Decaying rail equipment piles up in central Baghdad, dubbed 'railway graveyard'

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Hundreds of decommissioned train wagons, locomotives and fuel tanks belonging to the Iraqi Republic Railways Company sit exposed to the elements in central Baghdad, an area informally known among staff as the "railway graveyard." The equipment stretches from behind the al-Awafi train station to the vicinity of Karkh Hospital and has been left without renovation, investment or recycling for decades, according to local reporting. The unused assets, once part of one of Iraq's oldest transport networks, have deteriorated into rusting scrap. Some of the material could be processed for recycling or sold as scrap under existing regulations, while other wagons could potentially be restored and converted into sites reflecting Iraq's railway history. Calls are growing for a comprehensive plan to determine the future of the country's railway heritage, with the aim of preserving assets suitable for investment and preventing further decay. No further details on any official program were immediately available.