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Rail transport in Iraq

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJun 4, 2026
Entity authorityQ60987335
Source-derived summary

Rail transport in Iraq is owned and operated by the state-owned Iraqi Republic Railways.

The network comprises 2,272 kilometres (1,412 mi) of 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge. It has one international interchange, with Syrian Railways at Rabiya. The system runs from Rabiya southward through Mosul, Baiji, and Baghdad to Basra, with a branch line from Shouaiba Junction (near Basra) to the ports of Khor Az Zubair and Umm Qasr, westward from Baghdad through Ramadi and Haqlaniya to Al-Qa'im and Husayba, with a branch line from Al-Qa'im to Akashat, and east–west from Haqlaniya through Bayji to Kirkuk.

Network

Current routes

IRR Southern Line

The IRR Southern Line, also known as the Baghdad–Basra Railway Line, is the only fully operational rail route in Iraq. It stretches 550 kilometres to Basra Al Maqal railway station and has a branch line to Karbala and another one from Shoeyba Junction to Um Qasr.

IRR Northern Line

The IRR Northern Line connects the capital of Baghdad with the northern city of Mosul and then to the international interchange at Rabiyaa. The line is currently in reconstruction. A daily commuter train currently connects Baghdad and Samarra, with an extra train on Fridays for pilgrims.

IRR Western Line

The Line connects Baghdad to the phosphate mining village of Akashat.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Rail transport in Iraq” as open-knowledge reference entry. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current 214-word lead offers orientation but no explicit four-digit date, so chronology should not be assumed. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. The account is most persuasive where Rail, transport and Iraq can be independently traced.
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Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as open-knowledge reference entry. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 4, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q60987335.

Critical limits

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Rail transport in Iraq” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.