Rail transport in Rwanda

The rail transport in Rwanda consisted of only three factory industrial railways in Rwanda .

history

It was in the freight -powered narrow gauge railways in the track width 600 mm. Passenger traffic never took place on the railroad in Rwanda. These works railways were initially operated by the

• Société Minière de Muhinga et de Kigali (SOMUKI) in the mines of Muhinga and Kigali since 1924,
• Société des mines d'etain du Ruanda-Urundi (Minétain) in the Katumba mine since 1928,
• Societe des Mines de Rwanda (SOMIRWA) in the tin - refining of Karuruma since 1,982th

By 1988, all three companies were united in the Régie d'Exploitation et de Développement des Mines (RÉDEMI), which now also operated the three railways. The railways were also badly damaged by the civil war in Rwanda over the next 20 years. It can be assumed that they are no longer in operation today.

Projects

Much more extensive than the existing rail transport are the projects in the rail sector that were aimed at Rwanda:

• Even before the First World War - Rwanda was part of German East Africa at the time - preparations had begun to build a railway line branching off the Tanganyika Railway to Rwanda. The project was abandoned due to the war.
  → Main article : Rwanda Railway
  .
• In 2008 a feasibility study was carried out for a railway line from Isaka ( Tanzania ) on the Tabora – Mwanza railway line , which would connect the Tanganyika Railway with the Rwandan capital Kigali .
• On October 27, 2008, the presidents of Kenya and Uganda , Mwai Kibaki and Yoweri Museveni set up a joint ministerial commission to investigate whether the construction of a standard-gauge rail link from the port of Mombasa to Uganda, Burundi , the Democratic Republic of the Congo , Sudan (today: South Sudan) and also Rwanda is possible.

literature

• Neil Robinson: World Rail Atlas and historical summary. Vol. 7: North, East and Central Africa. World Rail Atlas Ltd., 2009. ISBN 978-954-92184-3-5 , pp. 64f.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Robinson, p. 79.