National Railways of Zimbabwe
National Railways of Zimbabwe ( NRZ ; German " Nationale Eisenbahnen von Zimbabwe " ), until 1980 Rhodesia Railways ( RR ; German " Eisenbahnen von Rhodesien " ), is the state railway company of Zimbabwe . In 2008 it had a route network of 3,394 km, making it one of the longest in all of Africa. 313 km from Gweru to Harare were still electrified at this time. The rails carry an axle load of 17.2 t, some 18.6 t and have cape gauge . The administrative centers and traffic-technical hubs of the NRZ are Bulawayo and Harare , in Gweru there is a large depot. The largest marshalling yard in the country is also located there.
Due to the economic crisis in Zimbabwe, the railway operations of the NRZ are severely restricted. The infrastructure is in poor condition; Due to a lack of vehicles and a lack of maintenance, numerous trains are canceled.
history
Overview of the railway companies in today's Zimbabwe
The Bechuanaland Railway Company (BR) was founded on May 24th, 1893 and changed to Rhodesia Railways Ltd. on July 1st, 1899 . (RR) reorganized.
- The Mashonaland Railway Company (MRC) was founded on April 13, 1897 and merged with the RR on March 31, 1937.
- The Ayrshire Gold Mine & Lomangundi Railway Company (ALR) was founded in 1900 and merged with the MRC on March 1, 1905.
- The Beira & Mashonaland Railway (B&MR) was founded on August 1, 1900 and merged with the MRC on October 1, 1927
Renaming to Rhodesian Railways (RR) on April 1, 1947 after the purchase of Rhodesia Railways Ltd. Through the state.
- The route from Plumtree (border) to Mafikeng (border) in Botswana was sold to South African Railways in December 1959 .
- The Zambia Railway Board (ZR) was founded and the route network in Zambia was spun off on July 1, 1967.
- Also on July 1, 1967, the route from the border to Beira was given to the Caminhos de Ferro de Moçambique .
Renaming to Zimbabwe Rhodesian Railways (ZRR) on July 1, 1979.
Renaming to National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) on May 1, 1980.
Beginnings and locomotive orders (1893–1960)
Today's Zimbabwe was a British- dominated colony from the end of the 19th century . British companies determined so in the railway construction. In 1893 the Bechuanaland Railway Company was founded in London . Through the above-listed mergers with other railway companies, Rhodesia Railways operated a large part of the rail network in the present-day states of Zimbabwe, Zambia and Botswana around 1930. In 1930 an initial order for four Garratt locomotives of class 15 at Beyer-Peacock , the other to 1952 70 locomotives, most recently in the improved class 15A, followed. In 1987 50 of these locomotives were still available. From 1954 to 1958, 61 Garratt class 20 locomotives were purchased, and improvements to the rail network were made for their use thanks to the total weight of 228.5 t and the axle load of 17 t.
Political Changes (1960–1990)
In 1964, Rhodesia was divided into Zambia and Southern Rhodesia . The part of Rhodesia Railways located in Zambia was transferred to its own company, Zambia Railways , in 1967 .
In the 1960s, the Rhodesia Railways decided, also due to cheap loans from western countries, to carry out a complete conversion to diesel locomotives by 1980. However, after the 1973 oil crisis and political sanctions by the West due to the Rhodesia conflict , this decision was rejected. In 1978, the refurbishment of 87 steam locomotives, some of which had already been decommissioned, began because Rhodesia has large coal reserves. In 1987 a deployment was planned until at least 2002.
In 1980 Zimbabwe became independent. In the course of this, the Rhodesia Railways were renamed twice and ultimately received their current name National Railways of Zimbabwe . Independence also brought personnel changes with it: white workers left the country, people in exile returned. The management positions of the NRZ were newly filled, many professions such as train driver were now accessible to everyone.
Decline (from 1990)
In the 1990s, the NRZ received 61 diesel locomotives of the type GT22LC-2 from EMD . These locomotives were financed with a loan from Canada , which, among other things, required the shutdown of the class 20 / 20A steam locomotives. The other steam locomotives remained in service. Just a few years later another loan was requested to be able to pay for spare parts for the diesel locomotives, as neither the NRZ nor the Robert Mugabe government could raise the necessary funds. The loan was refused and spare parts were taken from defective locomotives. Over time, the number of operational diesel locomotives decreased, and the tense financial situation prevented the import of sufficient diesel fuel . Sometimes trains could no longer be covered. To ensure transit traffic from Central Africa to South Africa , the Bulawayo-Beitbridge Railway was opened in 1999 , which is owned by a consortium of South African investors that is independent of the NRZ .
From 2000 an economic crisis spread in Zimbabwe with a high inflation rate . The volume of goods traffic fell from 17.5 million tons in 1980 to 3.7 million tons in 2003. Since the NRZ was not profit-oriented and did not raise fares, there were no reserves of its own. The company could no longer pay the salaries of its employees and offered office and workshop equipment in return. Numerous railway workers left the country or went out of service. The condition of the remaining operational machines deteriorated noticeably. Since many signals have been stolen, the order of precaution is always taken to this day . As a result, the Dete railway accident occurred on February 1, 2003 , in which up to 50 people died when a passenger train with 1,100 passengers collided head- on with an oncoming freight train near Dete . Both trains had wrongly received verbal travel orders.
