Dakar – Niger railway line

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Dakar - Koulikoro
Section of the Dakar – Niger railway line
Route length: 1287 km
Gauge : 1000 mm ( meter gauge )
Maximum slope : 25 
Minimum radius : 200 m
End station - start of the route
Dakar
Stop, stop
Rufisque
Stop, stop
Sébikotane
Station, station
Thiès
BSicon KRW + l.svgBSicon KRWgr.svgBSicon .svg
BSicon STR.svgBSicon HST.svgBSicon .svg
Tivaouane
BSicon STR.svgBSicon xABZgl.svgBSicon KHSTeq.svg
Darou Khoudoss
BSicon STR.svgBSicon exHST.svgBSicon .svg
Louga
BSicon STR.svgBSicon exABZgl.svgBSicon exKBHFeq.svg
Saint-Louis
BSicon STR.svgBSicon exKHSTe.svgBSicon .svg
Linguère
BSicon KRWl.svgBSicon KRW + r.svgBSicon .svg
Stop, stop
Bambey
Stop, stop
Diourbel
BSicon .svgBSicon KRWgl.svgBSicon KRW + r.svg
BSicon .svgBSicon STR.svgBSicon KHSTxe.svg
Mbacké
BSicon .svgBSicon STR.svgBSicon exKBHFe.svg
Touba
Stop, stop
Guinguinéo
BSicon exKBHFaq.svgBSicon eABZgr.svgBSicon .svg
Kaolack
Stop, stop
Howl
Stop, stop
Tambacounda
Stop, stop
Goudiry
Station, station
Kidira
   
Falémé - Bridge of Kidira , Senegal / Mali border
Station, station
Kayes
Stop, stop
Diamou
Stop, stop
Qualia
Stop, stop
Day care center
Station, station
Bamako
Stop ... - end of the route
Koulikoro
Freight train of the Dakar-Niger Railway in Senegal
Kidira station : border station between Senegal and Mali

The Dakar – Niger railway line ( French Chemin de fer Dakar-Niger , abbreviated DN ) connects Dakar in Senegal with Koulikoro in Mali in a gauge of 1,000 millimeters. The 1287 km long route, 641 km of which is in Mali, leads via Thiès in Senegal and Kayes , Kita , Kati and Bamako in Mali. It was the first railway in West Africa south of the Sahara and was the main railway line in the French -Saharan Africa .

history

The Dakar – Niger route was built in three stages:

  • From 1882 to 1885 the 264 km long Dakar – Saint-Louis route was created by the private company DSL . The reason for the construction of this line was, on the one hand, the impossibility of keeping the fairway from the mouth of the Senegal River to the port of Saint-Louis, at that time the capital of French West Africa , free of sandbanks for shipping and, on the other hand, the Bay of Dakar ideal conditions for the construction of a deep water harbor .
  • Between 1881 and 1904, the 555 km long Kayes - Koulikoro section was built by the military to connect the navigable sections of the Senegal and Niger rivers . The construction work was carried out under the French General Gallieni , who was governor of French Sudan at the time. The transport of raw materials was made easier because they could be transported from the French Sudan on the Niger to Koulikoro, then by rail to Kayes and from there on the Senegal River to the Atlantic.
  • From 1907 to 1923 the 667 km long Thiès – Kayes section with the branches to Kaolack , Linguère and Touba was built, making the line passable throughout. The curve radius was at least 500 meters, the greatest gradient is 10 per thousand (10 mm) and with a length of 200 meters, the Kidira railway bridge over the Falémé is the largest bridge on this section of the route.

In 1934 the private company DSL was nationalized and the railway line was placed under administration. From then on, it was operated as the Dakar-Niger Region of the Régie des chemins de fer de l'AOF ("Dakar-Niger Region" of the " French West African Railway Administration "). The railway administration and the central workshop were located 40 km east of Dakar in Thiès, where the line branches off to Saint-Louis and Bamalo. Until then, the line had been expanded to two lanes, the rest of the line is single lane.

In 1947 the railway employees went on strike for several months in order to obtain the same rights as the French railway workers. This successful strike was celebrated as a turning point in the anti-colonial struggle by the Senegalese writer Ousmane Sembène in his work Gottes Holzstücke , published in 1960 .

Development after independence

With the independence of Mali and Senegal, which was achieved through the collapse of the Mali Federation , the management of the railway line was divided between two national railway companies, the Régie des chemins de fer du Mali (RCFM) and the Régie sénégalaise . However, the administrative difficulties and lack of investment resulted in a deterioration in infrastructure and rolling stock, as well as numerous delays.

In October 2003, Senegal and Mali handed management over to Transrail , a Franco-Canadian consortium . Contrary to the original task of maintaining passenger train traffic, Transrail planned to concentrate on the transport of goods. Many train stations were closed and the number of connections reduced, which worsened the situation of remote communities.

In mid-2007, the railway was bought by the Belgian company Vecturis . This intended to continuously improve the bad track and vehicle condition.

In December 2015, the two governments decided to end the Transrail concession. The new company Dakar Bamako Ferroviaire was founded for the operation .

Expansion plans

In the spring of 2007, Senegal's President Abdoulaye Wade announced a series of large-scale projects ("grands projets") for the further development and development of the country, some of which also affect the Dakar-Niger railway line:

  • Construction of a third track between Dakar and Thiès (including connection to the major Blaise Diagne airport currently under construction); approximately 72.5 billion FCFA ;
  • Change of gauge of the Dakar – Tambacounda – Kidira (= border with Mali) to standard gauge ; approximately 435 billion FCFA;
  • New construction of the Thiès – Saint-Louis branch line in standard gauge; 145 billion FCFA;

At the beginning of January 2012, President Wade announced that the route would be upgraded with electrification. The work was originally supposed to start in 2012, starting from Dakar, in the Senegalese section.

