Rail transport in Mozambique

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mozambique with some railway lines
Maputo station building
Entrance building of Moatize station

The rail in Mozambique is performed on multiple networks within Mozambique are not connected. There is both passenger and freight traffic in three networks. The total length of the route is 4787 kilometers in the Cape Gauge common in southern Africa (as of 2010). The sole operator until 2004 was the state-owned company Portos e Caminhos de Ferro de Moçambique (CFM). Since then, routes have been advertised internationally and operated, for example, by the Indian-Mozambican Companhia dos Caminhos de Ferro da Beira (CCFB, German: "Beira Railway Company").

topography

Mozambique is an elongated country in north-south direction on the Indian Ocean. The height differences are mostly small. The Zambezi flows through Mozambique from west to east. The largest cities in the country are port cities. West of Mozambique are the landlocked states (from north to south) Malawi , Zambia and Zimbabwe as well as large parts of South Africa, for which the Mozambican ports of Nacala , Beira and Maputo are the closest ports on the Indian Ocean. The national territory of Malawi extends far into the Mozambican area; a train ride between the north and the center of Mozambique is only possible via Malawian territory.

history

Private railway systems

Mozambique was a Portuguese colony until 1975 . Their railways developed from the ports on the Indian Ocean into the hinterland, which these ports needed for the export of its products. The routes were operated by concession companies, which in addition to collecting taxes and operating plantations, had one of their main sources of income. In addition to the main networks that were built in Cape Gauge , there were a number of smaller, narrow-gauge networks that had been set up by individual plantations or mines.

Lourenço Marques / Maputo railway network

Moamba station around 1920
D-609 (ex YDM-4 India) with passenger train Ressano Garcia - Maputo in the train station Ressano Garcia (2013)

In 1872 the colonial administration granted a concession for the first time to build the Lourenço Marques (today: Maputo) –Pretoria railway line ; In 1875 a corresponding agreement was concluded between the Transvaal government and the Mozambique colonial administration. In addition to the economic, this had a political background: The then independent Boer republics in northern South Africa wanted port access that was not - like the ports of the Cape Colony - controlled by Great Britain . Nevertheless, the project did not make progress at first. Only at the end of 1887 could the line from Lourenço Marques to the future Mozambican border station Ressano Garcia be opened by the Delagoa Bay & East African Railway Company . It was therefore also known as the Delagoa Railway. As early as 1887 there were disputes between the Portuguese-Mozambican administration and the railway company, which led to the section of the route in Mozambique being confiscated by the state. After the Second Boer War , however, the Transvaal became British in 1902. It was not until 1895 that the entire Lourenço Marques – Pretoria route was open to traffic. The Gaza kingdom in southwest Mozambique was immediately subjugated because it threatened the safety of rail traffic. In 1891, Portugal and Great Britain signed a contract to build the Beira Railway , which was to connect the Mozambican port of Beira with what was then Salisbury in Rhodesia - now Harare in Zimbabwe. In 1900 the route was continuously passable. Passenger traffic was stopped here at the instigation of South Africa in 2002 in order to prevent illegal immigration from this route.

Between 1906 and 1912 a 54-kilometer route was built from Lourenço Marques to Goba on the border with Swaziland . Only in 1964 was it extended to neighboring Swaziland and connected to the local network, which in turn is connected to that of South Africa. Passenger traffic took place here from 1998 to 2002.

Beira railway network

In 1892 the Beira Railway Company was founded, a subsidiary of the British South Africa Company . It initially bought some existing concessions for railway lines. In 1895 it changed hands to another parent company and was renamed the Beira Junction Railway Company . It drove a distance from the port of Beira to Umtali in Rhodesia . In 1898 the line, which was built with a gauge of 610 mm, was opened over its entire length. As early as 1900, it was re-gauged to the Cape gauge to enable through trains to Salisbury and the South African network .

After a concession had already been granted in 1897, a contract was signed in 1912 to build a line into what was then the protectorate of Nyasaland , now Malawi . This started as a branch line to the existing line. However, it took until 1921 for the first section to be opened and the Zambezi was only reached in 1922 at Sena . From 1931 to 1935, the Ponte Dona Ana, the longest railway bridge in Africa, was built and the line continued to Moatize , where coal is mined.

In 2016 the line was modernized and the platforms were extended to 1.5 kilometers so that the capacity could be increased to 20 million tons of coal per year. The number of passengers has also increased significantly in recent years.

