Uelle railways
| Bumba – Buta – Mungbere | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Route length: | 1011.0 km | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gauge : | 600 mm ( narrow gauge ) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Uelle-Bahnen (CFU) is the name of a narrow-gauge railway line in the northeast of the Democratic Republic of the Congo or its operating company. The route runs from the Congo port of Bumba in Mongala through Nieder-Uelle to Mungbere in Ober-Uelle with branches to Bondo, Titulé and Buta town .
Route
Depending on the source, the 1011 or 1026 km long narrow-gauge line with a gauge of 600 mm follows the 3rd degree of latitude. It leads from Bumba on the Congo through Nieder-Uelle to Mungbere in Ober-Uelle. Branch lines lead from Komba to Bondo, from Andoma (formerly Liénart or Liénartville) to Titulé and from Buta Dreieck to Buta City.
Operationally, the network consists of the following routes:
- Bumba-Aketi
- Aketi – Bondo
- Aketi-Buta-Isiro
- Liénart – Titulé
- Buta triangle – Buta city
- Isiro – Mungbere
history
The Uelle-Bahnen was built between 1924 and 1937 by a Belgian company. The first route ran from Aketi to Bondo and was built from the material of the German army, which the Belgians bought cheaply after the First World War from liquidation stocks of the army field railways . The railway was later extended from Komba to Buta, Paulis (now Isiro) and Mungbere, which was reached in 1937. An expansion to the Kilo-Moto gold mines, however, did not take place. In Aketi on the Itimbiri there is a connection to the river navigation; Since the water level is only 40 cm in some places, a connection to the Congo was built in 1971. However, the line was last used continuously by a train in the early 2000s. Radio Okapi reported several train journeys in the upper part of the route, which was probably operated for the last time in 2008. After a 14-year break, operations between Bumba and Aketi were resumed in 2005.
operator
- The builder and operator was the company of the Congolese branch lines (French: Chemins de fer vicinaux du Congo, CVC, colloquially Vicicongo; Flemish: Buurtspoorwegen van Congo) based in Brussels.
- After independence, a Congolese company with the same name based in Aketi took over the railway, which later changed the name to Zairian branch lines (CVZ, Vicizaïre).
- 1974: Merger of KDL, CFL, CVZ (Chemins de Fer Vicinaux du Zaïre), CFMK and CFM to form the Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer Zaïrois (SNCZ)
- 1991: Dissolution of SNCZ, establishment of SNCZ Holding and its subsidiaries OCS (Office des Chemins de Fer du Sud, French for Office of the Southern Railway), SFE (Société des Chemins de Fer de l'Est, French for Eastern Railway Company) and CFU (Office des Chemins de Fer des Ueles, French for Uelle-Bahnen).
Today the Uelle-Bahnen (CFU) are part of the Congolese state enterprise. They were administered by the Ministry of the Portfolio. On December 23, 2010, the operation was converted into a stock company called Eisenbahngesellschaft Uelle-Strom AG (meaning the Congo ). The share capital is 1 Congo franc ($ 0.001) and the only shareholder is the Democratic Republic of the Congo .
literature
- Blanchart, Charles: Le Rail au Congo Belge. 1920-1945. Bruxelles: Blanchart, 1999.
- Blanchart, Charles: Le Rail au Congo Belge. 1945-1960. Bruxelles: Masion, 2008.
Web links
- Picture of the first Heeresfeldbahn locomotive (monument in Aketi)
- Status 1956 including truck service
credentials
- ↑ Attention: The information on the card is inaccurate. See commentary on map and books by Blanchart.
- ↑ http://www.fahrplancenter.com/
- ↑ http://www.drehscheibe-foren.de/foren/read.php?17,4212969
- ↑ http://radiookapi.net/sans-categorie/2005/04/06/equateur-reprise-du-trafic-ferroviaire-bumba-aketi/
- ↑ http://www.ministereduportefeuille.org/
- ↑ http://www.copirep.org/documents/J%20O%20%20n%20sp%E9cial%20du%2029%20d%E9cembre%202010-A4.pdf ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as broken. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Official Journal of the DR Congo of December 29, 2010.
