Syrian people and international travel guides advised us NOT to take the train in Syria. Trains should be old, dirty, slow and unreliable...
Of course we DID take the train to return to Damascus from Aleppo. And that was a fantastic experience. The stations were cleaned, the employees friendly, the trains modern, cheap and comfortable and they were very fast at Middle Eastern standards.
It took us only 5 hours to run the 350 km trip in between the biggest Syrian cities and we arrived right on scedule.
We had free tea, television, music and (arab) newspapers.
The whole 350 km, first class trip is.... 4 euro/ 5 USD per person!
All on board!
1. The Aleppo-train station was renovated and clean. It used to be an important stop on the Oriënt Express line.
2. New trains, made in South Korea.
3. Comfortable first and second class interior.
4. Leaving Aleppo.
5.
6. Almost all windows were crashed by stone-throwing youth.
7.
8. New power plant near Homs.
9. Older locs at Hama.
10. Through the Syrian desert.
11. A sand storm.
12. Bypass to Palmyra.
13. Arrival at Damascus train station.
14. This little building outside Damascus is thé main station of a metropolis with 6 million inhabitants!...
The fantastic
Hejaz Railway Station in the centre of town is sold to built a shopping mall or so....
That's all for Syria, folks. I hope you liked it.
Your comments are still very welcome...