- What is Levantrain?
- Levantrain is a community-driven project that imagines — and openly maps — a modern railway connecting the countries of the Levant and their neighbors. We’re assembling a sourced, honest record of the region’s real railway history and using it as the foundation for a concrete, buildable blueprint for what a future network could look like. It’s a hopeful thought experiment, pursued as serious, open work. More about the vision →
- Are you actually building a railway?
- No — not yet, and not by ourselves. Levantrain is a blueprint and a shared sketchbook, not a construction company. The aim is to do the imagining and the groundwork thoroughly enough that, if the moment ever comes, decision-makers have a rigorous proposal to pick up. For now that means a map, an open dataset, and a plan.
- Why “assume peace”?
- Because you can’t build toward a future you refuse to imagine. Attacking the hardest problems head-on rarely moves them; assuming they’re solved and designing what a connected region would then need is a way to make hopeful, concrete progress today.
- Which countries and railways does it cover?
- The Levant at the core — Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, and Palestine — plus the neighbors that were, or could be, connected to it: Turkey, Egypt, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia. We’re mapping the region’s historic lines and stations as the groundwork for imagining a modern network.
- Does the map show today’s trains or historic ones?
- For now, Levantrain maps the region’s historic railways — where the lines ran in the past. A “then and now” view that also shows today’s networks is on our wish list. Explore the map →
- How accurate is the map, and where does the data come from?
- Every station, route, and segment is traced to a source, and the map is honest about how sure we are — markers and lines carry a confidence level, from documented to best-guess. We never fake certainty: where we don’t know something precisely, we say so. The data draws on published references, dated archival maps, and OpenStreetMap, all cited.
- I spotted a mistake — can it be fixed?
- Please tell us — corrections make the map better, and it’s built to be community-checked. The quickest way is through our Community channels. If you can point to a source, even better.
- Can I use the data or the maps?
- The dataset is open, published under the Open Database License (ODbL) with OpenStreetMap attribution — you’ll find it on GitHub. A few historical images we display are third-party and shown by permission or linked, not ours to relicense — please check the credit shown with each.
- Do you have a political agenda?
- No. Levantrain is politically neutral. We don’t take positions on the region’s conflicts, and we don’t endorse any party, government, or narrative. The focus is infrastructure and shared history — things people across borders can work on together.
- Are you a non-profit?
- Not yet. Levantrain is a personal initiative, started by Tim Bonnemann. Once there’s traction, the goal is to either create a non-profit or run the project under non-profit fiscal sponsorship. A note from the founder →
- How is Levantrain funded, and can I support it?
- It runs on volunteer time, with no budget or paid staff today. The most valuable support right now isn’t money — it’s people: joining the community, improving the data, and spreading the word. (Funding fits in later, once there’s a non-profit or a fiscal sponsor in place.)
- How can I contribute?
- The Community page is the best place to start — take the map for a spin, share a memory or a correction, or bring skills we don’t have. It’s also where to follow along and meet others who find the idea worth building on.