The Train To Basra: Baghdad's Train Is On Track Again

Many people usually ride trains to go someplace far - since this mode of transportation is pretty convenient, practical and mostly safe as well. However, there is a recent movie about a particular train I am sure you are probably familiar with: the highly talked about South Korean movie, Train to Busan. Basically, it is a horror movie which involved zombies in its plot.

However some trains have witnessed more horror than the train in the said movie. In Baghdad Central Station, there is only one train that leaves from there: the train to Basra. Before the train even comes, an eager babble can be sensed from passengers who are usually seen rushing just to purchase food they will take for their journey.

By the time 5:00 p.m comes, the train comes and goes off to its destination. It is noticeable how everything is silent, since there are no more passengers milling about who are about to catch another train. Ahmed Twaij and Hawre Khalid in their article for Roads and Kingdoms interviewed Ali Al-Karkhi, who has been a conductor in the station for 37 years.

Al-Karkhi is pretty seasoned in his profession. In 1989, he was chosen to drive Saddam Hussein's personal train when he was still president then. However, it was revoked because Al-Karkhi's mother was discovered to be of Kurdish and Iranian descent, which the then president waged wars against. He was also the first person who drove a train to Istanbul coming from Baghdad that passes through Mosul after Hussein fell in 2005. However, the route is no longer being used because the city is now under control by ISIS.

According to their interview, Al-Karkhi is pretty nostalgic when it comes to the train station's earlier and much better days. He recalls that when he was still a young four year old, he used to watch the trains go by from his Baghdad home. Up to the present time, not only does Al-Karkhi drive the train that goes from Baghdad to Basra twice a week, he also has formed the habit of going to his balcony whenever he hears a train horn which signals a train entering the station.

The Baghdad Central Station was built in 1954 by the British and its design is loosely similar to those of Grand Central Station in New York and King's Cross Station which is located in London. Previously, the welcome hall was adorned with grand overarches and enormous columns with a stunning chandelier made of crystals as well as a statue of Shahiro, an Assyrian goddess meant to serve as greet its passengers.

Throughout the years, there have been significant changes not only in the station but also in the entire country. Ever since the U.S invasion of Iraq in 2003 which led to the decline of the state, things haven't been the same since - much more so when it comes to the security of the country. This led to all out looting and the trains weren't excluded from this occurrence.

Al-Karkhi recalls, "I was there the day they started looting the trains. I felt like parts of my body were being cut off and taken away." Everything from the seats, linings and even the wirings of the train was ransacked and all that was left in the carriages are ruins from the shattered glass and other debris. Al-Karkhi even commented how they seemed to serve as a reflection of how Iraq is at the present.

However, Al-Karkhi remains positive about Iraq's future regardless of everything he has seen all these years - primarily because of his job as a train driver and conductor. He says, "When I die, I want people to remember how I never faltered in any of my work at the station. I want them to remember how much history I studied about Iraq's trains." Al-Karkhi also hopes that in the near future, the rifts in his country could be once again connected by more than his train, which crosses regions that are settled by Shias, Sunnis, Turkmens along with Kurds, Bedouins and Marsh Arabs - which causes a great ethnic divide in Iraq.