Nacala railway network

In the north of the country, a line was first driven from the port of Lumbo into the interior from 1923 . In 1947 she received an additional connection to the port of Nacala . It was taken to Nyassaland via Nampula and Cuamba . There it was connected to the Malawi railway network in 1970 at the Nayuçi / Likhonyowa border stations . This also enabled traffic from the Beira railway network - via Malawian territory - to the Nacala railway network.

Empty coal train Nacala – Moatize near Muitvaze in August 2018

Since the 1960s a branch line led from Cuamba northwards to Lichinga . It was destroyed in the civil war and has been out of service since 1986. However, the importance of its route led to the reopening in 1999, as the Niassa province is one of the most isolated parts of the country. Mozambique's President Armando Guebuza stated in 2010 that the railway line is one of the government's top concerns. In 2010, planning began for a connection from Moatize via Malawi to the port of Nacala, for which new lines from Moatize to Nkaya Junction in Malawi and in the area of ​​Nacala-à-Velha as well as an improvement of existing sections are required. Every year 18 million tons of coal are to be transported over this route. The route including the new section in Malawi went into operation at the end of 2014. Coal trains with a total weight of up to 10,000 tons run on it today.

More networks

From 1910 onwards, an island operation with a 750 mm gauge, not connected to the rest of the railway network, developed within a few years , starting from Xai Xai to the north. The system was abandoned in 2000 after damage from severe floods.

Between 1910 and 1913, a stretch of the Cape Track, isolated from the other networks, was built between the port cities of Inharime and Inhambane , parallel to the coast. She has been without traffic since 1999.

A branch line from the coast to the hinterland was built between the port of Moma and Namiquela in 1912 with a 600 mm gauge. It was abandoned after 1951.

In the province of Zambezia , a 145-kilometer stretch from Quelimane on the Indian Ocean north to Mocuba was built from 1914 - initially in 750 mm gauge, later re- gauged to Cape gauge - and in 1922 . It has no connection to other networks. There is no longer any traffic on this route. It has now been dismantled.

State railway system

In 1941 the last concession company was nationalized, so that its railways now belonged to the state and were controlled by the Portuguese colonial authorities.

On March 27, 1974 near São Miguel, near Lourenço Marques (today: Maputo), a passenger train coming from Southern Rhodesia (today: Zimbabwe ) collided with a freight train running in the opposite direction , the one consisting of tank wagons that had loaded oil together. The resulting fire developed so much and so heat that rescue work was impossible for a long time. 60 people died in this railway accident.

With the independence of Mozambique, the national railway company Caminhos de Ferro de Moçambique was founded on June 25, 1975 . It was later renamed Portos e Caminhos de Ferro de Moçambique (German: "Ports and Railways of Mozambique") and also took over the operation of the seaports.

As a result of the Mozambican civil war from 1977 to 1992, vehicles and railway infrastructure were badly damaged, railway traffic was severely restricted and some routes were destroyed by acts of war. These included the Beira – Sena – Moatize route and the connection from Sena to Malawi after the bridge over the Zambezi had been blown up at Sena. The Nacala – Cuambo route in the north of the country was rebuilt after 1992; the section to the Malawian border was then impassable.

In 2002 there was a serious railway accident with a train coming from South Africa near Tenga , which left 192 dead and 167 injured.

In 2004, CCFB, 51% owned by two Indian companies, including RITES , and 49% owned by CFM, acquired the concession for the operation of the Beirabahn and the Sena line, which is to be rebuilt. Also in 2004 Mozambique received a loan from the World Bank to rebuild several routes.

present

In 2008 the route length was around 3,100 kilometers. Several routes have since reopened. The route from Beira to Moatize has been used by passenger trains for the first time since the civil war since the civil war, and Moatize was reached by trains in 2010 for the first time in over 20 years. In 2014 the route was 4,787 kilometers.

The main operator is Portos e Caminhos de Ferro de Moçambique (CFM), which carries out both freight and passenger traffic. The CFM is divided into the three separate networks Nord , Zambézia and Sud . The former Centro around Beira network is operated by the Companhia dos Caminhos de Ferro da Beira (CCFB).

