Lebanon needs to build a railway network

The absence of public transport in Lebanon has a substantial economic impact on the country, with congestion clogging the country’s main transport arteries. Without a sustainable transport system in place, this will only get worse; the average delay per vehicle will nearly double and the average speed will be halved according to a 2015 working paper from the Issam Fares Institute at the American University of Beirut. The effect is multidimensional; there is no solution to traffic congestion woes without a public transport system in place. The backbone of any public transport system is a railway network for the transport of passengers and freight. It is, therefore, crucial to have railways—and timely too, given Syria and Iraq’s reconstruction needs. Several studies have attempted to quantify the economic impact of congestion caused by the lack of public transport, with estimates ranging between 5 and 10 percent of GDP. In a March