Just like their American counterparts, Baghdad's commuters must contend with colossal traffic jams, heavy pollution and terrible parking. Of course, they also face a gauntlet of security checkpoints and the threat of roadside bombs. Rather than facing the daily grind behind the wheel, city residents have another option – a commuter train that travels from the suburbs to downtown.

The 15-mile line, a section of an old railway line damaged during the war and dormant for years, came online just a few days ago, offering Baghdad residents an alternative to slogging through the city's notorious gridlock. "The train is faster than cars, it avoids stopping in traffic jams and dozens of checkpoints that people obliged to pass through," an anonymous Iraqi Transport Ministry official told China's Xinhua news agency.

Tickets cost 1,000 Dinars, or about 80 cents, and some lucky commuters ride in what was Saddam Hussein's personal train, complete with chandeliers and Italian-made curtains. But as in America, many Iraqi commuters complain the trains don't run frequently enough and they say the stops are too far from work and home.

The commuter line makes several stops in both Sunni and Shiite neighborhoods as it runs from the mostly Shiite neighborhood of Kasimiyah north of the city to the mostly Sunni neighborhood of Yousifiyah south of the city. Every train stops at the blue-domed train station in central Baghdad (shown above and in the video below) that was once a stop on the famous Orient Express.

Abdul-Ameer Hamoud, Iraq's director of central transport, told the Associated Press the train would be the quickest way in and out of the city. "The arrival of a passenger by train is faster than by car to and from the center of

Baghdad," he said. A trip that would take more than an hour and a half by car may take only a few minutes by train. Rail travel also appears to be fairly safe by Iraqi standards. Xinhua reports that blast walls protect each station and riders are screened through metal detectors before boarding the trains.

Even with the added security and ease of use, Iraqis aren't thrilled about the location of stations. "I don't think the train would be better than cars, despite the city's checkpoints and congestion, because the growing of neighborhoods in Baghdad city is horizontal and our houses spread in wide areas in the capital," government employee Jaber al-Samarraie told Xinhua.

There is growing public irritation over Baghdad's increasing traffic congestion. City officials say 600,000 cars have flooded into the city in the five years since the U.S.-led invasion. Still, transport officials tell the AP they don't know how popular rail travel will be in Baghdad and the service may have trouble winning passengers.

Photo by Flickr user labanex**. Video by YouTube user USACEGRD.