Transportation Planning and Technology

For A Sustainable Operation of Baghdad Elevated Train (BET): System Analysis

Submission ID 255676556

Article Type Research Article

System Analysis, Sustainable urban transit, Rail

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 Sheet1 (7)
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A B C D E F G
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1
4 2 Journey Time (sec) A
5 3 Service 1 Service 2
6 4 Forward Backwar Total Forward Backwar Total
5 1162 1163
d 2325 630 634
d 1264
7 6
8 7 Consumed Energy (kWh) B
8 Service 1 Service 2
9 9 Forward Backwar Total Forward Backwar Total
10 10 27.4538 27.349
d 54.8028 13.2597 14.776
d 28.0357
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11 12 Regenerative Braking (kWh) C
12 13 Service 1 Service 2
13 14 Forward Backwar Total Forward Backwar Total

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15 11.8163 11.778
d 23.5943 5.59 5.452
d 11.042
14 16

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15 17 Overall Energy Consumption (Consumed−Regenerative)(kWh) D
18 Service 1 Service 2
16 19 Forward Backwar Total Forward Backwar Total
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20 15.6375 15.571
d 31.2085 7.6697 9.324
d 16.9937
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For A Sustainable Operation of Baghdad Elevated Train (BET):
5 System Analysis and Design
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9 Abstract: The most populated city in Iraq, Baghdad, has serious public transit issues that cause traffic
10 jams, air pollution, and financial losses. The Baghdad Elevated Train (BET), an electric train system

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11 intended to pass through the most crowded areas of the city, was proposed by the Iraqi government
12 to address these problems. The purpose of this study is to look at how much electricity is needed to
13 run the BET system. A thorough examination of the BET's operating parameters, including as driving

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14 speed limitations, track grade, locomotive type, and station design, was carried out. The study then

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15 assessed the electrical energy needed to run the BET system and computed the forward and reverse
16 train driving speeds. According to the findings, the BET system can handle up to 30 trains at once,
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using an estimated 397.05 kWh of energy. Policymakers and engineers may improve the layout and
18 functionality of the train system, reduce energy usage, and encourage sustainable urban growth in
19 Bagdad with the help of this study's insightful information about the BET system's energy

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requirements.
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24 Keywords: Baghdad Elevated Train (BET), Electrical energy consumption, Sustainable urban transit, Traffic
25 congestion mitigation
26
27 INTRODUCTION

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Iraq's population has grown significantly during the past few decades. According to world
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statistics, the population of Iraq expanded by 73.7% between 1998 and 2018 (Iraq Population,
31 2025)(Al-Yozbaky & Khalel, 2022). Baghdad is the capital and the largest city of Iraq. It is a very
crowded metropolis with a population of over 7 million and an expected increase to 11 million by

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33 2030 (Alwehab & Al Ani, 2015). More than 30,000 people reside in each square kilometer in Iraq.
34 So, nearly 20% of the country's total population live in Baghdad (Mohamedmeki & Al-Mumaiz,
35 2021). Since 1960, Baghdad's size has increased by more than five times, while its population has

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36 linearly climbed from 500,000 in 1950 to 7.2 million in 2018 (Mohamedmeki & Al-Mumaiz, 2021).
37 The need for fast transportation services increases very rapidly as a result of the rapid increase in
38 population. The number of private cars in Baghdad increased after 2003 and is estimated at an average

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39 of 1.68 cars per house (Ahmed Alkawaaz & Moutaz Asmael, 2018). As a result, congested roadways
40 have become a major problem, particularly, those directed to the city center. Over the past 3 decades,
41 there have been no significant transportation-related infrastructure developments in the city

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42 (Mohamedmeki & Al-Mumaiz, 2021) (Asmael & Waheed, 2023). Lack of effective planning for the
43 city's public transportation system leads an increase in private share that results the traffic gets worse
44 and expansion travel times; all of which have an adverse impact on users, the economy and the

