, it would severely complicate the continuation of the Baghdad Railway - most prominently the planned expansion to Basra, as the Basra Vilayet now, according to Article III of the Jerusalem Accord, was an "autonomous territory for the Assyrian people", with "Ottoman troops [...] forbidden to enter the autonomy" and "security [...] guaranteed by British forces".
The British had already constructed their own military railroad tracks during their occupation of Mesopotamia; These tracks would be transformed into proper passenger tracks and vastly expanded throughout 1920 and 1921. A connection between Nasiriyah and Basra was established and expanded northwards up until Samawa. Only in the mid-1920s, negotiations between the Ottoman government, the British & Assyrian authorities in Basra and the German construction companies led to the continuation of the Baghdad Railway down to Basra; In 1924, the first train from Constantinople arrived at Basra train station without interruptions in two days. Shortly after, the British Revolution and the collapse of the British Empire led to the withdrawal of the British from the Middle East to British India and the Basra Autonomy was revoked.
British passenger train operating in the Assyrian autonomy at Basra Vilayet, 1921
However, the Jerusalem Accord not only established autonomous zones in Mesopotamia and Palestine, but also severely worsened German-Ottoman diplomatic relations: Germany had betrayed her former ally both on the Caucasus Conference of late 1919 and during the Jerusalem Accord negotiations and anti-German sentiment was on an all-time high, especially with the Young Turk Triumvirate ousted, Mehmed VI in power and war minister Mustafa Kemal Pasha dismissing the German military mission under Otto Liman von Sanders. As a result, the German government withdrew its financial support for the Baghdad Railway, leaving the Ottomans with all the costs. Only after the German construction companies were given the assurance that any additional investments beyond the earmarked budget would be reimbursed by the Ottoman Empire, construction continued. By 1926, when a small expansion of the line from Basra to the Sheikdom of Kuwait, formerly only accessible via ship or caravan, was added, the Baghdad Railway was finally completed after more than 25 years.
Ottoman train approaching Basra, 1935. Nowadays, the railway is mostly used for regular cargo and passenger transport; The dream of the old "Berlin-Baghdad Railway" has become a thing of the past since Germany's emergence as the global power player during the mid-1920s.
As of 1936, the Baghdad Railway stands as one of the last remnants of the former German-Ottoman friendship. Despite still being one of the most important pieces of infrastructure in the Middle East, its strategic importance has gradually declined over the last few years and its original purpose as the German gateway to the Indian Ocean never came to be; With the collapse of the British Empire, many former British colonies fell under temporary German occupation and the internationalization of the Suez Canal following the 1925 Suez Crisis led to Germany gaining a permanent indirect military presence in the Mediterranean Sea; The Berlin-Baghdad Railway is simply not needed anymore, as Germany has access to plenty of other routes to reach their far-flung colonies. The times when Germany was an isolated Great Power and constantly contained by Russia, Britain and France are long over.
Caucasus Railway[]
The history of the Ottoman Caucasus Railway begins with the Russian-constructed Transcaucasus Railway in 1865, the first railway in the Southern Caucasus. It was funded by the Russian Empire as a strategic railway connecting the Black Sea to the Caspian Sea and was crucial to transport troops from Central Asia to Europe. The railway started in 1865 at the port town of Poti on the Black Sea, connecting the city of T'bilisi via Zestafoni and Kutaisi. In 1883 the railway was completed to Baku.
Russian railway lines in the Caucasus and Southern Russia as of 1914 (marked in black)
After the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878, the Russian Empire was awarded the formerly Ottoman territories of Kars and Batum; Subsequently, a branch line from T'blisi to Kars, a strategic city for the Russians in Anatolia, was constructed in 1899. A year later, another expansion to Batum was finished. Soon, the Transcaucasus Railway was connected to the rest of the Russian railroad system via the city of Petrovsk.
In 1913 the railway was extended from Kars to Sarıkamış, very close to the Ottoman border; The Russians already suspected that there would be conflict in the future, and they were correct: One year later, the Weltkrieg broke out and fighting began in Eastern Anatolia. By early 1916, Russia had gained control of the Ottoman city of Erzurum. To support campaigns further into Ottoman territory, a 750 mm gauge railway was built from Sarıkamış to Erzurum throughout 1916 and 1917. However, due to the Russian Revolution and the Armistice of Erzincan of 1917, the Russians had to retreat and give up most of the railway to the Transcaucasian Commissariat and the approaching Turks.
