RAI restores one of US-struck tracks; second to reopen within hours
The head of the state railway company announced on Friday that one of the two railway tracks damaged in the latest US attacks was fixed and resumed passenger train services on the Tehran-Mashhad route, while repairs to the second track were expected to be completed within hours.
According to Tasnim news agency, Jabbar Ali Zakari, chief executive of the Railways of the Islamic Republic of Iran (RAI), said technical and operational teams were deployed immediately to Torbat station after US attacks early on Thursday targeted railway infrastructure in the provinces of Golestan and Khorasan Razavi.
"They managed the transfer of passengers to and from the holy city of Mashhad using buses and railbuses," Zakari said.
"In less than 15 hours, one of the two railway tracks on the Tehran-Mashhad route was successfully rebuilt and returned to service," he said.
Zakari said that reconstruction of the second track was continuing and was expected to be completed within hours.
Meanwhile, Ali Qanbarzadeh, the RAI’s public relations director, told ISNA on Friday that the attacks hit the Torbat-e Heydarieh section in Khorasan Razavi Province and the Aq Qala area in the northeast.
Fars news agency reported that the United States targeted the Aq-Tekeh Khan railway bridge near Aq Qala in Golestan Province on the Incheh Borun-Garmsar railway line with cruise missiles early on Thursday. The agency said the attack caused no casualties.
According to Fars, the bridge lies on the China-Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan-Incheh Borun transport corridor, which enters Iran through its northeastern border before running from Gorgan to Tehran. The route forms part of China's Belt and Road Initiative and the eastern branch of the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC).
Fars said Russia had been shipping goods through the route since last November, while freight traffic from China had tripled.