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environment due to higher emissions and massive fuel consumption (Asmael & Waheed, 2022) (Ali
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& Al-Hemiary, 2023).
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Long-term transportation planning decisions are made through the process of urban
49 transportation planning (Ellk et al., 2024). In 1986, Scott Wilson Kirkpatrick & Partners proposed an
50 urban transportation plan that included a mass transit system based on Dual metro lines in addition to
51 the bus transit system in order to meet the forecasted higher demand requirement in response to fast
52 urban expansion and rising travel demand (Al-Taee et al., 2017). Their proposed system was based
53 on the forecasted travel data unto the year 2000 (Ahmed Alkawaaz & Moutaz Asmael, 2018).
54 However, the metro project is not constructed until now and the forecasted travel data of the project
55 is currently out of date. Consequently, it is appropriate to concentrate on developing, implementing,
56 and evaluating a sustainable transportation system to resolve the city's transportation-related
57 problems in order to overcome the city's congestion problems, carbon emissions, and economic
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3 malaise. Therefore, it's crucial to revise the urban transportation plan based on the forecasted changes
4 in population and mobility, at least up to the year 2035.
5 In order to improve the traffic congestion problem, the Iraqi government has decided to initiate
6 Baghdad Elevated Train (BET) project (Hussein & Asmael, 2021). Iraqi government with Alstom (a
7 French company) signed a memorandum of understanding, in December 2017, to establish light rail
8 projects in two cities: Baghdad and Basra. In October 2020, an Alstom-led Consortium, along with
9 its partner Hyundai Engineering & Construction, signed a letter of intent with Iraqi government to
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define BET framework including all necessary steps to accelerate project implementation. The BET

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project is about 20km electrified train line with 14 stations, that travels across the most congested
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zones in the city. But in Iraq, there is a very serious problem with supply of electricity. For long

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14 period of time, electricity shortage is a problem in Iraq; it began in the early of 1980s. Due to a rising

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15 demand, Iraq does experience a growing electricity shortage. Electrical power stations are unable to
16 meet the demand for power, due to their inadequate production capacity and numerous problems
17 brought on by deterioration. Iraq needs more electricity every day as a result of rising demand and

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18 population growth. Improving electrical power situation is required to promote economic growth as
19 well as to make up for everyday electricity shortages.

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20 Iraq's Electrical power stations typically have low capacity factors because of several issues
21 including components age, fuel shortages, breakdowns, or the need for annual maintenance (Ersoy &
22 Terrapon-pfaff, 2021). In 2008 according to the Ministry of Electricity, 6 GW was electrical power
23 supplied, although, the peak demand was between 12 GW to 15 GW of electrical power (Chaichan

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24 & Kazem, 2018). In 2013, the economic cost of the electricity shortages was estimated to be more
25 than 22 billion USD; a significant cost is given because of inability to meet the basic needs such as
26 education and healthcare (Ersoy & Terrapon-pfaff, 2021). The power stations that produce electricity
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is often dominated by oil and natural gas. In last decade, natural gas consumption in the Iraqi power
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stations has increased to the point where it now matches oil use in the production of electricity (Ersoy
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& Terrapon-pfaff, 2021). This led to a shortage in supplied gas. Iraq government solved that gas

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shortage by importing around 50 million cubic meters of gas per day from Iran. Imported Iranian gas
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can participate around 1.2 GW of Iraqi electricity demand. Electrical railways demand enormous

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33 amounts of electricity. Some railway networks operate their own dedicated power stations. Because
34 fossil fuels are rapidly decreasing and are hazardous to the environment, there is an urgent need to
35 transition to renewable energy sources. Solar energy is the primary source of all fossil fuels found on

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36 earth, including petroleum oils, natural gas, and coal. Solar energy can be used to generate power for
37 the national grid using grid-connected photovoltaic (PV) systems, as well as in the transportation
38 industry (Jaffery et al., 2014)(Nazir, 2019).

