Rail transport in Algeria

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The railway was in Algeria founded by a number of private railway companies and even during the French colonial rule largely nationalized. Today the railways are operated as a state railway and a tram and an underground network are being built in Algiers .

history

railroad

Network of the main railway lines in Algeria

Since the 1830s there have been considerations to build railway lines in Algeria as well . The first emerged under French colonial rule in the second half of the 19th century. The Société civile des minerais et hauts-fourneaux de Karezas , founded in 1853, operated mining south of Annaba and built the first railroad in Algeria.

The legal basis for establishing public railways was a decree of April 8, 1857, which provided for the construction of 1,357 km of railway lines between Constantine , Algiers and Oran . In the same year, or 1858, the French army began building a line from Algiers to Boufarik .

In 1860 the private Compagnie des chemins de fer algériens (CFA) was founded and received the concession for a standard-gauge line from Algiers to Blida . The company then received further concessions for the Oran - Sig and Constantine - Skikda routes . In this respect the decree of 1857 was changed. Work on the Algiers – Blida railway began with the help of the French army on July 11, 1860. On September 8, 1860, it was opened. The last two lines could not be built due to economic difficulties. Rather, in 1863 the CFA was taken over by the Compagnie des chemins de fer de Paris à Lyon et à la Méditerranée (PLM). It operated its routes located in Algeria under the name PLM réseau d'Algérie .

In 1874 the Compagnie franco-algérienne (FA) was founded and received the concession to build a line from Arzew to Kralfallah with a gauge of 1055 mm . This created a second railway network in Algeria in this gauge. In addition to these two main gauge gauges of Algeria, 1435 mm and 1055 mm, railways in the gauges of 1000 mm, 800 mm, 750 mm and 600 mm, some island operations , which are now all shut down or have been relocated , have emerged over time.

After the Compagnie franco-algérienne (FA) was founded, other private railway companies emerged, such as the Compagnie des chemins de fer de Bône - Guelma et prolongements (BGP), the Compagnie des chemins de fer de l'Ouest algérien (COA) for routes in West Algeria and the Compagnie des chemins de fer de l'Est algérien (CEA) for East Algeria.

In 1875 Charles Lartigue founded a railway company to build and operate a monorail that he had designed . The mule- operated route from Oran to Damnesne ran from 1875 to 1881.

In 1879 the possibility of building a railway line ( chemin de fer transsaharien ) was examined for the first time , which would connect Algeria with the French colonies south of the Sahara . The project was discussed many times, but never realized. The route network in Algeria was continuously expanded in the 1870s and 1880s, further partly with 1435 mm and partly with 1055 mm gauge. From 1885, concessions for meter- gauge lines were added. None of these are in operation today.

In 1898 the Compagnie des chemins de fer algériens de l'État (CFAE), the first Algerian state railway , was founded by the province of Oran . Your first line was built in 1055 mm.

In 1901 Algeria had become economically independent and since 1904 there were efforts to standardize the railway tariffs in the fragmented railway system and to buy up private railway companies and to integrate them into the CFAE. The process dragged on until 1922, when the lines under the control of PLM were also taken over by the state railway, which now operated under the name Chemins de fer algériens de l'État (CFAE) and now the majority of the network in one hand united. In the following years, further smaller routes and tram lines were taken over by the (CFAE). A second state railway company was the Réseau oranais de l'État (ROE), which merged with the CFAE in 1933.

In 1938 the Société nationale des chemins de fer français (SNCF) was founded, in which the CFAE was also merged. In 1939, an Office des chemins de fer français en Algérie was founded in this context , which held the monopoly for rail operations in Algeria.

On May 16, 1963, after Algeria's independence, the Société nationale des chemins de fer algériens (SNCFA) was founded as the national railway company for Algeria . The Algerian state was majority owner. On March 25, 1976, the SNCFA was split into three companies: the Société nationale des transports ferroviaires algériens (SNTF) for transport, the Société nationale chargée du renouvellement et de l'extension du réseau (SNERIF) for the construction and expansion of the railway infrastructure and the Société d'engineering et de réalization d'infrastructures ferroviaires (SIF) for their support and modernization. Both companies later became part of the SNTF. The SNTF has a monopoly on rail operations in Algeria.

In 2005, the Agence nationale d'études et de suivi de la réalisation des investissements ferroviaires (ANESRIF) was set up to implement a series of new construction projects that were envisaged in the 2003 ten-year plan. This also includes the re- gauging of the Blida – Béchar railway line to standard gauge and the further, extensive electrification of the route network.

Urban transport systems

In 1875 a company was licensed to build a horse-drawn tram in and around Algiers . From 1891/92 a steam tram was built with a gauge of 1055 mm, and electrification began in 1896. In 1898 an electric tram was also licensed for Oran. Both systems no longer exist. In Algiers and Oran as well as other Algerian cities, new tram systems were rebuilt with French know-how.

present

railroad

The SNTF network comprises two gauges, the normal-gauge network is slightly more than 10% electrified

Gauge total utilized electrified
Standard gauge (planned) 3227 km (3683 km) 3150 km (3606 km) 386.3 km (499 km)
1055 mm 1089 km 0660 km 0 km
Total (planned) 4316 km (4772 km) 3810 km (4266 km) 386.3 km (499 km)

tram

Since 2011, six modern tram companies have been put into operation in Algeria :

The tram Mostaganem due to open of 2019. The Annaba and Batna tram networks are currently (2019) under construction.

metro

On October 31, 2011, the first metro line was opened in Algiers . It connects the south of the city with the city center via 10 train stations. It was built by a consortium led by Siemens . The operator is Entreprise Metro d'Algier .

literature

  • Neil Robinson: World Rail Atlas. Volome 7: North, East and Central Africa . 2009.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Robinson, p. 4.
  2. ^ Website of the Société Nationale des Transports Ferroviaires algériens (SNTF), "Infrastructure". (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on October 12, 2008 ; Retrieved March 8, 2011 (French). 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.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.sntf.dz
  3. ^ Siem: Metro Algiers in operation . In: Eisenbahn-Revue International 12/2011, p. 610.