The project involves Chinese investment and will cover the 900 km stretch between the capital and the country’s second-largest city, New Silk Road Discovery reports. The Tehran–Mashhad corridor is among the busiest railway routes in West Asia, with a high concentration of passenger traffic, particularly from religious pilgrims travelling to Mashhad.
Mashhad, a city with a population of 3.5 million, is a key node in the Sarakhs–Razi rail corridor, which connects Central Asia to Iraq through Iran. The east–west corridor plays a central role in regional freight movements.
The high-speed rail project is one element of a wider push by Iranian authorities to overhaul parts of the country’s railway network with Chinese support. In July, Iran’s railway chief confirmed that plans were underway to electrify nearly 1,000 km of track from the Sarakhs border with Turkmenistan to Razi, near the Iraqi border. The scheme will also include double-tracking on selected sections to increase capacity.
The stated goal is to triple the rail freight volume on this corridor to 15 million metric tons annually. The upgrade is tied to Iran’s broader ambitions to expand its position as a transit hub within China’s Belt and Road Initiative, which involves large-scale infrastructure projects connecting Asia with Europe and Africa.