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39 As a result, this technology is extremely valuable because it addresses two of the world's
40 biggest energy and environmental issues simultaneously. This is an exceptional attribute in and of
41 itself, which renders it important to success in the future. While an urban railway system is not

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42 something new, the use of solar electricity on such a system has sparked significant scientific attention
43 (Jaffery et al., 2012). An effective railway system that uses solar energy needs to be appropriately
44 placed facing sun insolation and thus raised to minimize shading from surrounding buildings and

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45 constructions. In Baghdad city where there are few high-rise skyscrapers, make it a perfect place to
46 get a fair share of the sunlight that could make a solar-powered urban railway a reality. As can be
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seen from the information above, there are numerous problems with the power and electricity sectors
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in Iraq. Therefore, the aim of this study is to provide an answer to a crucial question: how much
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50 electricity must be provided to operate the planned BET. In order to answer this question, it is first
51 necessary to evaluate the operation of the BET locomotive. Then, an assessment of the planned
52 stations and lines is necessary. After that, the entire amount of electricity required to operate BET can
53 be evaluated. Section 2, of this paper, reviews the Iraqi government's strategy for mitigate the
54 transportation problem in Baghdad, as well as the section covered the locomotives and stations of the
55 lines. The tools used to simulate the route, train operation and stations are shown in section 3. The
56 results are given in section 4 while section 5 presents the conclusions.
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3 PROPOSED PLAN
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The project of metro Baghdad, as mentioned above, is not something new. It first proposed in
6 eighties of last century. Proposed project consists of two lines that are intercross at Khalani station.
7 However, Iraqi government, in 2017, signed a memorandum of understanding with Alstom company
8 that let it come up with a new metro project for Baghdad city. In October 2020, an Alstom-led
9 Consortium, together with its partner Hyundai Engineering & Construction, signed a letter of
10 intent with the Iraqi Ministry of Transport to define a framework for all the appropriate steps to

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11 accelerate the implementation of the project. The agreement covers the provision of all construction
12 works, including civil works for preparation tracks and the electromechanical systems, in addition to
13 the rolling stock. The planned project is about a 20-kilometer route with 14 stations. In late 2022,

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14 Iraqi government and parliament determined the budget for establishing the BET project.

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15 There are studies have been carried out by academic researchers on the proposed BET plan. An
16 overview of the sustainable urban transport of Baghdad city was presented by Al-Janabi and
17 Kwasiborska 2021. The study presented a case study for developing urban transport in Baghdad to

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18 evaluate public transport of BET, Baghdad Underground Metro (BUM) and Bus Rapid Transit (BRT).
19 The results showed the BRT system could provide the required aspects of sustainable transport with

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lowest implementation cost and time (Al-Janabi & Kwasiborska, 2021). Hussein and Asmael, 2021,
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evaluated the benefits that installation of the proposed BET could bring to the residents of Baghdad,
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by using a geographic information system (GIS). The results showed that the BET reduced the travel
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24 time between Sadr City to four chosen areas by the following percentages (62%, 40%, 46%, and 65%)
25 respectively, taking into account the population of each area (A. Hussein & M. Asmael, 2022). In
26 another study by Hussein and Asmael, 2021, the benefits of installing a BET line were evaluated
27 based on the accessibility to the transportation networks between the two sides of Baghdad (Karkh

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28 and Rusafah). The results showed that the BET could cause a remarkable improvement in the
29 accessibility between the six chosen areas in Rusafah to one area in Karkh. This was through reducing

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30 the travel time and creating a direct connection between the studied areas taking into account their
31 population (Hussein & Asmael, 2021). This study focuses on the electricity required to operate the

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32 planned BET. In the following, more detail of the stations and the rolling stock will be provided.
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1. Stations
35 The BET project is planned to start from the north of Baghdad then continuous to the east in the

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36 Rusafah side of the city. Next, the line is continuous to cross the Tigris River, toward the west, by the
37 Sarafia Bridge to the Karkh side of the city. After that, the line is divided into two lines one toward
38 northwest and the other toward southeast. There are nine stations located in the Rusafah side starting

