The Aqaba Railway Corporation is a railway operating in southern Jordan

Jordan

Jordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan , Al-Mamlaka al-Urduniyya al-Hashemiyya) is a kingdom on the East Bank of the River Jordan. The country borders Saudi Arabia to the east and south-east, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north and the West Bank and Israel to the west, sharing...

. The railway was formed in 1979 to transport phosphate

Phosphate

A phosphate, an inorganic chemical, is a salt of phosphoric acid. In organic chemistry, a phosphate, or organophosphate, is an ester of phosphoric acid. Organic phosphates are important in biochemistry and biogeochemistry or ecology. Inorganic phosphates are mined to obtain phosphorus for use in...

 to the port in Aqaba

Aqaba

Aqaba is a coastal city in the far south of Jordan, the capital of Aqaba Governorate at the head of the Gulf of Aqaba. Aqaba is strategically important to Jordan as it is the country's only seaport. Aqaba is best known today as a diving and beach resort, but industrial activity remains important...

. It uses the tracks of the Hejaz Railway.

History

In 1908 the Ottoman Empire

Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...

 built the Hejaz Railway, that ran from Damascus

Damascus

Damascus , commonly known in Syria as Al Sham , and as the City of Jasmine , is the capital and the second largest city of Syria after Aleppo, both are part of the country's 14 governorates. In addition to being one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, Damascus is a major...

 to Medina

Medina

Medina , or ; also transliterated as Madinah, or madinat al-nabi "the city of the prophet") is a city in the Hejaz region of western Saudi Arabia, and serves as the capital of the Al Madinah Province. It is the second holiest city in Islam, and the burial place of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad, and...

. After World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 and the fall of the Ottoman Empire, the railway never operated south of Ma'an

Ma'an

Ma'an is a town in southern Jordan 218 km away from the capital Amman. It is the capital of Ma'an Governorate. Ma'an has a population of around 50,000. The city had a population of 22,989 in the 1992 census and is estimated as being about 50,000 as of 2007 according to the Ma'an Municipality...

. The Hedjaz Jordan Railway

Hedjaz Jordan Railway

The Hedjaz Jordan Railway was one of the two successor railways to the famous Hedjaz Railway. When the Ottoman Empire collapsed in 1920, the Hedjaz Railway, formerly under Ottoman control, was divided into 2 railways: the Chemin de Fer de Hedjaz Syrie and the Hedjaz Jordan Railway . The HJR...

 operated the tracks of the Hejaz railway in Jordan. In 1975 the railway built a brach from Ma'an to Aqaba

Aqaba

Aqaba is a coastal city in the far south of Jordan, the capital of Aqaba Governorate at the head of the Gulf of Aqaba. Aqaba is strategically important to Jordan as it is the country's only seaport. Aqaba is best known today as a diving and beach resort, but industrial activity remains important...

, a port city on the Gulf of Aqaba

Gulf of Aqaba

The Gulf of Aqaba is a large gulf located at the northern tip of the Red Sea. In pre twentieth-century and modern sources it is often named the Gulf of Eilat, as Eilat is its predominant Israeli city ....

. In 1979 the Aqaba Railway Corporation (ARC) was incorporated and took over the route from Abiad to Aqaba

Aqaba

Aqaba is a coastal city in the far south of Jordan, the capital of Aqaba Governorate at the head of the Gulf of Aqaba. Aqaba is strategically important to Jordan as it is the country's only seaport. Aqaba is best known today as a diving and beach resort, but industrial activity remains important...

. The purpose of the ARC was to transport phosphates from mines near Abiad and Ma'an to the port in Aqaba. The ARC operated only freight trains powered by GE U17C

GE U17C

The GE U17C Diesel-electric locomotive was introduced by GE Transportation as an export model roadswitcher in 1973.Easy to spot due to its relatively short length — 52 ft 9 in — it was powered by the 8-cylinder FDL-8T engine....

diesel locomotives.