Railway line from Wadi Halfa to Kerma
| Wadi Halfa-Kerma | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Route length: | 327 km | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gauge : | 1067 mm ( cape track ) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Wadi Halfa – Kerma railway was the first railway line built in Sudan .
occasion
The central transport route in Sudan, given by nature, is the Nile . However, it is not continuously navigable south of Aswan , as six cataracts interrupt it between Khartoum and Aswan . For traffic, this meant a short distance of land transport and two reloading to and from the river boats. This procedure increased the transport costs enormously and took a lot of time.
construction
The Egyptian government therefore used the railway technology available at the end of the 19th century to overcome this difficulty and advance into Sudan. On February 15, 1875, from Wadi Halfa (Anqasch), the construction of a route in Kapspur was started, which should bypass the 2nd and 3rd cataracts on the right bank of the river and lead to Dongola . A first section went into operation in 1877. The project had to be stopped after about 200 km due to lack of money. The work was taken over by the British but stopped again in 1885 due to the political situation and the death of General Charles George Gordon . It was not until the British war against the Mahdists at the end of 1896 that work was resumed and the line to Kerma was completed in 1897 . Compared to the original plan, Dongola was never reached.
The End
On the same occasion, which also led to the further construction of the railway to Kerma, namely the war of the British against the Mahdists, the Wadi Halfa – Khartoum railway was also advanced from Wadi Halfa in a south-easterly direction as a supply route for the British troops advancing in Sudan. It bypassed the second through sixth cataracts of the Nile, reached Khartoum in late 1899 and opened in full on January 4, 1900. This largely invalidated the function of the Wadi Halfa – Kerma railway line, which only circumnavigated two cataracts. The source traffic from the section of the Nile valley through which it passed was too little to justify the operation economically. This route was therefore given up again at the end of 1904 and closed.
literature
- Franz Baltzer : The colonial railways with a special focus on Africa . 1916. ND Holzminden o. J. ISBN 978-3-8262-0233-9
- Neil Robinson: World Rail Atlas and Historical Summary 7 = North, East and Central Africa. 2009. ISBN 978-954-92184-3-5
Individual evidence
- ↑ Robinson, p. 67ff.