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39 with Shaab station and ending with Sarafiya Bridge station. On the Karkh side, there are five stations
40 starting with Baratha station, where the line is split toward one end at the Kadhimiya station and the
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other end at the Allawi station. The route of the train can be separated into two services. Service 1 is
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about 12 km long, starting from Shaab station to Baratha station and back. Service 2 is about 8 km
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long, starting from Kadhimiya station to Allawi station and back, passing through Baratha station.
Figure 1 shows the BET planned line and location of the stations on the map. Figure 2 shows the line

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46 length and the distance between stations.
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20 Figure 1. A) The planned BET, B) the location of the stations on the map, according to the general company for Iraqi
21 Railways IRR (Hussein & Asmael, 2021) (A. Hussein & M. Asmael, 2022).
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Service 1
23 0 12 km

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Shaab
24 Tujar Intersection 2 km 10 km
25 Benouk 3 km 9 km
26 Sadr 4.5 km 7.5 km
Jamila 5.5 km 6.5 km
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Qanat Al-Jaish 6.5 km 5.5 km
28 Mustansiriya 8 km 4 km
29 Mohamed Al-Qasim 9 km 3 km

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30 Sarafiya Bridge 10.5 km 1.5 km
Baratha 12 km 0
31 0 1.6 km 4 km 5.8 km 8 km
Service 2

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32 8 6.4 km 4 km 2.2 km 0
33 AbdulMuhsin
Kadhimiya Baratha Muthana Airport Allawi
Al-Kadhimi
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Figure 2. The line length and the distance between stations
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2. Rolling stock
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38 The agreement between Alstom and Iraqi Ministry of Transport includes supplying the rolling

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39 stock and the electromechanical systems. Based on the declaration of Alstom, the BET is a light rail
40 system (Alstom, 2020). In the railway terminology, light rail system is a railway system normally
41 used to fill the gap between an underground railway system and a traditional tram railway system

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42 (Hass-Klau et al., 2007). Therefore, BET project is an elevated railway system.
43 Alstom has different railway systems such as metropolis and light rail systems for urban cities.
44 Alstom metropolis category is for high capacity metro system. Alstom light rail category has three

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families which are Citadis, Flexity and Innovia (Alstom, 2025). Citadis family is a railway system
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for low-floor trams, Flexity family is practically for streetcars trams and Innovia family is an
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automated rapid transit system for a metro or monorail railway, which are most likely to be elevated.
49 Therefore, the characteristics of Alstom Innovia rolling stock are adjusted for BET in this study.
50 Alstom is already supplied numerous Innovia metros and monorails around the world, for example,
51 Riyadh, Dubai, Cairo, Kuala Lumpur, São Paulo and New York City (Alstom, 2025). Riyadh railway
52 system is the most recent system which is expected to be finished and starts operation in 2025. The
53 rolling stocks of Riyadh railway system consists of Innovia metro and Innovia monorail. There are
54 generally three generations of Innovia rolling stocks: 100, 200 and 300. Innovia 300 will be supplied
55 to Riyadh system. The general characteristics of Alstom Innovia 300 rolling stock can be summarized
56 as follows (Alstom, 2025)(Bombardier Transportation, 2010):
57 • Train consists of 2- to 8-car trains (normally 2-car)
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3 • Vehicle length is 13.210 meters and width is 3.147 meters
4 • Maximum train speed is 80 km/h
5 • Vehicle weight empty is 14 tons
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• Acceleration rate (service) is 1.0 m/s2
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8 • Brake rate is 1.0 m/s2
9 • Vehicle capacity (standees + seated) is about 100 passengers
10 • Power is 750V dc and rated power of traction is 75 kW
• Braking system supports regenerative power.

