train Archives - Iran News Daily

Train Crash near Prague Left 1 Dead, Dozens Injured

reporter 1222 — Wed, 15 Jul 2020 12:52:35 +0000

TEHRAN (Iran News) – A train driver died and dozens of passengers were injured when a passenger train collided with a stationary freight train near Prague, a Czech minister and rescuers said on Wednesday.

“Unfortunately… I have learned there is one dead due to the crash with another train,” Transport Minister Karel Havlicek told the public broadcaster Czech Television in Prague.

Rescuers said the deceased man was the driver of the passenger train, which was carrying more than 100 passengers.

“He was found lifeless in his wrecked cabin,” the regional rescue service wrote on its website, AFP reported.

Havlicek told Czech Radio later that the driver had most probably ignored a red light.

The accident occurred after 1930 GMT on Tuesday near the town of Cesky Brod, about 30 kilometers east of Prague, on a busy railway connecting the capital with the east of the country.

Havlicek said two people had suffered very serious injuries.

Rescuers said another eight passengers with very serious injuries and 25 with lighter injuries were taken to hospital.

A week ago, two people died and dozens were injured when regional trains crashed in the western Czech Republic.

Several other minor accidents have been reported on Czech railways over the past week.

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Kim Train Seen at Resort Town: US Monitor Speculates

reporter 1222 — Sun, 26 Apr 2020 07:00:34 +0000

TEHRAN (Iran News) – A train likely belonging to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has been spotted at a resort town in the east of North Korea, satellite photos reviewed by a US-based think tank showed, as speculation persists over his health.

The train was parked at a station reserved for the Kim family in Wonsan on April 21 and April 23, the respected 38North website said in a report published Saturday.

38North cautioned that the train’s presence “does not prove the whereabouts of the North Korean leader or indicate anything about his health”.

“But it does lend weight to reports that Kim is staying at an elite area on the country’s eastern coast,” it said, AFP reported.

There has been growing conjecture about Kim’s health since his conspicuous absence from the April 15 celebrations for the birthday of his grandfather Kim Il Sung, the regime’s founder — the most important day on the North Korean political calendar.

Kim has not made a public appearance since presiding over a meeting of the Workers’ Party politburo on April 11 and inspecting drills by fighter jets at an air defense unit, which was reported by state media on April 12.

Daily NK, an online media outlet run mostly by North Korean defectors, has reported Kim underwent a cardiovascular procedure earlier this month and was recovering at a villa in North Pyongan province.

Citing an unidentified source inside the country, it said Kim, who is in his mid-30s, had needed urgent treatment due to heavy smoking, obesity, and fatigue.

South Korea, which is still technically at war with the North, has played down the report.

CNN, quoting what it said was an anonymous US official, reported that Washington was “monitoring intelligence” that Kim was in “grave danger” after undergoing surgery.

But on Thursday, US President Donald Trump rejected reports that Kim was ailing.

“I think the report was incorrect,” Trump told reporters but declined to state when he was last in touch with him.

“We have a good relationship with North Korea, as good as you can have,” he said.

Trump has met Kim three times in historic summitry and has voiced admiration for him, although hopes have dimmed for reaching a comprehensive agreement.

Reporting from inside the isolated North is notoriously difficult, especially on anything to do with its leadership, which is among its most closely guarded secrets.

On Thursday, citing an unidentified government official, South Korean broadcaster SBS reported that Kim appeared to have been in Wonsan for at least the past four days and would soon return to the public eye.

The report added that the military was monitoring Kim’s train, which had been seen in Wonsan, while his personal jet — frequently used by Kim on his trips to Wonsan — remained in Pyongyang.

Previous absences from the public eye on Kim’s part have prompted speculation about his health.

In 2014 he dropped out of sight for nearly six weeks before reappearing with a cane. Days later, the South’s spy agency said he had undergone surgery to remove a cyst from his ankle.

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Key railway in Mianeh opened

reporter 1222 — Thu, 28 Nov 2019 04:55:00 +0000

TEHRAN (Iran news) – President Hassan Rouhani inaugurated a new railway connecting the East Azarbaijan Province’s cities of Mianeh and Bostanabad in the country’s northwest on Wednesday, a key railway that significantly boosts international transport via Iranian corridors.

The new railway, part of the old Tehran-Tabriz railway, will cut the distance between the two cities, and reduce travel time, IRNA reported.

The track reaches the provincial capital, Tabriz, a major business and industry hub in the region close to northwestern borders as well as the South Caucasus.

The 132-kilometer key railway is part of a long line connecting Mianeh to Tabriz.

Authorities said construction for the remaining part, a 42-kilometer line from Bostanabad to Tabriz, would conclude after March 2020.

Plans for construction of the Mianeh-Tabriz railway dubbed the “missing link” in the Iranian rail network, began 18 years ago when the government at the time sought to drastically shorten travel time between Tehran and Tabriz, currently Iran’s sixth-largest city.

