Mashhad Urban Railway

Mashhad Urban Railway

Overview
Native name	قطار شهری مشهد
Owner	Mashhad Municipality
Locale	Mashhad, Razavi Khorasan, Iran
Transit type	Rapid transit
Number of lines	5 1 Line operational, 2 Lines under construction(Line 2 partially operational), 1 other planned[1]
Number of stations	30
Daily ridership	130,000 (August 2015)[2]
Website	Mashhad Urban Railway Corp. Mashhad Urban Railway Operation Co.
Operation
Began operation	12 March 2011
Operator(s)	Mashhad Urban Railways Org.
Headway	5 minutes[3]
Technical
System length	32 km (19.9 mi)[4]
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) standard gauge
System map

The Mashhad Urban Railway (Persian: قطار شهری مشهد‎‎, the literal translation of the name from Persian) is a rapid transit urban rail line in Mashhad, Iran. It is the second rapid transit system in Iran.^[5] The project has been known by a number of terms, including "light rail", "light metro", "urban rail", and "metro",^[6][7][8] though the system's full grade-separation from traffic and five-minute headway fully qualify it as a rapid transit or "metro" system. The Mashhad Urban Railway operates its single line from 6 to 22:00 daily.^[3] Construction of second line which is a metro line is ongoing. Limited Operation of the first phase of line 2 with 8 kilometers and 6 stations(Skipping 1 station) has just began in Feb 2017.

Construction of line 1 began in 1999,^[9] with the inauguration of Line 1 taking place on 24 April 2011.^[8]

Network

Pictogramme

Typical Station Sign in the System

Line 1

The 19.5 kilometres (12.1 mi), 22 station Line 1 was the first line to be built – it opened for service on 24 April 2011.^[8] Line 1 runs between Nakhrisi in the east and Vakilabad in the southwest, with travel time of 41 min. Approximately half the route is in underground - the rest is at ground level.

Line 1 Expansion

Expansion of Line 1 added 4.5 kilometres (2.8 mi) of underground railroads and 2 stations (Reyhane and HashemiNezhadAirport), connecting Mashhad International Airport to the Mashhad Urban Railway. Line 1 reached a total of 24 stations (13 underground, 11 on-ground) with 24 kilometres (15 mi) of track (15.5 kilometres (9.6 mi) in tunnels, 8.5 kilometres (5.3 mi) on-ground), and a ridership capacity of 170,000 passengers per day, along with daily operation between 6 AM and 10 PM.^[10] Also making Mashhad the first city in Iran to have a Metro system connected to an Airport.^[11]

Line 2

A further Line 2 will be a conventional heavy metro, running north-south for 14.5 kilometres (9.0 mi) km between Koohsangi and Tabarsi with 13 stations, Excavation was done by two tunnel boring machines. From Feb 2017 limited Operation of the first phase of line 2 with 8 kilometers and 7 stations(skipping 1 station) has began from 6 AM to 1 PM.

Line 3

Line 3's construction has begun,^[12] with T.B.Ms doing the excavation.^[13] Currently more than 4.5 kilometers excavation has been finished.

Further Development

At least two additional lines are planned.^[1][9][14] Line 4 with 17.5 kilometers length has been approved and first phase study is under progress. a monorail ring belt around the city with 46 kilometers length is under study.

Rolling stock

A fleet of 60low-floor LRVs was ordered from Chinese Changchun Railway Vehicles^[15] for line 1. These mark the first time that light rail vehicles have been exported to a customer outside China.^[16]

A fleet of 100 Metro trains has been ordered to CNR. 85 of them will be assembled in Iran By TWM.

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Mashhad Metro.

• Mashad Urban Railway Corp