Ghost Train Stations, Lebanon

Lebanon’s Ghost Train Stations have stood frozen in time since the last service stopped in the 1990s. Rusting steam locomotives lurk inside war-torn maintenance sheds. Others languish on weed-choked tracks nearby.

I visited several of the Ghost Train Stations during my 2023 Lebanon Tour.

1895 Beirut-Damascus Route

The first Lebanon Railway opened in 1895. At this time, Lebanon was part of the Ottoman Empire. The newly inaugurated Beirut-Damascus line connected Lebanon to Syria and was the first major railway in the Levant. The 147-kilometer narrow-gauge track had to overcome a challenging obstacle. Namely, the steep Anti-Lebanon mountains at the Lebanon-Syria border. In the steep mountains, the track has a third, toothed rail in the centre of the track. The locomotive’s rock and pinion cog system meshed with this to provide traction to overcome the steep inclines.

The ride to Damascus passed through beautiful orchards, olive groves, and small mountain villages. Local traders and fruit merchants waited at each station, selling wares and produce to travelers.

1911 Tripoli-Homs Route and the Orient Express link

In 1902, a second line was completed to connect Beirut to Homs. Subsequently, in 1911, a single-track railway between Tripoli and Homs came into service.

Lebanon was linked up to the famous Orient Express route around 1928–1930 via its sister/extension line, the Taurus Express. Luxury sleeper cars from European cities travelled via the Orient Express to Istanbul. Passengers would cross the Bosphorus Strait on a specially commissioned ferry to Haydarpaşa. From here, they travelled on the Turkish-owned Taurus Express, which ran three times a week. The southern route of the Taurus Express crossed the Syrian plains, through the bustling city of Homs, and onward to present-day Lebanon.

The end of the railways of Lebanon

With rising car ownership in the 1960s, the popularity of Lebanon’s trains began to decline. The Lebanese civil war (1975–1990) dealt the final blow to the rail lines. Fighting caused damage to maintenance depots and tracks. Additionally, many stations were repurposed into military bases. By 1978, virtually all train services had ceased running. By 1990, the final train had retired.