Rail transport in Malawi

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Map of Malawi with railways
Makhanga border station (1984)

The rail transport in Malawi plays an important role, especially in freight transport in the country. The total length of the route in Malawi is 797 kilometers in the Cape gauge common in southern Africa (as of 2010). The operator is the private Mozambican investor group Insitec .

topography

Malawi is a landlocked country in southern Africa. To the northeast of Malawi is Tanzania , to the east, south and southwest of Mozambique, and to the west of Zambia . The nearest sea ports are in Nacala and Beira in Mozambique, with which Malawi is or was connected by rail lines. Lake Malawi in eastern Malawi is an obstacle to railway construction due to its large extent in north-south direction. Only the southern half of the country is accessible by rail lines.

history

Today's Malawi was a British protectorate as Nyassaland . By 1904, this was Shire Highlands train from Port Herald (now Nsanje ) to Chiromo by the private Shire Highlands Railway Company built. As the expenses for the project exceeded the company's financial capabilities, the British Central Africa Company took over the construction of the extension via Blantyre to what was then Fort Johnston, now Mangochi . The line was opened in 1909. In 1912 a contract was signed for the construction of a connecting railway to the Zambezi and on to Beira, today's Sena line . The route received an extension within Malawi from 1977. It begins on the border with Zambia in Mchinji and leads via the capital Lilongwe , the port of Chipoka on Lake Malawi, Mangochi, Nkaya and Blantyre to Makhanga , where it ends. It once crossed the border with Mozambique and led to Sena with a connection to Beira on the Indian Ocean .

In the mid-1960s, the operator decided to retire the steam locomotives that had been used up until then and replace them with diesel locomotives . Some of the steam locomotives were used again in the early 1970s. In the 1970s, the Nkaya – Cuamba line was built to connect Malawi to the Mozambican deep-water port of Nacala. In the 1980s, the route to the Mozambican port city of Beira suffered considerable damage as a result of the civil war in Mozambique and has not been operated since then. The route to Nacala also became unusable due to the effects of the war.

In 1999, the state-owned company Malawi Railways was privatized and merged with the Mozambican Caminhos de Ferro de Moçambique Nord (CFM-Nord) to form Central East African Railways . From then on, it was operated by the Railroad Development Corporation based in Pittsburgh . Since 2005 trains have been running from Malawi to Nacala again. In September 2008 the company was sold to the Insitec investor group .

present

The depot and operations center are located in Limbe , a district of Blantyre. There is a marshalling yard in Balaka north of the Nkaya separation station.

The two routes are primarily used for freight traffic. The tonnage in 2008 was around 220,000 tons. 19 diesel locomotives and 403 freight cars belong to the railway company. Mainly maize, containers, fuel, fertilizer, cement, tobacco and sugar are transported. A 35-kilometer extension of the line from Mchinji to Chipata in Zambia has been completed except for the tracks. The TAZARA in Mpika , Zambia , is to be reached from Chipata .

Passenger traffic only takes place on some sections. A pair of trains runs daily from Blantyre to Balaka, and twice a week to Nayuchi on Malawi's eastern border. Trains also run twice a week from Limbe to Nsanje. Lilongwe is not reached by passenger trains.

Planning

A route from Moatize in Mozambique to Nkaya in Malawi has been planned since 2011. It is to be used to transport coal from Moatize to the Mozambican port of Nacala.

Web links

Commons : Rail Transport in Malawi  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ indexmundi.com (English), accessed on June 22, 2010
  2. ↑ Historical report on the Shire Highland Railway from 1916 (Google Books)
  3. ^ British Central Africa. In: Viktor von Röll (ed.): Encyclopedia of the Railway System . 2nd Edition. Volume 3: Braunschweigische Eisenbahnen – Eilgut . Urban & Schwarzenberg, Berlin / Vienna 1912, p  97 -98.
  4. ↑ nationsencyclopedia.com (English), accessed June 26, 2010
  5. ↑ Information and historical photos from Malawi Railways ( Memento from January 7, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on June 22, 2010
  6. ↑ Official website , accessed on June 23, 2010
  7. ↑ Backpackers Travel Guide ( Memento of the original from December 3, 2009 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. (English), accessed June 24, 2010 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.backpack.co.za
  8. ↑ Presentation of the project at vale.com (English; PDF), accessed on January 25, 2017