Damascus, Syria—— Damascus's railway station was once the pride of the Syrian capital, serving as an important link between Europe and the Arabian Peninsula during the Ottoman Empire and later as a national transportation hub. But more than a decade of war left it in ruins, its walls riddled with bullets and twisted steel.

Remaining staff at Kadam station say they remain emotionally attached to the railway and hope it can survive, as the country has done, after leader Bashar al-Assad's swift and shocking fall last month revival.

On a recent day, train operator Mazen Marra led The Associated Press on a tour of charred train cars and workshops destroyed by gunfire. Shell casings were scattered on the ground.

Marat grew up near the station. His father, uncle and grandfather all worked there. Eventually he drove his own trains, working more than 12 hours a day.

"Trains are part of us," he sighed deeply, nostalgically, picking up what appeared to be a spent artillery shell and tossing it aside. "I won't see my kids as much as I used to." Train. "

Kadam Station was the anchor of the iconic Hijaz Railway, built in the early 1900s under the Ottoman Sultan Abdulhamid II to carry Muslim pilgrims from Europe and Asia via what is now Turkey Connected 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. During World War I, the railway soon became a target of Arab militants, backed by the British, French and other Allied forces, who eventually overthrew the Ottoman Empire.

Over the next few decades, Syria used parts of its railways to transport people between Damascus and its second city, Aleppo, as well as several towns and neighboring Jordan. Although the main station a few miles away remains intact and has since become a historic site and event hall, Tsadamu remains a busy home for workshops and railway operations staff.

As the train carriages were upgraded, the old wooden carriages were placed in museums. However, Kadam Station retains its structure of Ottoman stone and Marseille French brick.

But the war tore it apart after Assad cracked down on protesters demanding greater freedoms.

"The army turned this place into a military base," Marra said. Workers like him were dismissed.

The strategic importance of Kadam Station was too great for the soldiers to ignore. It gives Assad's forces an advantageous position in the main rebel stronghold of Damascus. Climb a flight of stairs and the office becomes a sniper's lair.

Slogans praising Assad and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, a key ally of the ousted leader, can still be seen on the walls.

"Wherever Assad goes, we kneel down and kiss him," one said.

The nearby Asali neighborhood is now mostly in ruins, a no-man's land between the station and the Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk, which became a rebel stronghold and has been besieged and besieged by government forces for years. bombing.

On at least one occasion in 2013, fighting spilled into a train station. Videos widely circulated online showed rebels firing assault rifles and hiding behind trains.

Marra and his family fled their home near the station and came to a nearby community. He heard the sounds of fighting but prayed that the station that had long been his family's livelihood would be unscathed.

Assad's forces cleared rebels from Damascus in 2018. Although severely damaged, the train station was briefly reopened as a symbol of victory and renewal. Syrian state media reported that the train would carry passengers to the annual Damascus International Fair. It showed images of happy passengers at the entrance and destination, but not of the massive damage to the station.

Syria's railways never returned to their former prosperity under Assad, and as the military continued to control much of Kadam, Marat never returned. Marra returned after Assad was ousted and the rebels who forced him from power became an interim government.

He found his home destroyed. He described the station as "a part of my soul" but it was badly damaged.

"What we saw was tragic," he said. "It's unbelievable. It's heartbreaking."

The train cars were damaged and burned. Some are piles of scrap. Museums were looted and old trains were dismantled and sold on the Syrian black market.

"Everything was stolen. Copper, cables, tools - it was all gone," Marra said.

The train's distinctive wooden planks disappeared. Marra and others believe Assad's fighters used them for firewood during harsh winters.

In what was once a no-man's land, packs of stray dogs bark in search of food. Railway workers and family members who live at the train station said there was an urban legend circulating that the dogs ate the bodies of prisoners killed and discarded late at night by Assad's notorious network of intelligence agencies.

Now, Malla and others hope the railway can clear away the rubble and dark past and become a central part of Syria's postwar economic renaissance and international isolation. They dreamed of railways helping the country regain its former status as a key link between Europe and the Middle East.

There is still much work to be done. According to the United Nations, Syria has a population of more than 23 million, about 90% of whom live in poverty. Infrastructure was extensively damaged. Sanctions imposed by the West during the war continue.

But neighboring Türkiye has expressed interest in reviving the rail line to Damascus as part of efforts to boost trade and investment.

The prospect excited Marla, whose son Malik spent much of his teenage years surviving the war. At his age, his father and uncle were already learning how to operate steam engines.

"I hope there will be job opportunities soon so my son can be employed," Marra said. "So he can revive the bloodline of his grandfather, and the bloodline of his grandfather's grandfather."