Rail Routes from the Baghdad Railway to the New Silk Road (19th to 21st Centuries) – Utopian Dreams, Past Achievements and Future Prospects for Rail Transport Between Europe and the Middle and Far East. 7th International International Conference on Railwa

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Rail Routes from the Baghdad Railway to the New Silk Road (19th to 21st Centuries) – Utopian Dreams, Past Achievements and Future Prospects for Rail Transport Between Europe and the Middle and Far East. 7th International International Conference on Railwa

Organizer
International Railway History Association (IRHA), and supported by the Turkish Railways (TCDD), the International Union of Railways (UIC), and Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer Français (SNCF)
Venue
historic station of Sirkeci
Location
Istanbul
Country
Turkey
From - Until
02.11.2016 - 05.11.2016
Deadline
30.10.2016
Website
By
Prof. Dr. Ralf Roth

The dream of a transcontinental railway connection between Europe and Asia dates back to the beginning of the railway age when many memoranda sketched a golden future of journeys and exchange of goods between both continents and of easy ac-cess to Asian markets. But for decades such projects, often characterised as “utopian dreams”, remained unfulfilled. It was not until the 1880s, and also at the beginning of the 20th century, that the Ottoman and Russian Empires invested heavily in big infrastructure projects of this kind.

Seeking to shake off stagnation, the Ottoman Empire initially considered railways an economic and strategic tool that would help it become a bridge between Europe and the Middle East. However, in order to build railway lines the Empire depended on European capital and therefore became part of the complex and difficult interests of different imperialistic powers. Next, the Ottoman Empireʼs dissolution and the emer-gence of new states in the aftermath of World War One divided the railway network that had actually been built (over 8,000 kilometres, across the Empire) into separate entities with limited efficiency. Several decades later, the new geo-political reality after World War Two, as well as the Cold War, boosted Turkey’s role as a hub between Europe and Asia, but priority was given to road construction. New opportunities for the expansion of rail infrastructure arose at the end of the Cold War, in the 1990s, when the number of those promoting the establishment of new railway corridors between Europe and Asia increased significantly. Recent achievements of Turkey ‒ its investments in high-speed lines or the Marmaray line and Avrasya rail tunnel under the Bosphorus (official slogan: “an unbroken journey by rail from London to Beijing”) fit in this picture.

The role Turkey played during the 19th and 20th centuries deserves a wider research perspective and raises a set of specific questions: Which railway projects besides the famous Baghdad Railway were accomplished and for what purpose? How did the system of traffic and transport corridors between Europe and Asia endure the clash of the Ottoman Empire and the creation of the Arab successor states? Did railways continue to act as links between Europe and the Middle East, and did they support economic integration between the regions affected, or was their role purely local? Other topics may be considered as well: How did railways enact or modify the traditional role and image of Turkey as a staging post between Europe and Asia?

Can observations be made about contributions by railways to the modernisation of societies or the integration of territories? What do old railway stations and the presence of railways in villages and in museums tell us about the railways’ past? How did railways in the Middle (and Far) East affect European imaginations about travel to Asia, as mirrored, for example, in literature about the Orient Express in former days or in Paul Theroux’s The Great Railway Bazaar in modern times?

The conference will also examine the past, presence, and future of alternative inter-national corridors to the Far East. One of the most important ones is of course the Trans-Siberian Railway, built by Russia in the 1890s. But contrary to original inten-tions, this line did only in limited ways serve as a link between two continents. Used mainly for internal purposes for many decades, the line was not opened to transit business until the 1980s. The main question remains: Why have all efforts to modernise and open the Transsib met with only limited success up to the present, and what will be its future? Its inefficiency was the reason why at the end of the 20th century new alternatives were planned and proposed, such as the ECO corridor, TAR, TRACECA, or Chinaʼs initiative to restore the former Silk Road. These more recent developments will be an important part of the conference. Although we would like to include aspects of earlier projects, in the context of a long-lasting memory of the Silk Road, the following questions will be central: Do these projected links between Europe and the Far East have a chance to be realised? How will the projects be funded and which countries will be involved? What about harsh political confrontations between countries likely to be involved, and escalations potentially leading to armed conflicts and even wars? Are there ways to surmount the technical problems of different track gauges being used in many of the existing railway networks alongside the projected corridors? What will be the time frame, and last but not least, are these corridors likely to compete with existing routes across Russia or with traditional road or maritime routes? It is in this broad context that the conference will address role of all the countries concerned by these visions of a future con-tinental transport system and especially the role of present-day Turkey as one of the prominent transit countries, as well as its potential to become a major player in a future intercontinental transport system and an important hub between Europe and the Middle and Far East.