In 2015/16 the governments of Senegal and Mali signed a contract with the Chinese China Railway Construction Corporation to expand the line.

In December 2016, construction began on a standard-gauge branch line from the city center of Dakar to the new Dakar-Blaise Diagne Airport in Diass, 55 kilometers away . The opening was planned for the end of 2018. The first 36 km long construction phase from Dakar train station to Diamniadio was ceremoniously opened on January 14, 2019 in the presence of President Macky Sall , although not all the work necessary for the scheduled operation had yet been completed. The second construction phase up to the airport should be completed in 2020.

statistics

Tableau comparatif des exportations par rail : No sources are given for this service, which shows the number of tonnes exported.

product 1924 1934 1952-3 1955-6
shelled peanuts - 7,422 7,250 -
unpeeled peanuts 4.125 1,990 55,000 147,900
Gum arabic 936 1,196 1,000 1,500
Karité nuts 416 2,690 9,750 -
Animal skins 787 841 10,000 -
cotton - 185 - 18,200
millet 236 - - 850,000

In 1933 there were 650,000 travelers and in 1938 even 2,650,000. These were mainly seasonal workers from the French Sudan and Guinea, who traveled to Senegal in May to June and returned to their homeland in December to January. There was also pilgrimage to Touba and Tivaouane .

Branch lines

The branch lines of the main Dakar – Bamako line are

  • Thiès – Saint-Louis, main line of the former DSL , discontinued from Tivaouane.
  • Tivaouane - Darou Khoudoss , branching off from Thiès – Saint-Louis
  • Louga - Linguère branching off from Thiès – Saint-Louis, built at the end of the 1920s, ceased operations
  • Guinguinéo - Kaolack branching off from the main line, discontinued
  • Diourbel - Mbacké (- Touba ), branching off the main line, set in the urban area of ​​Touba.

photos

literature

  • M. McLane: The Senegal-Niger Railway, 1800–1904: A Case Study in Imperialism , University of Wisconsin, 1969.
  • Le Chemin de fer de Thiès au Niger , Afrique-Occidentale française. Governorate général / Libr. Larose, 1931.
  • Monique Lakroum: Chemin de fer et réseaux d'affaires en Afrique noire: Le Dakar-Niger (1890–1960) , université de Paris VII, 3 vol. 1987 (thèse d'État).
  • Birame Ndour: Éléments d'études sur le mouvement ouvrier dans les chemins de fer du Sénégal (1882–1938) , Paris, université de Paris VII, 1981, 67 p. (diplôme d'études approfondies).
  • Ousmane Sembène : Les Bouts de bois de Dieu , Plon, 1960 (fiction).
  • Mor Sène: La Grève des cheminots du Dakar-Niger 1947-1948 , Dakar, université de Dakar, 1987, 144 p. (mémoire de maîtrise).
  • Iba Der Thiam: La Grève des cheminots du Sénégal de septembre 1938 , Dakar, université de Dakar, 1972, 2 vol., 272 p. + 133 p. (mémoire de maîtrise).

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c d Jean Labasse: Le "Dakar-Niger" et sa zone d'action . In: Revue de geographie de Lyon . tape 29 , no. 3 , 1954, pp. 183-204 , doi : 10.3406 / geoca.1954.1959 .
  2. Ababacar CASE 2014: Le Ferlo sénégalais: Approche géographique de la vulnérabilité des anthroposystèmes sahéliens ; Map sketch with dates of the completion of sections of the railway on page 45 of the PDF file 17 MB
  3. George's pilot. Comité génie civil et bâtiment, IESF. November 2012: Ouvrages du génie civil francais dans le monde. Le chemin de fer Dakar Saint Louis (1882-1885). Le chemin de fer Dakar-Niger (1923) Page 3 of the PDF file 2.46 MB
  4. ^ Paris, Berger-Levrault, 1897; rédigée par le chef de bataillon du génie Rougier, Léon-Louis-Antoine (Commandant) et par le capitaine du génie Calmel, Jean Bernard (1865-19 ..): Le Chemin de fer du Sénégal au Niger
  5. L. Gallois. Annales de geographie , Année 1924: L'achèvement du chemin de fer de Thiès à Kayes (Afrique occidentale française)
  6. Le Monde diplomatique of February 9, 2007: Murder on the Dakar-Niger Express. Consequences of privatization in Senegal. ( Memento from September 29, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  7. Vecturis on Transrail ( Memento from June 28, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  8. ^ New operator for Dakar - Bamako railway. Railway Gazette, March 26, 2016, accessed February 17, 2017 .
  9. ^ New line to Bamako. Railway Gazette, February 16, 2012, accessed February 17, 2012 .
  10. ^ Keith Barrow: CRCC to upgrade Mali - Senegal railway . January 7, 2016.
  11. Work starts on Dakar airport rail link. Railway Gazette, December 16, 2016, accessed March 21, 2017 .
  12. Global Railway Review of January 11, 2019: First section of Dakar's Regional Express Train is completed
  13. ^ Jean-Claude Faur: La Mise en valeur ferroviaire de l'AOF (1880-1939) . Paris: Université de Paris, 1969 (= thesis)

Web links