Special report: Tension escalates in Iraq

    by Fu Yiming, Jamal Hashim

    BAGHDAD, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- Salim Kamal, who used to travel Baghdad downtown for his business in inconvenient conditions and traffic jams caused by a series of road checkpoints, has now got anew way out as a commuter rail is running between central Baghdad and some of its suburb neighborhoods.

    The 25-kilomter commuter rail, a section of an old railway which had been damaged by the war and stopped running for years, came into operation just a few days ago.

    It shuttles between central Baghdad and the mostly Shiite neighborhood of Kazimiyah north of the capital or the mainly Sunni suburb of Yousifiyah in the south, which makes a handful of stops in both Sunni and Shiite neighborhoods. A ticket costs 1,000 Iraqidinars (equivalent to 80 cents).

    "The train is faster than cars, it avoids stopping in traffic jams and dozens of checkpoints that people obliged to pass through," a Transport Ministry official said on condition of anonymity.

    People in Baghdad find that it is hard to move for work in and out of downtown and suburbs of the capital because of thousands of security walls and dozens of checkpoints that control the entrances of neighborhoods.

    "The few-minute trip between the two districts will take at least half an hour if there is no emergency situation," said Kamal, a 45-year-old shop owner.

    Public irritation is mounting over traffic congestion as main streets in Baghdad see more and more cars now.

    Major General Jaafar Tu'ma Kadhim, director general of Iraqi traffic police, noted that up to 1.5 million cars have entered Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, including more than 600,000 in Baghdad alone, as compared with 170,000 cars registered in his office before the war.

    As a solution to guarantying security because of long violent situation in the war-torn country, thousands of security walls as well as countless checkpoints guarded heavily by Iraqi security forces, worsened Baghdad traffic crisis.

    However, the commuter rail as a new way out does not necessarily seem to be a "swift way out."

    Some Iraqis seem reluctant to adopt such means of transportation quickly, because people in Baghdad believe trains of the commuter rail are inconvenient as their houses are mostly far from train stops and they have to take minibuses afterwards.

    "I don't think the train would be better than cars, despite the city's checkpoints and congestion, because the growing of neighborhoods in Baghdad city is horizontal and our houses spread in wide areas in the capital," Jaber al-Samarraie, a 35-year-old government employee told Xinhua.

    At the main station in Allawi area in central Baghdad, metal detectors and body search conducted by male and female security members are set at several checkpoints.

    There are also walls that protect the railroad along with security forces protecting main and some stops for the train.

    The anonymous Transport Ministry official said that "there are no security problems among those Sunni and Shiite districts, because situation is calm now" and there are also walls that protect the railroad along with security forces protecting main and some stops for the train, "but everybody knows that there is no 100 percent of guarantee for safety, not in every place in the world."

    He, however, admitted that "there are chances" Iraqis get to change their habit although they do not use to the new commuter rail.