A train station in Damascus was once the pride of the Syrian capital, then more than a decade of war left it a wasteland of bullet-scarred walls and twisted steel, the army turned it into a military base

The Qadam station with it's its structure of Ottoman stone and French bricks from Marseille, was the workhorse of the iconic Hejaz Railway that was built under the Ottoman Empire’s Sultan Abdulhamid II in the early 1900s, linking Muslim pilgrims from Europe and Asia via what is now Turkey to the holy city of Medina in present-day Saudi Arabia. The line also transported troops and equipment for the empire that controlled large swaths of the Arabian Peninsula.

That glory was short-lived. The railway soon became a target of Arab fighters in an armed uprising during World War I backed by Britain, France and other Allied forces that eventually took down the Ottoman Empire.

Syria used its section of the railway to transport people between Damascus and its second city of Aleppo, along with several towns and neighboring Jordan. While the main station, still intact a few miles away, later became a historical site and events hall, Qadam remained the busy home of the workshops and people making the railway run.

Syria’s railway never returned to its former prosperity under Assad, the station was too strategic for soldiers to ignore. It gave Assad's forces a vantage point on key rebel strongholds in Damascus. Up a flight of stairs, an office became a sniper's nest.

Charred train cars and workshops were damaged by artillery fire, train cars were battered and burned. Some were piles of scrap. The museum had been looted, copper, electric cables and tools and the old trains had been stripped for sale on Syria’s black market.

The trains' distinctive wooden panels had disappeared. Assad's fighters used them as firewood during the harsh winters. 

The Qadam station's remaining staff say they still have an attachment to the railway and hope that it, like the country, can be revived after the swift and stunning downfall of leader Bashar Assad last month.

Neighboring Turkey has expressed interest in restoring the railway line to Damascus as part of efforts to boost trade and investment.

https://www.bakersfield.com/ap/national/a-train-station-was-once-the-pride-of-syrias-capital-some-see-it-as-a/article_3a4be037-2393-508c-86e9-062794128a10.html