Urban Planner & L’Orient LeJour Feature Reporter Mohamed el Chamaa shared this amazing historic map of rail links in Lebanon (via Elena Haddad, The Chain Effect co-founder). As you can see, the rails covered all of Lebanon and included a direct line to Damascus through Rayak. The last trip from Beirut to the Syrian border was back in 1976, according to Assaad Namrud, who drove the train on that line.
Unfortunately, the Lebanese authorities still have no plans to invest in the sector, or improve public transport methods as a whole.
Check out the map:
