Plans to revive Lebanon’s ghost railways gather steam
While some of Lebanon's train stations have been transformed into night clubs or tourist sites, the country's railway system could be revived at the end of the Syrian civil war to provide supplies to cities such as Homs and Damascus.
Lebanon's train stations have not seen a train depart since the 1990s, and Beirut’s central station was turned into an open-air nightclub in 2014, with a DJ booth added to an old locomotive.
“When I was young, my family used to tell me stories about the trains in Beirut, so I decided to rent the station and give it a new life,” Alain Hasbani, the co-owner of Trainstation Mar Mikhael, told Al-Monitor.
Hasbani simply added a bar counter, chairs and tables to the space. The mood gets festive at night, but few partygoers realize the importance of this historic location that was the hub of the railways in the Middle East in the 19th century.
“Those old railroad cars look really nice — it gives an industrial touch to the bar but surely this is only decoration, right?” asked Lara Khoury, a young Lebanese woman who enjoys coming here for drinks.
