what is it?
Railway electrification in Iran describes the past and present electrification systems used to supply traction current to rail transport in Iran with a chronological record of development, a list of lines using each system, and a history and a technical description of each system. The project is sometimes abbreviated to RAIELEC, in which RAI is the abbreviation of Islamic Republic of Iran Railways (Persian: برقی کردن راه آهن در ایران, abbr: بكرا).
who runs it
base stats
Bars compare against all trains: 600 km/h (maglev), 1,700 seats; power, weight and number built on a log scale up to 20 MW, 1,000 t and 20,000 built.
fun facts
- First built 47 years ago, in 1979.
- 3.6 MW is about 42 family cars (~85 kW each) flat out.
- Weighs about as much as 13 African elephants (~6 t each).
- 16 m long: about 4 cars parked nose to tail.
electric locomotive: Draws power from overhead wires or a third rail and pulls separate carriages.
spec sheet
- built
- 1979–1980
- status
- in service
- number built
- 8
- kind
- Electric
- traction
- electric
- origin
- 🇮🇷 Iran
- builders
- ASEA
- operators
- Islamic Republic of Iran Railways
- top speed
- 100 km/h
- power
- 3.6 MW
- gauge
- 1,435 mm standard gauge
- electric system
- 25 kV AC catenary
- wheel arrangement
- Bo-Bo
- length
- 16 m
- weight
- 80 t
From the Wikipedia infobox and Wikidata. Blank means the sources don't say.
Sources: Wikidata Q7284244, Wikipedia: Railway electrification in Iran (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-25.