Rail transport in Mauritius

Map from 1910, railroads in black

Factory photo from 1927 by Beyer-Peacock: Garratt locomotive No. 60

Former railway bridge at L'Escalier (2009)

Rail traffic in Mauritius existed for 100 years, between 1864 and 1964.

history

prehistory

In 1845 it was announced in the press that a joint-stock company called Mauritius Railway Company had been founded with the aim of building a railway between the cities of Port Louis and Mahébourg . However, the railway was not built initially. Similar plans were resumed in 1856, but again led to nothing. In 1858/59 the British colonial administration finally commissioned a feasibility study , which advocated building a railway network on the island.

Railway construction

In 1862 the construction of the Mauritius Government Railway (MGR) began. Their routes were built in standard gauge . The first route ran from the capital, Port Louis, on the west side of the island along the north coast on its east side. It started operating in a first phase in 1864. The following routes were built by MGR:

• Port Louis - Terre Rouge - Rivière Sèche - Grande Rivière Sud-Est (49.9 km)
  • Terre Rouge - Montagne Longue (5.6 km)
• Port Louis - Richelieu - Rose Hill - Rose Belle - Mahébourg (59.9 km)
  • Richelieu - Tamarin (20.8 km)
  • Rose Hill - Rivière Sèche (41.4 km)
  • Rose Belle - Soulliac (17.2 km)

The MGR also operated a cable car in Soulliac from 1878 to 1905 .

In addition, a number of narrow-gauge railways in numerous gauges have been built for plantations and sawmills , including: 1000 mm (?), 950 mm, 946 mm, 940 mm, 930 mm, 925 mm, 920 mm, 914 mm, 838 mm, 813 mm , 810 mm, 805 mm, 800 mm, 775 mm, 770 mm, 762 mm, 750 mm and 600 mm. There was also a monorail for the transport of wood in the forest of Kanaka.

business

At the height of the operation, the MGR had to vehicles 52 steam locomotives , including six Garrattlokomotiven of Beyer-Peacock , 200 coaches and 750 freight cars . During the Second World War , passenger traffic was stopped on some routes from 1939 to 1942/43, but was then resumed, but was finally stopped in 1963. Exactly 100 years after the first railway line went into operation, rail traffic on Mauritius was completely abandoned in 1964.

• 

  Port Louis train station

• 

  Souillac train station

• 

  Mahébourg train station

future

Parts of this article seem out of date as of 2019 .
Please help to research and insert the missing information .

In 2017, the construction of a light rail began. It will lead from the capital Port Louis through its densely populated agglomeration south to Curepipe . The route is to be 26 km long and serve 20 stops. The infrastructure is being built by the Indian company Larsen & Toubro . 18 trains have been ordered from the Spanish Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles (CAF).

Route network

Port Louis – Grande Rivière Sud-Est railway line
Route length:	49.9 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Legend 0 Port Louis Connection port 1.9 Albion Docks Connection port 2.8 Roche Bois 4.9 Riche Terre 6.2 0 Terre Rouge 1.0 La Croix 3.8 Notre Dame 4.7 Montagne Longue old train station 5.6 Montagne Longue new train station 7.4 Bois Marchand 10.1 Calebasses stop 12.0 Grapefruit 14.1 Mont Rocher 16.8 Mapou Connection of Labourdonnais Connection Esperance 20.2 Poudre d'Or 24.9 Rivière de Rempart Connection to Mon Loisir 27.7 Gaud stop Durand 31.5 Bras d'Eau 34.3 Flacq 37.4 Argy 39.9 Isidore Rose 44.2 Quatre Cocos 45.9 Rivière Sèche to Port Louis via Richelieu 48.3 Beau Champ 49.9 Grande Rivière Sud-Est

Port Louis – Mahébourg railway line
Route length:	60.2 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Legend 0 Port Louis 0.8 Cassis Road 1.5 Belle Village 2.5 Plaine Lauzun 3.2 Pailles after 1914 4.1 Coromandel after 1914 0 5.3 Richelieu 1.5 Petit Rivière Road 3.2 Petit Verger 5.9 Belle Vue 7.4 Albion 12.9 Médine 15.9 Palmyre 17.6 Clarens 20.8 Tamarin 7.8 Petite Rivière 0 11.6 Beau Bassin Lunatic Asylum 0.7 Prisons 13.0 Cascade Road from Rivière Sèche 14.1 Rose Hill 16.9 Quatre Bornes 19.4 Phoenix 20.9 Vacoas Connection to Réunion 23.5 Floréal 24.7 Curepipe Road 25.3 Curepipe 26.3 Forrest Side 32.0 Old Midlands 34.1 Midlands 39.1 Cluny 0 42.3 Rose Belle 6.0 Rivière Dragon 7.0 Britannia 10.6 Rivière des Anguilles 11.6 Rivière des Anguilles stop 13.2 Union halt Connection terrcine 17.2 Soulliac 44.8 New Grove 46.5 Mare d'Albert 50.6 Union Vale 53.4 Mon Désert Connection to Beau Vallon Rochecouste 57.9 Beau Vallon 59.9 Mahébourg 60.2 Mahébourg Jetty

Richelieu - Rivière Sèche railway line
Route length:	41.4 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Legend from Mahébourg 0 Richelieu to Port Louis 2.9 Reduit 4.7 Moka 7.8 Saint-Pierre 10.1 Verdun 11.8 Alma 14.3 Vuillemin 15.8 Quartier Militaire 17.5 Providence 21.3 Camp de Masque 24.4 Montagne Blanche 28.2 Sebastopol 31.9 Étoile 33.6 Sans souci 35.5 Olivia 38.5 Bel Air from Grande Rivière Sud-Est 41.4 Rivière Sèche to Port Louis

literature

• Tristan Bréville: Le Dernier Train. Un romanquête. Musée de la Photographie, Mauritius 2005, ISBN 99903-36-21-0 (in French).
• Arthur Jessop: A History of the Mauritius Government Railways, 1864 to 1964. J. Eliel Félix, Port Louis 1964.
• Neil Robinson: World Rail Atlas and historical summary. Vol. 7: North, East and Central Africa. World Rail Atlas Ltd., p. l. 2009, ISBN 978-954-92184-3-5 , p. 54, maps 72-76.

Web links

Commons : Rail transport in Mauritius  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ mr: Metro for Mauritius . In: Eisenbahn-Revue International 10 (2017), ISSN 1421-2811, pp. 514f.
2. ↑ The line has been operated by the MGR since 1936. It was probably a narrow-gauge railway of unknown gauge and not a connection to the standard-gauge main line. (Robinson, p. 53.)