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ROAD – RAIL – URBAN TRANSPORT

EuroMed Regional Transport Project: Road, Rail and Urban Transport (RRU)

Symposium on Transport

Ramallah, 13 14 February 2013‐

Supporting Palestine’s future rail network

George EmmanoulopoulosKey Expert Rail Transport

Ministry of Transport

Why Railways?

We must support the creation of a modern railway network in Palestine, because the railways are the most environmental friendly, efficient and safest land transport mode and will relieve road traffic in the future.

EUROMED RRU project: Conclusions for Rail Transport from the National

Workshop, Ramallah, June 2012

Although the State of Palestine does not have railways, a master plan has been conducted for creating a rail network, to connect to the Arab world via Jordan and Egypt Links. In this context, it was suggested to cover rail transport in this Symposium.

History of railways in Palestine

Cross border rail traffic for goods and passengers existed with Egypt prior to 1967 war.

No railway in operation in Palestine, as the old Al Hijaz Railway was destroyed and is not functioning now, but the ‘rights of way’ of the track still exist for a couple of hundred Kms.

Current plans

The planned railway network is 630 km . Palestine railway network, will be capable of handling intermodal transport (e.g. containers). There are plans to develop cross border rail traffic for goods and passengers with Egypt, Jordan and Israel.

Once the planned railway is executed, the MoT would look for international experienced companies to operate trains. Charging policy for access to rail infrastructure for third parties (e.g. operation of block trains) will be introduced when the network will be realized.

The strong points & the weak points for the case of Palestine railways are:

The strong points are: • The existence of the rights of way of the Hejaz Railway• The existence of master plan for the railway network, especially

with neighboring countries• Availability of land for the railway infrastructure• Accession to the Convention for railways in the Arab MashreqThe weak points are :• The lack of laws and regulations and the lack of funding.• The MOT believes that there are opportunities for the

development of rail and consider as main problem/threat for rail development in the future, the occupation.

Railways International Agreements signed - UN ESCWA

*The Agreement on International Railways in the Arab Mashreq is aligned with UIC and Trans-European Railway Network specifications in its Annex II "Schedule of Technical Specifications for Rail Network". More specifically it includes the Specification No. UIC Code 700 (0), 1987, entitled “Classification of lines and resulting load limits for wagons”and Specification No. UIC Code 702 (0), 1974, entitled “Loading diagram to be taken into consideration for the calculation of rail carrying structures on lines used by international services”.

•Palestine is an active member country of ESCWA since 1975 and•Has signed the UN ESCWA Agreement on International Railways in the Arab Mashreq*, on 14 March 2003 and ratified it on 28 November 2006.

Arab Railway Network Study

The Arab Fund for Economic & Social Development, Kuwait , has financed the Arab Railway Network Study, which was conducted by Italferr & Dar Al Omran

Objectives were to integrate all existing rail infrastructure, define missing links and needs for upgrading, suggest implementation schedule

Arab Railway Network Study Arab Core Railway Network (Macro Axes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6)

Arab Railway Network Study Railway Network for Palestine

Arab Core Railway Network: The Rail projects of Palestine are in second and third priority

ProjectN. Country From To Macro

AxisLength[km]

28 Egypt Palestine Bir el Abd Gazah-Beitanoun 2 174

40 Jordan Palestine Irbid Tarquimiya 3 314

Through the foreseen Jordanian rail network, Palestine may connect in the future to the railways of Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iraq . This network will create a new trade corridor linking the region’s countries, with Europe through Syria – Turkey. Through Egypt, Palestine will connect to North African Arab countries.

Density of population and related passenger and freight movements

Area: West Bank : 5,860 km2, Gaza strip: 360km2

Population: West Bank 2,622,544 (July 2012 est.), Gaza strip 1,710,257 (July 2012 est.)

Exports: ) $666.1 million (2010 est.) Exports - commodities: stone, olives, fruit,

vegetables, limestoneImports: $4.319 billion (2010 est.)

Imports - commodities: food, consumer goods, construction

materials, petroleum, chemicalsLow GDP per capita supporting PT use

Important indicators to consider, related to generation of passenger and freight

transportation, for which railways can cater

Related TA activities of MEDA MOSII project to be considered : Gaza Seaport project & Logistic Efficiency Improvement Study

• Gaza Seaport: Studies conducted and funds found, but since 2007, lack of progress, thus need for bonded areas

• Currently no functional Palestinian airport or seaport, imports and exports pass through Israel airports and seaport, or via the international borders with Jordan and Egypt, a process resulting to considerable delays and incuring heavy costs.

• The bonded areas and the logistics improvements could boost the Palestinian economy. TA for develop the logistic flows of major logistic activities for the overland import and export traffic from seaport to / from destination / origin through:– Haifa to/from West Bank – Include two Crossing Points– Ashdod to/from West Bank– Include two Crossing Points– West Bank to/from Jordan via King Hussein Bridge (KHB) Crossing Point– West Bank to/from Jordan Aqaba Seaport via KHB Crossing Point– West Bank using other potential Crossing-Points

Summary : what Palestine needs in railways

Connect the two parts of population of the State of Palestine with a dedicated link.

Connect the port of Gaza to West Bank and develop Dry port at West Bank.

Organize the Authority to work on setting up the Railways and related laws

Connect with the transport networks of the other neighboring countries (Jordan, Egypt).

Develop passenger railway network in the two parts, connecting the population centers.

Summary: what the neighbors do in railways

Egypt has extended rail network , huge passenger rail transport , lower freight transport, lot of accidents recently

Jordan has only one line operating for phosphates to Aqaba and has a mature plan to revitalize railways

Israel has 1100 kms of lines with an ongoing expansion plan and quite high passenger ridership for the size of population and the network, cooperation with IRS might be beneficial

Lebanon has also concrete plans to revitalize its railway

Case: TA from RFF to Jordan to organise the Railways

• Jordan has got TA from RFF (France’s rail infrastructure manager) between 2010 and 2011 (“Assistance for creation of a railway network”) in the following areas:

• technical aspects: review of the technical proposals for the national rail network, delivery of design specifications for the track;

• organisational aspects: assistance in establishing the structures of the bodies to be in charge of the national project and the different flows, assistance in determining the functions within these public bodies, proposals as regards the training to be dispensed to their staff;

• legal aspects: assistance in working out the legal framework and drafting the contractual clauses to be signed between the public bodies and the private firms commissioned to build or operate the network.

Actions needed for setting up the railway in Palestine in organizational and institutional level

• Laws for rail infrastructure and operation.• Establish railway organization for developing and

managing the rail infrastructure• Adoption of relevant International technical

standards for railways • Decide who will operate the trains (dual structure)• Join more international bodies for railways(UIC etc)• Sign later, international agreements for railways

(OTIF, CIT)

Possible TA actions for Palestine railway, from Euromed RRU project

Coordinate joint workshop of State of Palestine with Jordan

and Lebanon to know, how they set up/ revitalize their railways, steps taken, with

participation of international experts from UIC

TA in developing legislation and proposing new policies,

laws, by-laws and institutional structuring. In coordination

and with input from the MoT ,the KE may prepare a

concept paper about it.

For capacity building the participation of two high

ranked officials from the State of Palestine, related to

railways, to the ETCR seminar, 1-12 July 2013, Bruges, is

foreseen.

Participation is also foreseen for the study tour in 2014 to

European railways.

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Tel/Fax : +216 71 234 098Email : euromedrru@gmail.com

ROAD – RAIL – URBAN TRANSPORT

Thank you for your attention