Programm

Schedule of the Conference

Wednesday 2 November 2016

14:00 to 16:00 registration
17:00 to 20:00 welcome and come together

Welcome

Opening address by UIC Director General Jean-Pierre Loubinoux

Welcome address by President of the IRHA Henry Jacolin

Welcome address by Deputy Director General of Turkish State Railways TCDD

General introduction into the scientific part of the conference by Prof. Dr. Ralf Roth

Come together

Thursday 3 November 2016

Sections of partition A. Past (19th and first half of the 20th century)

9:00 to 10:30: Section 1 “First suggestions and connections”

Chaired by Prof. Dr. Ralf Roth

a) Henry Jacolin (president of the International Railway History Association, France): Establishment of the First Railway Connection Between Europe and Turkey

b) Dr. Csaba Sándor Horváth (Széchenyi István University, Györ, Hungary): The Establishment of the Railway Connection Between Hungary and the Ot-toman Empire – A Prelude to the Launch of the Orient Express

c) Prof. Dr. Nevin Coşar (Yildiz Technical University, Istanbul, Turkey) and Dr. Sevtap Demirci (Boğaziçi University, Istanbul, Turkey): Railroads Policies and Modernisation: Consumption Patterns in Turkey

d) Dr. Emine Zeytinli (Aydin University, Istanbul, Turkey): Economic Concessions for Ottoman Rumelia Railway Investments and Foreign Capital, 1860–1936

10:30 to 11:00: coffee break

11:00 to 12:30: Section 2 “The Balkans and the Ottoman Empire”

Chaired by Dr. Irene Anastasiadou

a) Cand. phil. Milos Vojinovic (Serbian Academy of Arts and Sciences, Insti-tute for Balkan Studies, Belgrade, Serbia): Railway Building Between Politics and Economy: The Case of Railway Planning in Serbia 1906–1908

b) Prof. Dr. Mehmet Metin Hülagü (Erciyes University, Kayseri, Turkey): The History of the Hejaz Railway

c) Dr. Axel Heimsoth (Ruhr Museum, Essen, Germany): Cartoons of the Baghdad Railway. A Media Hype in German, French and British Journals

d) Arjan den Boer, MA (author on history and architecture, Utrecht, The Neth-erlands): The “Balkanzug” as a Propaganda Vehicle

12:30 to 15:00: lunch

15 to 16 30: Section 3 “Transport corridors Europe – Asia in a wider perspective”

Chaired by Prof. Dr. Nevin Coşar

a) Cand. phil. Walid Y. Belbachir (Aix-Marseille University, Marseille, France): From Suez to Baghdad: Transcontinental Perspectives of the Balkan Rail-ways (1869–1911)

b) Cand. phil. Maciej Wąs (Hildesheim, Germany): The Railway Connection Between London/Paris to British India through the Russian Empire – Ideas and Problems

c) Prof. Dr. Per Högselius (KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden): Scandinavia’s Iron Silk Road

d) Prof. Dr. Bin Wang (Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China): Contested Interconnections: Colonialism and the Making of Railway Junctions in Early 20th Century China

19:00 to 22:00: evening event

Friday 4 November 2016

Section of partition B. Present (second half of the 20th century)

9:00 to 10:30 Section 4 “The Modern Debate after World War Two”

Chaired by Prof. Dr. Andrea Giuntini

a) Dr. Irene Anastasiadou (Technical University Berlin, Germany): The South-ern TAR: a Global Project in the Context of the Cold War

b) Dr. Mudassir Mohiu din Wani Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India): Economic Significance and Securitization of One Belt One Road

c) Associate Prof. Dr. David Celetti (University of Padua, Italy, and Visiting Professor at the Al-Farabi Kazakh National University (KazGU), Almaty, Kazakhstan): The Railway Option within the New Silk Road – Projects, Actors, Business, and Politics in Central Asia

10:30 to 11:00 coffee break

Sections of partition C. Future (from 21st century onwards)

11:00 to 12:30 Section 5 “What the future might bring”

Chaired by Paul Véron

a) Prof. Dr. Ihor Zhaloba (Diplomatic Academy of Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine): Ukraine and the New Silk Road: Will the Geopolitical Project be Economical-ly Beneficial?

b) Prof. Dr. Clive Lamming (2011 G8 Expert for the south-east Transasiatic Railway, Paris, July 4-5th, France): China-Afghanistan-Europe direct Railway in Standard Gauge

c) István Neumann (ARON Rail Cargo System. Germany-Switzerland-Austria-Hungary): Moving Swiftly on Difficult Terrain: the ARON Rail Cargo System Vision for Short and Medium Range Rail Freight Links Between Europe, Northern Africa and Asia

12:30 to 15:00 lunch

15:00 to 20:00 excursions

Saturday 5 November 2016

9:00 to 11:00: Section 6 “The Future of Railway Networks between
Asia and Europe“

Chaired by Henry Jacolin

a) TCDD: Presentation of State Railways of the Turkish Republic

b) Hossein Ashouri (Vice President for Operation and International Transport of RAI): Role and the perspective of Iran and the Railways of the Islamic Re-public of Iran as an important rail connection in the new rail Silk Road

c) Mohammad Yamma Shams (General Director and CEO of Afghanistan Railway Authority) and Eng. Mirwais Ghafori (Head of Railway Development and Construction of Afghanistan Railway Authority): Presentation of the Af-ghanistan Railway Authority (AfRA)

d) Paul Véron (Director of Communications and Director Middle-East of UIC): Presentation of the International Union of Railways (UIC)

11:00 to 11:30 coffee break

11:30 to 12:30 Debate about the results of the conference?

12:30 to 14:00 lunch

End of the conference

Contact (announcement)

Prof. Dr. Ralf Roth

Historisches Seminar Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität
Norbert-Wollheim-Platz 1 60629 Frankfurt am

Dr.Ralf.Roth@t-online.de

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Published on
16.10.2016
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