Once finished, the railway would markedly boost cargo transportation from Iran’s east to the Republic of Azerbaijan and Turkey and on toward continental Europe.

Iran’s railway network has expanded rapidly over the past decade with four new provincial capitals in mostly mountainous regions connected to the network over the past six years.

Government authorities said recently that the average track-laying work across the country had increased from 120 kilometers a year in 2013 to more than 180 kilometers in 2017.

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At Least One Dead, Three Injured after Train Derails in Kazakhstan

reporter 1222 — Sun, 17 Jun 2018 12:30:22 +0000

Casualties were reported after a passenger train derailed in Zhambyl, a region of Kazakhstan, the spokesperson of the country’s emergency services told Sputnik.

One teenager is dead and at least three adult passengers have been injured after a train derailed in Kazakhstan’s region of Zhambyl. The train was going from the country’s capital Astana to Almaty, the biggest city in Kazakhstan.

“The train had a total of 20 cars, six of which derailed and three overturned. At the moment, we retain the following information: four people were injured, one of them is a teenager, he died, three adults were sent to the hospital,” the emergency service’s spokesperson Ruslan Imankulov said.

Video which appeared in social media shows passengers trying to get out of the train through broken windows.

Emergency services are working on the scene.

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Azerbaijan’s 1st freight train arrives in Iran via Astara rail route

reporter 1222 — Thu, 08 Feb 2018 16:00:28 +0000

The first cargo train of Azerbaijan Republic arrived in Iran via Astara rail line as pilot on Thursday afternoon.

Given the above issue, Astara-Astara International Railways was put into operation as pilot in the presence of Ali Khodaei Director General of Islamic Republic of Iran Railways in northwestern region, Karimov Deputy Transport Affairs and Abbasov Deputy Operation Affairs of Railway Company of Republic of Azerbaijan, Younes Ranjkesh Governor of Astara, Vali Dadashi representative of people of Astara in the Iranian Parliament, Colonel Nozar Moradi Commander of Astara Border, Rasoul Omidi Director General of Astara Customs Office, etc.

A number of six 55-ton wagons of a freight train, heading to Iran from Russia’s St. Petersburg via rail route of Republic of Azerbaijan, were launched as pilot in line with materializing objectives of North-South corridor.

In the course of pilot entrance of freight train to Iran’s Astara Border, the Director General of IRI Railways Company in northwestern region said, “completion of North-South transport corridor is of the main priorities of bilateral economic cooperation between Iran and Republic of Azerbaijan.”

He pointed to Astara-Astara Rail Route as the outset of establishing new and joint chapter in bilateral cooperation between Iran and Azerbaijan and said, “the rail route will strengthen economic ties between the two countries which intensifies mutual cooperation considerably.”

Turing to the investment made by Azeri side in this giant railway projects and said, “petroleum products, minerals, grains, MDF (medium-density fiberboard) will be transported via this rail route.”

As home to more than 191,000 people, Astara border city is located in northwest Gilan Province in the vicinity of Republic of Azerbaijan, he concluded.

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3rd freight train from China to arrive in Tehran within days

reporter 1222 — Sat, 06 Jan 2018 17:00:20 +0000

TEHRAN– An official from Iran’s railways organization said on Saturday that the third freight train has left China for Iran and will arrive in Tehran later this week.

Seyed Mostafa Davoodi from Iran Railway Company said that Iran has already been negotiating with neighboring and regional countries to develop international transit corridors, and said the third freight train from Xi’an province in western China will arrive in Iran later this week, adding that it is carrying 41 wagons.

He added that multilateral agreements have been concluded with China, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan on the origin and destination of the travel, as well as the tariff rate.

China is trying to revive the old Silk Road and Iran’s government has welcomed the project with the aim of turning the country in an Eurasian trade hub. The first freight train to travel the old silk road arrived in Iran in February 2016.

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Luxury Train Carrying Foreign Tourists Arrives in Tehran

reporter 1222 — Tue, 07 Nov 2017 10:15:49 +0000

TEHRAN – The Golden Eagle Trans-Siberian Express, offering the world’s longest train journey, has arrived in the Iranian capital, Tehran, a report said.

The train, carrying international tourists from Russia, Britain, the US, Australia, Germany, and the Philippines, will start its 12-day tour of Iran from the capital on November 11.

After Tehran, it will take the tourists to Iran’s major tourist destinations like Mashhad, Yazd, Isfahan, Shiraz, Kashan, Yazd, Arak and Garmsar.

The train is expected back in Tehran on November 22.

The main route of the Trans-Siberian Express – which is equipped with a 4 to 5 star hotel service – was always through Russia, the Trans-Siberian route.

It extends from Moscow to Vladivostok, a Russian city that borders China and North Korea.

Passengers can choose from 16 eastbound or westbound journey dates from May to September.

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