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Jordan Railroads
Jordan had 619 kilometers of single-track narrow gauge (1.05
meters) railroad tracks. The main system was the Hedjaz-Jordan
Railway, part of the old Ottoman-era Hijaz Railway that had once
connected Istanbul and the Arabian Peninsula. It ran north-south
through the length of the country, and lay thirty kilometers east
of the Desert Highway. Newer spur and branch lines constituted the
Al Aqabah Railway Corporation, and connected Al Aqabah's port and
mines to the main north-south axis. Both railroad entities came
under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Transportation. The newer
system was used almost exclusively for transport of phosphates from
the mines at Al Hasa and Wadi al Abyad to Al Aqabah. In 1987, about
2.6 million tons of freight and 20,000 passengers were conveyed by
rail. Rolling stock included 26 locomotives and 600 freight,
passenger, and tanker cars. The government envisioned in the late
1980s upgrading capacity to 4.5 million tons a year.
Data as of December 1989
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