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12 Based on the above characteristics, this study assumed the train consists of 2-car, as shown in Figure
13 3. Consequently, the train length is (13.21*2-car =) 26.42 meters. The train weight is (14*2-car =)

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14 28 tons; in addition to the passengers’ weight which is assumed as (75kg per passenger *200 typical

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15 2-car capacity =) 15 tons. Accordingly, the total train mass with passengers is around 43 tons. The
16 rated power of traction (cars is 75*2-car =) 150 kW.
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24 Figure 3. The BET layout
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26 Moreover, the train supports regenerative braking which is the ability to convert the wasted
27 kinetic energy into electrical energy during braking or driving downhill (Godfrey, 2024) (Tang &

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28 Zhang, 2023). The process involves using the electric motor during braking operation as a generator,
29 on top of slowing the train down (Park et al., 2023). Regenerative braking theoretically can recover

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30 60% to 80% of the wasted kinetic energy during braking which it could save from 13% up to 50% of
31 the consumed energy depending on railway type, driving condition and line slope (Douglas et al.,

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32 2015) (Watson, 2012) (Guo, 2015). The above adapted train data, in addition to the Alstom listed
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properties, are used to consider BET performance in this study.
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METHODOLOGY
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37 This study intends to evaluate the total power required to operate BET. The train operation is
38 considered by using data of the vehicle and the route to calculate the train motion (Xu et al., 2024)

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39 (Douglas et al., 2016). The vehicle date is summarized in the above section. The route data is the line
40 speed limit, the gradient profile of the line, the location of the stations and the dwell time at stations.
41 The speed limit of the line is 70 km/h along the line except on the Sarafiya bridge where the speed

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42 limit is 50 km/h and from the bridge till Baratha station is 60km/h. The gradient profile of the line is
43 extracted from geomatic map of the line. The location of the stations is considered as shown in Figure
44 2. The dwell time, for passengers boarding and alighting from a train, is 30 sec at each station, except

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45 for the start and end stations of the journey (Feng et al., 2024). The train motion is considered by
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calculating the tractive effort required for train movement based on Lomonossoff’s equation
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(Lomonossoff, 1933). More details about calculating train movement are given in (Douglas et al.,
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2016). The train movement, speed and time are calculated based on distance steps. To obtain high
50 accuracy, the distance step in this study is 1-meter; in other words, the train’s speed and time are
51 recalculated for each meter of the journey. To precisely evaluate the acceleration curve and braking
52 curve, a forward and backward calculation of the speed profile is performed (Kang, 2014). To
53 calculate the power 𝑃 required to run the train at the calculated speed 𝑉 can be obtained by 𝑃 = 𝐹𝑉
54 (Lu et al., 2010) where 𝐹 is the tractive effort. To calculate the energy 𝐸 required to run the train at
55 the calculated speed can be obtained by 𝐸 = 𝑃𝑡 (Douglas et al., 2016) where 𝑡 is the time required to
56 pass the considered distance step which is 1-meter. The train movement have been calculated in
57 MATLAB R2025a (MATLAB R2025a, 2025). As mentioned earlier, the route of the train is divided
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3 into two services. Service 1 is about 12 km long and service 2 is about 8 km long. Figure 4 shows the
4 extracted gradient profile for the lines of services. It is clear that the altitude of the line of service 1
5 has a slight undulation, down and up, not more than 5 meters from zero altitude at Shaab station and
6 the altitude of the line of service 2 descends approximately 7 meters, along the line, from zero altitude
7 at Kadhimiya station.
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20 Figure 4. The gradient profile of (A) service 1, (B) service 2
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22 RESULTS
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24 The above information is used to calculate the train movement and speed profile. The train
25 speed is calculated based on acceleration and braking rates of 1 m/s2 and a maximum power of 150
26 kW. In general, the train speed profile consists of three curves: acceleration curve, cruising curve and
27 braking curve (Zhao et al., 2014)(Zhao et al., 2012)(Xian et al., 2024)(Johnson & Brown, 2010)(Han

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28 et al., 1999). Cruising curve is when the train runs at stable speed with zero acceleration (Hamid et
29 al., 2016). Figure 5 demonstrates the train speed profile (blue line) with line speed limits (red dashed

