construction difficulties. The standard gauge line from Beirut to Haifa was eventually built by Commonwealth military engineers from South Africa and Oceania during WWII, in part supplied by a gauge railway to access materials. Ultimately, Turkey remained neutral and refused the Allies access to their jointly controlled sections of the Baghdad Railway, although by then the Allies had extended Palestine Railways' line from Beirut along the Lebanese coast, crossing into Syria near Al Akkari and from there to Homs, Hama and onward to connect with the Baghdad Railway at Aleppo. Locomotives servicing the Allied war effort included the British R.A. Riddles designed WD Austerity 2-10-0, four of which post war went into Syrian service, designed CFS Class 150.6. In 1956, all railways in Syria were nationalised, and reorganised as CFS (Chemins de Fer Syriens) from 1 January 1965. Expanded with monetary and industrial assistance from the USSR, the agreement covered the joint industrial development of the country. Covering the development of the ports of Tartus and Latakia, they were initially connected by rail to Al Akkari and Aleppo in 1968 and 1975 respectively. An irrigation project on the Euphrates, resulting in the construction of the Tabqa Dam, drove the connection of Aleppo to Al-Thawrah (1968), Raqqa (1972) Deir ez Zor (1973), reaching the old Baghdad Railway at Al Qamishli in 1976. Tramway Current system Network Today, all network and trains are operated by CFS. Using all diesel-electric powered traction, the main routes prior to the Syrian Civil War were: Damascus - Homs - Hamah - Aleppo - Maydan Ikbis (- Ankara TCDD) Aleppo - Latakia - Tartus - Al Akkari - Homs Homs - Palmyra: freight only, opened for phosphates traffic, destined for the port of Tartus, in 1980 Line runs from the oilfields of Al Qamishli in the north to the port of Latakia (750 km) Al Akkari (- Tripoli CEL, out of use) Aleppo - Deir ez-Zor - Al-Qamishli (- Nusaybin TCDD) Extension from Homs southwards to Damascus (194 km) was opened in 1983 Tartus-Latakia line in 1992 Al Qamishli - Al-Yaarubiyah (- IRR Iraq, out of use) Damascus - Sheikh Miskin - Dera'a: under construction, to replace a section of Hejaz railway Sheikh Miskin - Suwayda (under construction) Palmyra - Deir ez-Zor - Abu Kemal (- IRR Iraq) (planned) Current proposals Prior to the war there was a proposal for a connection with Iraq between Deir ez-Zor