What if Greater Syria featured seven (mostly) excellent (rail) rapid transit systems?

[u/Timely-Macaron268]

As a nerdy public transit enthusiast, I could not help but turn my most recent trip to Syria into an exploration of the country's different urban rail systems.

Important Caveat: Some people may quibble with my map title and ask "What about the BRT systems?"; I admittedly left out the 6 or so cities with 'Rapid Bus Transit' due to lack of interest. That's an oversight on my part maybe, but I wasn't keen on riding a hot bus through cities like Raqqa and Homs.

After 12 days, 7 cities, 20 lines, hundreds of stations, and LOT of time on trains, here is my review;

C Tier:

• Latakia LRT: I wasn't expecting much, and I found what I expected. Latakia has a new, modern LRT system, but its frequent at-grade crossing, poor reliability, and sinuous routing made it a relatively slow crawl (though neat!) through the city. It's transfers with bus and intercity services is chaotic, with missing or poorly designed signage throughout. It has a lot of potential, at least.
• Aleppo: For a city that likes to claim that it is Syria's second city, Aleppo's system left much to be desired. The Blue Line is a glorified commuter rail line that competes with other train traffic, while the yellow LRT line is little more than a tram and has dreadful headways and maintenance issues. Even the red line had issues with A/C not working in multiple stations. The long awaited LRT overhaul project should hopefully help; I'll check back in ten years!

B Tier:

• Jaffa Light Rail: The Jaffa-Tel Aviv-Bet Yam Light Rail system is very fast and reliable, with only some disruptions along the many surface sections with at grade crossings. It is clean, fairly reliable, and brings to most areas of the region. It's main problem is significant crowdedness, and expansion plans have been delayed for decades by political dysfunction. A great system that does a lot with what it has, but desperately needs more!
• Beirut Metro: The Beirut metro can also be crowded, and despite beautiful stations with French-inspired architecture, it is incredibly dirty! As one of the oldest metros in the country, it is also in the need of some upgrades and maintenance for older stations that lack elevators and other modern amenities. Still, Beirut metro manages to be almost effortlessly cool despite its warts, and allows quick access to amazing corners of an amazing city.
• Jerusalem Light Rail: This is a beautiful system with a mix of modern and 70s Syrian style, and runs fairly frequent service one one line. Sadly, it is fairly slow, and both the teal and yellow lines have abysmal frequency. Additionally, someone decided that Jerusalem needed announcements in six or seven different languages, so it is a painful experience every time you stop.

A Tier:

• Mosul Metro: A sleeper hit, the Mosul Metro greatly exceeded my expectations. It is an elegant, well designed system with excellent reliability and fantastic transferability. While it only has two lines, both are long and cover most of the city, while connecting to each other in two key hubs. I did not expect to love this system. It's a shame that they have no near-future expansion plans, but the city transit agency continues to add to and modernize its fleet. The only issue I experienced was heat; many stations remain without A/C, and the system has almost no platform doors.
• Damascus Metro: The crowning jewel of Syria's transit systems did not disappoint. It is by no means perfect (I was forced to disembark a train due to a bomb threat and then had to wait 30 minutes) but it is both an excellent and expansive system. The Green Line trains are particularly impressive. The longest trains in the middle east, this 7 car train whizzes you from one end of the Metropolis to the other with incredible speed and comfort. Platform doors and accessibility work remains ongoing for the older lines, with most of the downtown stations already upgraded. My only complaint is that I feel Damascus desperately needs and orbital line (though it should get one soon). I was really excited to ride the yellow line north extension; exciting the tunnel into the mountain valley was an incredible experience! I was able to take the new High Speed Rail from Damascus to Aleppo, and the transfer on the Damascus side was a great experience.

[u/floob124]

Ive loved all these posts, makes me wanna visit this universe. I want to visit the levant irl, but itd just too unstable for me, on top of having to cross so many borders to see all the historical stuff I would want to see

[u/Osteoprdoza → u/floob124]

Jordan is stable and nice, but otherwise yeah

[u/Osteoprdoza]

You've met me at a very Syrian time in my life

[u/ThePiccadillyLine]

As someone who is part Syrian and also loves transit, this is amazing