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30 line), where the locations of stations for both services are as shown in Figure 2.
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41 Figure 5 the train speed profile of (A) service 1, (B) service 2

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43 It can be noted from the Figure 5 that the train needs at least 0.7 km to reach the limited speed,
44 which is mostly 70 km. It is also observed that the braking curve for train, at speed 70 km, is about

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45 0.31 km. Therefore, there was no cruising curve on some trips where the train started braking before
46 reached the line speed limit. Moreover, the results showed that the total journey time for service 1
47 was about 20 minutes and for service 2 wad about 10 minutes. Figure 6 illustrates the total journey
48 time and the 30 sec dwell time at each stop station. From Figure 6, it can be concluded that the travel
49 time for a passenger from Shaab station to Kadhimiya station is about 25 and no more than 27
50 minutes, including the time of getting off and then getting in the train. This is because service 1 is
51 ended at Baratha station which is actually located in the middle of the line of service 2, as shown in
52 Figure 2.
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12 Figure 6. The journey time of (A) service 1, (B) service 2
13

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The calculated train movement have been done based on the maximum power of train which
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is 150 kW. Figure 7 illustrates applied power (green line) to run the train at the calculated speed

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16 profile (blue line); it demonstrates the relation between the speed profile km/h and the applied train
17 power kW (times x10-1, to simplify the comparison between curves). The results in Figure 7 showed

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18 that the maximum power, 15x10 kW, was applied in the acceleration driving mode, then the power
19 was fell down to a low level, about 2x10 kW, at the cruising driving mode, finally, the power was

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20 dropped to zero at braking driving mode.
21 It also could be seen from Figure 7 that the power at the cruising driving mode was various;
22 it was between 1.6x10 kW and 2.9x10 kW. This is because the effect of the force due to the gradient.
23 The force due to the gradient depends on the slope angle of the line. The difference in the gradient

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24 profile along the line caused a difference in applied power to keep the train running at required speed.
25 The effect of the force due to the gradient appeared in Figure 7 clearly at the cruising driving mode
26 because the train was running at an almost constant speed.
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38 Figure 7. The speed and power profile of (A) service 1, (B) service 2

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40 The operation data of a service in a forward direction should be very similar to the data of a
41 backward direction. Table 1 demonstrates the results of journey time and energy of service1 and

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42 service 2 in each direction as well as the total journey (i.e. from the first to the last station and return
43 back to the first station).
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3 Table 1: The results of (A) journey time, (B) consumed energy, (C) regenerative braking and (D) overall energy
4 Journey Time (sec) A
5 Service 1 Service 2
6 Forward Backward Total Forward Backward Total
1162 1163 2325 630 634 1264
7
8 Consumed Energy (kWh) B
9 Service 1 Service 2
10 Forward Backward Total Forward Backward Total
27.4538 27.349 54.8028 13.2597 14.776 28.0357

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12 Regenerative Braking (kWh) C
13 Service 1 Service 2

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14 Forward Backward Total Forward Backward Total

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15 11.8163 11.778 23.5943 5.59 5.452 11.042
16 Overall Energy Consumption (Consumed−Regenerative)(kWh) D
17 Service 1 Service 2

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18 Forward Backward Total Forward Backward Total
19 15.6375 15.571 31.2085 7.6697 9.324 16.9937

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21 From Table 1, the forward and backward journey time were similar for both services. The
22 total consumed energy of service 1 was about 54.8 kWh where the consumed energy was
23 approximately equal between forward and backward journey. The total consumed energy of service

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24 2 was about 28 kWh where the consumed energy of backward journey was higher than forward
25 journey by 1.5 kWh. Also, regenerative braking energy in general was more than 40% except the
26 backward of service 2 where was about 36.9%. This is because the line slope of the services 2 is a
27 downhill as shown in Figure 4 (B). This resulted in a lower energy consumption and higher

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28 regenerative braking energy in the forward downhill journey while higher energy consumption and
29 lower regenerative braking energy in the backward uphill journey.