Map of the projected Kars-Julfa-Baku Railway following the Treaty of Batum, June 1918
Transcaucasia would collapse under the pressure of the Ottoman invasion of early 1918 and the Treaty of Batum would be signed in May. The Turks had major plans for the future of the Caucasus, but for these plans, control over the precious Transcaucasus Railway was required. However, the largest chunk of the railway was under control of the newly-established Republic of Georgia - and therefore in the hands of the Germans, who had signed the Treaty of Poti with Georgia in late May 1918, which granted Germany control over all railway connections on Georgian territory. Therefore, the Turks launched their very own railway in the Caucasus: The Kars-Julfa-Baku Railway.
Instead of passing the Caucasus via Georgia and Northern Azerbaijan, the Ottomans envisioned a railway line which would lead through Nakhchivan, Zangezur, Karabakh and Southern Azerbaijan towards Baku; This would bypass the German railway lines in Georgia and would nonetheless enable the Turks to reach Baku, which at that time was still under Bolshevik-aligned control. Baku would be captured by Ottoman & Azerbaijani troops in September and the construction of the railway line would begin in early 1919; It was praised by the Ottoman leadership in Constantinople as the first step towards Turkish-Azerbaijani cooperation in the Caucasus and an important measure to reaffirm Ottoman leadership in the region after decades of humiliation by the Russians.
Situation in the Caucasus after the Caucasus Conference in Constantinople, November 1918
However, of course things would turn out differently than originally planned. The Germans slowly entrenched their military presence in the Caucasus, not willing to make concessions to the Turkish, and tensions threatened to boil over between the two allies throughout 1919. When the war was over in November 1919, the Caucasus Conference was called in, with the goal to find a peaceful solution in the Caucasus; In reality however, Germany's goal on the conference was to sway Azerbaijan to join the German sphere of influence due to the precious Baku oil fields. Germany won the Azeris over by promising large amounts of economic investment and granting them all of Azerbaijan’s claimed territory - including the Armenian-held Zangezur and Karabakh, the Georgian-held Zaqatala and the Ottoman-held Nakhchivan. Azerbaijan was appeased by this and joined the German sphere, greatly angering the Ottomans.
Modern locomotive operating on the Turkish Caucasus Railway, early 1930s
The Caucasus Conference rendered the Ottoman dreams of renewed imperialism impossible: Similar to Georgia, most of Azerbaijan's infrastructure was now under German control as well. Nonetheless, Constantinople continued with the construction of the Kars-Julfa-Baku Railway in mid-1920. But things would soon get even worse: As a result of the Caucasus Conference, Armenia had been divided between all of its neighbors - which led to violent Armenian resistance movements emerging in the Southern Caucasus. Attacks on Turkish and Azeri citizens became a common sight and foreign-owned infrastructure was badly damaged. Additionally, the increasingly harsh winters of Zangezur and Karabakh made the construction efforts lengthy, inefficient and expensive. Real progress could only be made in the middle of the decade, and Baku would only be reached in 1930.
Baku railway station, the most important traffic junction in the Caucasus: Both German (Poti-Tblisi-Baku), Ottoman (Kars-Julfa-Baku) and Russian (Petrovsk-Baku) trains service the station.
Overall, the construction of the Kars-Julfa-Baku Railway is considered to be a disaster by the Ottoman public, an eternal sinkhole of costs; However, the government still defends it as a crucial mean of guaranteeing Ottoman sovereignty in the Caucasus. Without the Kars-Julfa-Baku Railway, the Turks' only connection to Azerbaijan would be the Kars–Gyumri–Tbilisi Railway, which leads into the German-owned portion of the Transcaucasus Railway and therefore would make Ottoman cargo and passenger transport in the Caucasus reliant on Germany's goodwill.
As of 1936, the Caucasus Railway is split into three parts: Most of the Georgian and Azerbaijani sections are in German hands, with the Kars-Julfa-Baku Railway, the Kars–Gyumri–Tbilisi Railway (at least up until Achalkalaki) and a small section of the Transcaucasus Railway from Batum to Samtredia being in possession of the Sublime Ottoman State. The connection between Baku and Petrovsk (and therefore Russia proper) remains in the hands of the Russian Republican State Railways, formerly the Imperial Russian Transcaucasian State Railway. With rising tensions in the Caucasus due to a slowly emerging Russia to the north, conflict in the region seems inevitable in the future, and the Caucasus Railway will surely play an important role in a future armed confrontation: Whoever owns the Caucasus Railway, can be considered the true master of the Caucasian Mountains.
