Tripoli train station
back ‘on track’

Turkey plans to renovate century-old transport system

The Turkish General Directorate of Monuments and Museums has signed a collaboration protocol with the General Directorate of Railways and Public Transport with the goal to renovate the train station at Tripoli.

Turkey will provide technical assistance to renovate the station, which it considers a historical Ottoman monument.

“The Ministry of Public Works and Transport will not receive any amount from Turkey,” said Ziad Nasr, Director of the General Directorate. “The cost of the project will be studied.”

When the study is done, the one-year renovation will be assigned to a Turkish contractor.

The train station in Tripoli was built by the Ottomans in 1911. It stopped running in 1975 when the Civil War broke out.

The Cabinet, in 2014, approved a project to restore the railway linking Tripoli to Abboudiyeh, on the northern border, at a cost of $25 million.

It tasked the Council for Development and Reconstruction (CDR) with conducting a feasibility study and to search for grants and funds to carry out the project. The study has been finalized and the Directorate is awaiting the Cabinet’s approval to launch the tender.

The 25 km railway will be linked, at a later stage, to the Arab railway network passing through Syria, Iraq, and Turkey. It will first be used to transport cargo, then passengers.

“This project should be a top priority for the next Cabinet, considering the major opportunities that it will provide for Tripoli and the vicinity,” Nasr said. “The project should start today so that when the crisis is over in Syria, the railway would be ready for linking.”