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31 The overall energy consumption for complete trip of service 1 is about 31.2 kWh. The overall

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32 energy consumption for complete trip of service 2 is about 16.99 kWh. By comparing the length of
33 the services, the length of service 2 is about 66.6 % of the length of service 1. Based on the percentage
34 of line lengths, the overall energy consumption of service 2 should be around 20.78 kWh when in
35

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fact it is about 16.99 kWh, due to the undulation of the line of service 1 and the slope of the line of
36 service 2.
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38 To calculate the energy required to launch BET services, the number of trains on the line at

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39 the same time in peak hour should be considered. Taking into assumption that the normal train
40 headway is 2 minutes; this means that a train departs every 2 minutes. Thus, the number of trains at
41 the same time, in one direction, on service 1 is about 10 trains and on service 2 is about 5 trains,

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42 depending on the journey time of the services, as shown in Figure 6. Therefore, the number of trains
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in service 1 in both directions is 20 and in service 2 is 10, so the total BET trains running at the same
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time is about 30 trains. Consequently, based on the train power, which is 150 kW, the total power to

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46 run 30 trains on tracks at the same time is 150*30= 4500 kW. Moreover, the total energy required to
47 operate BET is about (15.64*10+15.57*10+7.67*5+9.32*5) = 397.05 kWh. However, this result
48 depends on how BET is operated, that is, how services are divided and how much headway is
49 considered since the total number of trains at the same time can be determined.
50
51 In addition to using regenerative braking energy, an optimized train speed profile can be used to
52 reduce train energy consumption, although the use of an optimized train speed profile has less benefit
53 on urban railways than on intercity railways (Ahmadi et al., 2017)(Deng et al., 2024). This is because
54 urban railways have low-speed trains and short journeys while intercity railways have almost high-
55 speed trains and a long distance between departure and destination stations (Pu et al., 2022)(Sun et
56 al., 2023).
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3 The BET train has an elevated track, as shown in Figure 3, making it in an ideal position to
4 get a large share of sunlight. Moreover, BET train has a large surface area with about 26 meters long
5 and 3 meters wide. Thus, the solar-powered train system is not far from achievement. This study
6 proposed using BET vehicles with solar panels mounted on top to participate in part of power required
7 to operate the BET. This means that the large surface area of BET can be covered with arrays of
8 photovoltaics (PV) units to generate electricity from sunshine.
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10 The typical dimensions of (JA Solar 550W Solar Panel Bifacial JAM72D30-550/MB) are

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11 227.8 cm x 113.4 cm (JA Solar, 2025). This means that the BET can carry 22 panel divided into 11
12 panel in each vehicle. As a result, these panel can provide about 12.1 kW during a sunny day. On the
13

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other side, railway trains operate on pre-defined tracks and pre-defined starting and stopping stations;
14 thus, each station can be equipped with a solar power system that feeds into the main electricity grid

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and thus participates in providing the power required to operate the trains (Jaffery et al., 2014)(Nazir,
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2019).
17

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18 CONCLUSIONS
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20 BET is a key project aimed to solve the transportation challenges in Baghdad city. This study
21 provides a comprehensive assessment of the energy required to operate the planned BET, while Iraq
22 suffers from a serious issue with supplying electrical energy. The planned BET offers a sustainable
23 public transport, which can reduce traffic congestion, pollution, travel time and consumed fossil fuel

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24 in addition to environmental improvement. The study evaluates the infrastructure of the route, the
25 characteristics of the trains and the distances between stations. The results show that total number of
26 trains that can operate on BET at the same time is about 30 trains, with assumptions 2 minutes
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headway. Accordingly, the power required to operate 30 BET trains simultaneously is 4500 kW and
28 the consumed energy 397.05 kWh. The train’s regenerative braking system has a significant role in
29 reducing trains’ energy consumption. Furthermore, focus on optimizing energy consumption and

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integrating renewable energy sources to ensure the project's long-term sustainability can be carried
31
out in the future work.

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