Chemin de Fer Mediterranée-Niger

This article covers the Mediterranean-Niger Railway. For the project of the Transsahara Railway, see under Chemin de Fer Transsaharien .

Chemins de Fer de la Méditerranée au Niger Mediterranean-Niger Railway
Route length:	275 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Maximum slope :	Adhesion 35  ‰ rack  ‰
Legend 0 Ghazaouet (Nemours) Djeman Salera from Algiers Algeria / Morocco Oujda to Fez Ain Beni Mathar Djenan crater Tendrara 1374 m Oued Oumm-el-Oudah 1250 m 288.9 0 PK 0 1295 m 21st Bouarfa (CMO) (previously Bf) 1269 m Tamlelt (MN) 1120 m 111 Kerzaz 350 m Morocco / Algeria ? 0 Colomb-Béchar Former transition to the narrow-gauge railway to Mohammadia 21st Kénaza 15th Béchar- 70 Ksi-kou 90 Abadla

The Mediterranean-Niger Railway (MN, French Chemins de Fer de la Méditerranée au Niger ) was an only partially completed railway connection across the Sahara . It was also part of a planned, extensive rail network in French West Africa . The company that operated this and the feeder lines from 1941 to 1962 was also called the Mediterranean-Niger Railway .

The planning phase of the Mediterranean-Niger Railway lasted around 75 years, three times as long as the line was in operation.

history

America is building, France is planning. Ideas from Palatini and Solleilet

After the first French fact- finding mission reached the Ajjer Mountains in 1859–1861 under the direction of Henri Duveyrier and the construction of the transcontinental railroad across the United States had begun in 1862, Léon Paladini proposed the construction of a railroad from Biskra in present-day Algeria to Kachena in 1867 in what was then Sudan. This Chemin de Fer de Biskra à Kachena (Soudan) did not get beyond the idea stage. Just two years later, a rail line across the USA was opened to traffic. On January 13, 1873, Paul Solleilet presented the Ministre des Communications et Colonies (French for: Communications and Colonies Minister) a project for a Trans-Saharan Railway.

Plan of Duponchel

The French general Gaston de Galliffet occupied the Algerian oasis of El Meniaa on January 24, 1873 . Another project was presented in France: On April 26th, Armand Duponchel presented Le Chemin de Fer Trans-Saharan (French: The Transsahara Railway). In it he suggested that a railroad across the Sahara would cost 1.6 million French francs per kilometer. The Russians spent 75,000 francs per kilometer on the Trans Caspian Railway, which was completed in 1897. The Ministre des Travaux Publics (French for: Minister of Public Works), Freycinet, appointed a commission supérieure on July 12, 1879 to pursue the idea of ​​the Trans-Saharan Railway, and on December 29, the government approved a planning loan of 600,000 Francs.

Senegal Railway

On August 18, 1884, the government made further funding available for the line, and on July 6, 1885, the Dakar - Saint-Louis line in Senegal was opened. After a lecture by the engineer Rolland in front of the Geographical Society and a new edition of Duponchel's book, the French people became enthusiastic about the Trans-Saharan Railway. In other places in the French colonial empire, planning went faster: in 1896 the construction of the railroad to Ethiopia began, and on December 4, 1904, the Senegalese line from Kayes to Koulikoro on the Niger was opened. In Algeria, the line from Mascara to Colomb Bechar was opened to traffic on October 16, 1905 .

Berthelot's plans

In 1910 the Spaniards offered the construction of a line from Tangier to Dakar at the Congrès International des Chemins de Fer (International Railway Congress) , and two years later André Berthelot founded the Société d'Études Transafricaines with French, English and Belgian participation . This was sent by Hauptmann Nieder to the Sahara and engineer Maitre-Devallon to Algeria. At the end of the First World War, the Comité National du Rail Africain was founded under President René Besnard . So while planning was going on, Vuillemin became the first person to fly over the Sahara in 1920. Construction of the Biskrat - Touggourt line, which began in 1913, was completed in 1922. The first automobiles crossed the Sahara and in 1924 the railway from Khartoum to Port Sudan opened.

Maitre-Devallon plans

In 1926, the Governor General of Algeria Violette organized three exploration missions into the Hoggar Mountains. A Comité du Trans-Saharan was founded on June 21, 1927 under the presidency of Édouard de Warren . Other well-known members of this committee were Blaise Diagne , Pierre Roux-Freissineng , Le Troquer and Robert Reynard .

On July 7th, 1928 an Organizme d'Études du Chemin de Fer Trans-Saharan was founded under the direction of the General Inspector for Public Works, Maitre-Devallon (see 1912). This sent two missions to Algeria under Suchet and Masselin and two missions to Niger under Nemorin and Milhau. Thereupon the President Gaston Doumergue , a former colonial minister, supported Maitre-Devallon's plan for a trans-Saharan railroad on December 17, 1929. Under the direction of the engineer Émile Bélime , the Office du Niger was founded on January 5, 1932 as a colonial "operating company" in this region. In 1935 the Italians suggested building a translibian railway.

construction

On March 22, 1941, the law on the construction of the Chemins de Fer de la Méditerranée au Niger was passed in order to obstruct material that could not fall into the hands of the Germans. On July 17 and 27, the French government passed the relevant laws on the financing and management of the railway. After the French African colonies entered the Second World War , construction at Kenadsa , 20 km north of Bechar, and the branching of the Oran - Oujda - Bouarfa line , were stopped in 1943 . After the war, between 1947 and 1948, construction of the line was pushed further south and Abadla , about 80 km south of Bechar, was reached. In 1953 the Parliament of the French Union, the Assemblée de l'Union Française , recommended the extension to Adrar (rail kilometer 617) in what is now the Malian- Algerian border area.

