Rovos Rail
Rovos Rail is the railway division of the South African company Rovos Rail Tours (Pty) Ltd. , which operates luxury trains on the Cape Gauge network of southern Africa .
Companies
The company's headquarters are in Pretoria . There is another office in Cape Town . “Home station” is the former Capital Park Station depot in the north of Pretoria. In addition to around 60 railroad cars , the company also has four of its own steam locomotives . Rovos Rail was founded in 1989 by Rohan Vos . He himself accompanies most of the trips.
The Shongololo Express has also been part of Rovos Rail since 2016 .
Routes
Rovos Rail operates according to an annual schedule on various routes in South Africa and beyond. The trains are made up of converted historical, luxury refurbished South African passenger coaches that offer the highest level of comfort for passengers . The train has a living and sleeping car (with two or three suites per car ). Three comfort classes are offered, in the highest class a bathroom with bathtub belongs to the suite. Next to the dining car , a lounge car and a deck or observation car set in the trains at the rear of the train. Outside of South Africa, the Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe (since 1994) and since 1993 at least once a year in Dar es Salaam in Tanzania and Swakopmund in Namibia (since 1998) have been visited regularly .
The routes regularly served are:
- Pretoria to Cape Town
- Pretoria to Durban
- Cape Town to George
- Pretoria to Victoria Falls
- Cape Town to Dar es Salaam ( Pride of Africa )
- Pretoria to Swakopmund
In 2008 and 2010, Rovos Rail also offered the Cape Town – Cairo route, inspired by Cecil Rhodes ' Cape-Cairo plan . However, this route was covered north of the Victoria Falls instead of by train with a historic aircraft owned by Rovos Rail Tours (Pty) Ltd. owned by Rovos Air . Stopovers north of Tanzania included Addis Ababa and Khartoum .
In July 2019, Rovos Rail operated the 4800 km long Dar-es-Salaam (Tanzania) - Lobito (Angola) route as the first tourist train to cross Africa from the Indian to the Atlantic Ocean.
Accidents
On May 22, 2008, 14 of the 75 railroad cars owned by the railway company at the time burned down in a fire in a railway depot . People were not harmed. The fire department put the damage at several million euros.
On April 21, 2010, a Rovos Rail train started moving during a locomotive change near Pretoria and derailed . Three people died and 15 of the train's 19 carriages were destroyed.
literature
- NN: The Pride of Africa. Celebrating 10 Years of Rovos Rail . Pretoria 1999.
- Nicholas Schofield: Historic Journey of the First Train to Travel From Dar-Es-Salaam to Cape Town . Pretoria 1993.
Web links
- Rovos Rail Tours, website (English)
- Article in the period of 30 October 2008, accessed 12 August 2009
Individual evidence
- ↑ Rovos Rail fact sheet. on www.rovos.com (English)
- ↑ Rovos Rail, contact details. on www.rovos.com (English)
- ↑ On its history see: Les Pivnic: A Proud History . In: NN: The Pride of Africa , p. 8f.
- ^ Rovos Rail. In: www.rovos.com. Archived from the original on July 21, 2007 ; accessed on April 22, 2014 (English).
- ↑ NN: The Pride of Africa , p. 14f.
- ^ NN: The Pride of Africa , p. 17.
- ↑ NN: The Pride of Africa , p. 12f.
- ^ Cape to Cairo with Rovos Rail . www.capetocairo.com. Retrieved July 2, 2007.
- ↑ Rovos Rail conclui no Lobito travessia ferroviária do Índico ao Atlântico africa21digital.com , July 30, 2019, accessed on March 17, 2020 (Portuguese)
- ↑ Luxury train in South Africa: wagons of the legendary Rovos Rail burned out. In: SPIEGEL ONLINE. May 22, 2008. Retrieved April 22, 2014 .
- ^ Three killed in Rovos Rail accident. Mail & Guardian Online, April 21, 2010, accessed April 22, 2014 .
- ^ Tracks clear of Rovos coaches. 24.com, April 25, 2010, accessed April 22, 2014 .