Palestine Railways[]
Jerusalem Railway Station with British-built locomotives in the early 1900s
The history of the Palestine Railways began in the 1890s, when European and Ottoman Jews financed the construction of a railway line between Jerusalem and the coastal commune of Jaffa. The project proved to be a success, and when British, French and German industrialists began to construct railway lines in nearby Syria around the turn of the century, the railway in Palestine would be expanded as well: The Jezreel Valley Railway was finished in 1905, connecting Haifa to the Hejaz Railway via Beysan and Daraa. In the early 1910s, the railway would be connected to Acre and, via Afula, to Nablus in Central Palestine.
During the Weltkrieg, the southward connection became essential for supplying the troops in the Sinai Peninsula, so from January 1915, the railway was expanded to Tulkarm, Lydda and Beersheba. Due to the severe lack of modern infrastructure in the Middle East during the war, the few railways in the region were of vital strategic importance to the Ottomans. The Jezreel Valley Railway, as well as the entire Hejaz line, was quickly taken over by the army and civilian use was reduced to a bare minimum. However, the Turks had to retreat in late 1917/early 1918 and most of the railways in Palestine fell under British control; The British would soon connect their own military railway line, the Sinai Railway, with the Palestinian one via Rafah. For the first time, there was a stable train connection from El Qantara at the Suez Canal to Palestine, which on the other hand was connected to the other railways of the Ottoman Empire via the Hejaz Railway.
British military locomotive during the Weltkrieg, entering Palestine via the Al Qantara - Rafah connection
In the following months, the British would prop up the small train station of Lydda as the most important railway junction in the Levant: Connections to Jaffa, Jerusalem, Chadera and Haifa were established. Soon, trains were able to reach Jerusalem from Cairo in British Egypt. In late 1918, the Megiddo Offensive was launched, bringing all of Palestine and Syria under British control; By the end of 1918, the British controlled all of the Jezreel Valley Railway. Many more minor extensions were built, mostly close to Haifa, and served mainly industrial and military needs.
Over the course of 1919, the British would slowly retreat back to the Allenby Line at Nablus; Therefore, the Palestine Railway was now split between the Turks and the British (with the Ottomans having control over the Jezreel Valley Railway and the tracks around Haifa and Chadera and the British having control over the Lydda railway junction and the Jerusalem-Jaffa connection) and were almost completely unusable, as the Ottomans were not able to use their locomotives on the newly established British tracks due to conflicting track gauges. The situation would remain unclear until early 1920: Then, the Jerusalem Accord would be signed, leading to the establishment of an international zone in Palestine: The Mutasarrifate of Jerusalem.
Mid-1920s map of the railway system in Palestine and Transjordan; The borders of the MOJ are marked in blue. Since the 1920s, the railway network has remained largely unchanged.
With the creation of the MOJ, Palestine was split in two, and therefore the railway lines were as well. Originally, the Allenby Line was agreed to be the northern boundary of the MOJ (Jaffa - Jericho), but the borders were slightly altered to include the urban communes north of Jaffa as well, up until Mount Carmel. Haifa however would not be included. As a result, the Jezreel Valley Railway would remain part of the Beirut Vilayet and would later be fully acquired by the Ottoman government, while all other railway connections fell under control of the international mandate.
Railway organization within the MOJ would soon be centralized. The Jaffa – Jerusalem Railway, legally the property of the French Société du Chemin de Fer Ottoman de Jaffa à Jérusalem et Prolongements company, but seized by the Ottoman government in 1914, was bought by the newly-established international council. All formerly Ottoman-owned railways were put under international jurisdiction as well, but as the Ottomans were part of the mandate's council, all Ottoman shareholders would keep their stakes. The old British and Turkish military railway lines would be opened to public transport and the gauges would be finally standardized. Additionally, all of these railways were put under the administration of one mandate-owned company: The Palestine Railways (PR), a British-American-German-Turkish-Austrian-Hungarian-owned enterprise.
First class luxury locomotive with European tourists arriving at Jerusalem railway station, 1935
From 1920 PR developed a daily Jaffa – El Qantara mixed traffic service. European travel logistics companies provided restaurant and sleeping cars three days per week until 1923, when this luxury service was increased to daily. However, passenger traffic declined significantly in the 1920s and 30s; The competition from increasing numbers of private cars reduced first-class and then second-class passenger traffic, such that by 1934, 95% of remaining passengers were third-class. The global Great Depression caused by the NYSE crash and the Austrian Creditanstalt Crisis as well as rising political tensions in the Levant due to the increasingly nationalist rhetoric of the Sultanate of Egypt badly affected tourist traffic, from which the PR still suffers today. Following the 1925 Suez Crisis and the incorporation of the Suez Canal Zone and Sinai peninsula into the MOJ, the Sinai Railway and the El Qantara train station are under the PR's administration as well.