TEHRAN Urban & Suburban Railway Co has started revenue services on its 42 km outer-suburban feeder line linking Karaj to the Tehran metro Line 2 at Ayatollah Kashani. At the beginning of February TUSR announced that following trials the line would be open to traffic for 3h each day. Services will link Sadeqieh Square station in Tehran with Malard in Karaj every 25min. The operating period will be increased to 7h soon, and eventually to 18h a day.
The line is worked by a fleet of 48 air-conditioned double-deck coaches manufactured by the Changchun Car Co in China which were shipped to Iran last year (RG 5.98 p285). They are intended to run in eight-car push-pull formations with a 25 kV electric loco at each end.