business

The Mediterranean-Niger Railway was only in operation from 1941 to 1967 (26 years). Since then, the tracks have been idle.

development

While in 1942 there were only around 156,477 tons of transported goods, in 1957 the railway was already transporting 485,000 tons of freight (62 million tonne-kilometers), 80% of which was coal . During the same period, the population of the city of Béchar grew from 5,000 to 60,000 people. After Algeria became independent, the Algerian and French governments did not succeed in signing an agreement in March 1965 to finance the further expansion of the railways . Rail traffic to Béchar was therefore discontinued as early as 1967 and the Mediterranean-Niger Railway Company was liquidated . Other sources mention the year 1963, in which the Algerian-Moroccan border was closed. On November 1, 1963, the MN was dissolved as a company.

According to the route network published on the website of the Algerian state railway SNTF , the narrow-gauge Algerian route from Mohammadia continues to exist, but a timetable has not been published. This old map was replaced by a new one in 2007, which, as part of the general renaissance of Algeria's railways, provides for the route to be converted to standard gauge and an extension of 850 kilometers to Tindouf and the nearby mines of Gara Djebilet .

successor

A standard gauge line from Sidi Bel Abbès across the mountains south of Tlemcen to Aïn Sefra has been under construction with interruptions since 2001; then the existing, narrow-gauge section Aïn Sefra – Colomb Béchar (256 km long) is to be re -gauged to standard gauge. The construction of new bridges on this section was awarded to Algerian companies at the beginning of 2009.

Narrow-gauge railway Mohammadia – Colomb Béchar

The the de Chemin Fer Mediterranée Niger subsequent narrow gauge (1050 mm gauge) Mohammadia - Tizi - Saida - Bou Ktoub - Mecheria - Aïn Sefra - Beni Ounif - Colomb Béchar (660 km) it was up to the year 1985 in the passenger transport in operation until In 1991, freight trains were still running irregularly . After a freight train derailed at Bou Ktoub in July 1991 due to poor line maintenance, freight traffic was also stopped. Empty freight wagons were still being driven to Mohammadia until 1996. The branch line Tizi - Mascara has not been used since 1989 due to insufficient volume of goods; passenger traffic on the branch line ended as early as the 1950s. The branch lines around Colomb Béchar were also closed between 1965 and 1967.

The original railway line Mohammadia – Colomb Béchar (narrow-gauge railway) is still completely in place, only in 2007 3 level crossings were covered with asphalt, on the other hand some Andrew's crosses were repainted between Tizi and Mohammadia .

Rolling stock

The following vehicles were used on diesel locomotives :

• DRS-6-4-1500 , serial number 72650 to 72653 , year of construction: 1947. The locomotives were delivered new by Baldwin as No. 040 DA 351 to 354 to the Office du chemin de fer Méditerranée-Niger . When the company was dissolved at the end of the Algerian War (1962), these locomotives came to the ONCF in Morocco , where they were designated as ONCF 040 DA 313-316 .

• DRS-6-4-1500 , serial numbers 73349 and 73350 , year of construction: 1947. These locomotives were also delivered new by Baldwin as No. 040 DA 355 and 356 . These locomotives also came to the ONCF in 1962 and were numbered there as 040 DA 317 and 318 .

literature

• Dominique and Pascal Bejui: Exploits et fantasmes transsahariens: 80 ans de traversées sahariennes abouties ou rêvées en auto, en camion, en train et en avion . La Regordane, Chanac 1994, ISBN 2-906984-19-1
• Chronology of the Sommaire du Transaharrien au Mediterranée-Niger , in the appendix by Jean-Claude Faur: La mise en valeur ferroviaire de l'AOF (1880-1939) . Université de Paris, Paris 1969 (= doctoral thesis).
• Guide Michelin . 1956.
• Lartilleux: Geographie des chemins de fer français . vol. 3. Chaix, 1949.
• René Pottier: Le Transsaharien - Liaison d'Empire . Sorlot, 1941.

Web links

• * Mohamed Bounil: Photos from 2004–2007 in Kenadsa. 2007, archived from the original ; accessed on January 11, 2020 (French). 
• Georges Bouchet: Les voies ferrées de pénétration sahariennes hors Algérie: Le Transsaharien. March 17, 2007, archived from the original ; accessed on January 11, 2020 (French). 
• Jean-Claude Faur: Directory of original sources in Mali. 1999, archived from the original ; Retrieved January 11, 2020 (English, English-language list of French-language sources). 
• Jean-Claude Faur: La mise en valeur ferroviaire de l'AOF (1880-1939). 1999, archived from the original ; Retrieved January 11, 2020 (English, English-language notes on the original French-language source from 1969). 

Individual evidence

1. ^ Léon Paladini: Le chemin de fer de Biskra à Kachena (Soudan) . Dentu, 1867.
2. ^ Armand Duponchel: Le chemin de fer trans saharians, jonction entre l'Algérie et le Soudan . Paris: Hachette, 1878.
3. ↑ According to the Michelin map Algeria (sheet 972) 1: 1 000 000, edition 1988, the line is still recorded up to Béchar.
4. ↑ Georges Bouchet: Les voies ferrées de pénétration sahariennes hors Algérie: Le Transsaharien. March 17, 2007, archived from the original ; accessed on January 11, 2020 (French). 
5. ↑ Archive link ( Memento from July 11, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
6. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of October 29, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (May 14, 2007).
7. ↑ http://baldwindiesels.railfan.net/morocco/index.html