Freight transport

Freight traffic takes place on the existing routes, primarily to and from the ports on the Indian Ocean. In 2008 around 245,000 tons of goods were transported, mainly corn, fuels, grain, fertilizer, tobacco and sugar. Mainly coal is transported from Moatize . The coal trains operating on the Nacala line usually consist of two diesel locomotives at the top, 60 cars, two more diesel locomotives in the middle of the train, followed by 60 more cars. A loaded coal train can therefore have a total weight of up to 10,000 tons and a length of around two kilometers. For this purpose, 85 new-build BB40-9W diesel locomotives were purchased from General Electric in the USA between 2014 and 2017 . The new coal wagons come from CSR China .

passenger traffic

Cuamba – Nampula passenger train retired in August 2018

Passenger traffic is sparse. On the Limpopo Line, a weekly pair of trains runs from Maputo via Chókwe to Chicualacuala on the border with Zimbabwe, and another between Maputo and Chókwe. The route to Ressano Garcia is driven once a day, as is the Maputo – Marracuene connection (as Comboios Urbanos , German for “urban connection”) in the greater Maputo area. Once a week, a pair of trains runs between Beira and Marromeu, and another pair of trains runs between Beira and Moatize. The route from Nampula to Cuamba in the Nacala Corridor is operated by a pair of passenger trains twice a week. In 2016, traffic on the Cuamba – Lichinga line began.

literature

  • Neil Robinson: World Rail Atlas and historical summary. Volume 7: North, East and Central Africa. World Rail Atlas Ltd., 2009, ISBN 9789549218435 .
  • Matthias Hille: Mozambique - Investments for Coal Transport, Eisenbahn-Kurier, issue 4/2019, pages 72 to 76
  • Matthias Hille: Mozambique - Heavy coal trains on new tracks , Fern-Express, issue 1/2019, pages 30 to 37

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b indexmundi.com (English), accessed on April 23, 2010
  2. ↑ a b c Indian website for the CCFB (English), accessed on March 10, 2011
  3. ↑ Robinson, p. 62.
  4. ^ Robinson, p. 59.
  5. ↑ Robinson, p. 61.
  6. ↑ Overview: History of Mozambique ( Memento of May 21, 2009 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on October 6, 2012
  7. ^ Röll encyclopedia from 1917 on the railroad in Portuguese East Africa .
  8. ↑ Robinson, p. 63.
  9. ↑ Robinson, pp. 60f.
  10. ↑ Robinson, pp. 60, 63.
  11. ^ Robinson, p. 59.
  12. ↑ The Ordeals in bringing the railway line from Beira to Umtali (now Mutare). zimfieldguide.com, accessed April 1, 2019
  13. ↑ Robinson, pp. 59ff.
  14. ^ Club of Mozambique, Sena railway line expansion completed. July 11, 2016, accessed September 28, 2019 .
  15. ↑ Robinson, pp. 60f.
  16. ↑ Robinson, p. 60.
  17. ^ Panafrican News Agency: Mozambique: Cuamba-Lichinga Railway Reopens . December 1, 1999. on www.allafrica.com
  18. ^ Mozambique: Government to Look into Cuamba-Lichinga Railway. April 22, 2010, on www.allafrica.com
  19. ^ Moatize – Nacala line railway corridor Mozambique. referengeneering.pt, accessed January 27, 2017
  20. ^ Vale project in Mozambique provides homes for local population. vale.com of July 17, 2015 (English), accessed January 27, 2017
  21. ↑ Robinson, pp. 62f.
  22. ↑ Robinson, p. 61.
  23. ↑ Robinson, p. 62.
  24. ↑ Robinson, p. 60.
  25. ^ Peter WB Semmens: Catastrophes on rails. A worldwide documentation. Transpress, Stuttgart 1996, ISBN 3-344-71030-3 , p. 180.
  26. ↑ Report on rail operations in the Nacala corridor in Trains 1/2010 (English, PDF file; 837 kB), accessed on April 27, 2010
  27. ↑ World Bank on Credit , accessed April 24, 2010
  28. ^ AFP report on youtube.com , accessed April 24, 2010
  29. ^ Report on the arrival in Moatize , accessed on April 26, 2010.
  30. ^ Railroad Development Corporation , accessed April 27, 2010
  31. ↑ Official CFM website (Portuguese / English), accessed on January 20, 2016
  32. ↑ Comboio volta a circular na linha férrea Cuamba-Lichinga. cfm.co.mz, November 11, 2017 (Portuguese), accessed January 27, 2017