In 2006, the NRZ had 30 electric locomotives, 275 diesel locomotives, around ten operational steam locomotives, around 400 passenger cars and 13,000 freight cars. Of the 30 electric locomotives, only four machines were still operational. In 2010 the electrical operation was completely stopped; The overhead line has now been stolen along the entire length between Gweru and Harare. In 2011 there were four operational steam locomotives (14A 519, 15A 395, 16A 611 and 16A 613) that were based in Bulawayo.
Development after 2010
Today freight traffic is mainly carried out by private railway companies; the number of passenger trains on offer fell from 130 daily, national trains to around 50 trains. Since there are no vehicles, many trains are canceled. In 2012, an average of 120,000 people used the NRZ's passenger trains every day, by spring 2013 the number had dropped to less than 100,000 passengers a day. Due to their low reliability, many commuters switch to minibus taxis , even though they charge higher fares. The Research Institute of Labor and Economic Development of Zimbabwe appreciated the need for investment in the rail network in 2013 to 300 million to 400 million dollars , while the government of Mugabe had provided 7.4 million US dollars available in the same year. Two billion dollars are needed to completely restore the infrastructure. In 2014, representatives of the NRZ stated that they still had 70 diesel locomotives and 15 electric locomotives, of which only 25 were diesel locomotives in use. The NRZ at the time had outstanding salary payments to its employees of $ 55 million. In February 2015, the NRZ railway workers went on strike because they had never received more than 20 percent of their regular monthly salary for nine months. The NRZ, on the other hand, has a debt of $ 144 million and a monthly deficit of about $ 3.5 million. Now the government wants to negotiate with the Development Bank of Southern Africa for loans of up to 700 million dollars.
stretch
The route leads from Beitbridge on the border with the Republic of South Africa on Bulawayo to Victoria Falls on the Victoria Falls and the border with Zambia , another of Plumtree on the border with Botswana via Bulawayo, Somabhula , Gweru (formerly Gwelo) and Kwekwe to Harare, then from Harare to Mutare (formerly: Umtali) on the border with Mozambique and further to the port city of Beira . Another route via Malvernia on the border with Mozambique and on to the port city of Maputo branches off at Somabhula. Branch lines lead from Gweru to Masvingo (formerly Fort Victoria), from Mbizi on the Somabhula-Malvemia route to Buffalo Range (Nandi Mill) and from Harare one to Zave (extension to Kafue / Zambia in SADC discussion) or Kildona via Maryland and one more to Shamva .
The route network of the NRZ connects that of Spoornet , Zambia Railways , Botswana Railways and Caminhos de Ferro de Moçambique - Central and South. The southern network of Société Nationale des Chemins de fer du Congo , the Tanzania-Zambia railway , the rail network in Malawi and the Benguela railway can also be reached indirectly .
The NRZ Railway Museum is located in Bulawayo .
Data on the route network (as of 2006)
- Biggest gradient: 1.25%, in two places 2.5%
- Rail weight: 54 kg / m and 45 kg / m
- Track width: 1067 millimeters (Cape Track)
- Distance between thresholds: 0.7 m
- Sleeper type: concrete, steel
- Smallest curve radius: 100 m
- Maximum train length: 200 axles
See also
literature
- Dr. Fritz Stöckl : In the land of the Beyer- Garratts : Rhodesia Railways . Krefeld, 1972.
- Collective of authors: Locomotives of Rhodesia Railways . Preface by R. Anthony H. Baxter. 1970
Web links
- Official website of the NRZ
- Unofficial page with information
- NRZ timetable
- NRZ Railway Museum in Bulawayo
Individual evidence
- ↑ Zimbabwe Railways on indexmundi.com , accessed on August 17, 2014.
- ↑ Unless otherwise stated, from: Günter Krause: Livingstone Railway Museum (Zambia) and the Zambesi Saw Mills Railways . 2nd Edition. Werl 2018. Without ISBN and page count.
- ^ A b Brian Hollingsworth, Arthur F. Cook: Das Handbuch der Lokomotiven , Birkhäuser Verlag, Basel 1990, ISBN 3-88199-688-5 , pp. 194f.
- ^ A b Brian Hollingsworth, Arthur F. Cook: Das Handbuch der Lokomotiven , Birkhäuser Verlag, Basel 1990, ISBN 3-88199-688-5 , p. 392f.
- ↑ a b c d e f Michael Bleckmann: The decline of the railroad in Zimbabwe . Extract from the magazine "Lok-Report" on the website of a tour operator, accessed on August 19, 2014.
- ↑ a b Jeffrey Moyo: Zimbabwe: Railway sector on the verge of collapse on afrika.info , April 3, 2013, accessed on August 19, 2014.
- ^ News overview for Zimbabwe , accessed on May 11, 2010
- ↑ a b NRZ Owes Workers $ 55mln, Govt Rules out Retrenchment ( Memento of the original from October 14, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at zimeye.com , accessed February 19, 2015.
- ↑ NRZ Go On Strike Over Unpaid Salaries at zimeye.com , accessed on February 19, 2015.
