Benguela railway

Specifications

The railway is Cape gauge, , which is used by most mainline railways in southern Africa. The maximum design speed is 90 km per hour. The design capacity is 20 million tons of cargo and 4 million passengers per year. There are 67 stations and 42 bridges along the route of the railway.

The highest point on the railway is 1854 m.

Equipment

Locomotives

History

The railway line roughly follows old trade routes between the ancient trading centre of Benguela and its hinterland of the Bié plateau. In 1899, the Portuguese government initiated the construction of the railway to give access to the central Angolan plateau and the mineral wealth of the then Congo Free State. A concession, running for 99 years, was granted to Sir Robert Williams on 28 November 1902.{{cite news |title=A Portuguese concession to construct a railway

Passenger trains also ran between Lubumbashi and Lobito, connecting with passenger ship services to Europe. This provided a shorter route for Europeans working in the Katangan and Zambian Copperbelt, and the name "Benguela Railway", or also "Katanga-Benguela railway", was sometimes used loosely to refer to the entire Lubumbashi–Lobito route, rather than the Tenke–Lobito section to which it strictly applies.

In its heyday, the Benguela Railway was the shortest way to transport mineral riches from the Congo to Europe. The line proved very successful and profitable, especially in the early 1970s after Zambia closed its border with the then Rhodesia. The railway reached an operational peak in 1973 when it transported 3.3 million tons of cargo, generated freight revenues of $30 million, and had 14,000 employees. Steam locomotives outnumbered diesels as late as 1987.

Soon after Angola gained its independence from Portugal in 1975, the Angolan Civil War broke out. The railway was heavily damaged during the war and progressively fell into disuse. The workshops in Huambo were destroyed. Ballast cars had to be coupled to the front of locomotives to detonate mines. When the 99-year concession expired in 2001, only 34 km remained in service, along the coast from Benguela to Lobito.

Rehabilitation

The railway was 90% owned by Tanganyika Concessions (Tanks), a London-based holding company. Société Générale de Belgique purchased a minority share in Tanks in 1923 and acquired a controlling interest in 1981. The Belgian company remained the controlling owner of the railway when the concession expired in 2001, at which point ownership of the railway passed to the Angolan government.

After the Angolan Civil War ended in 2002, the railway was reconstructed between 2006 and 2014 by the China Railway Construction Corporation at a cost of $1.83 billion. The rebuilt railway was formally inaugurated in February 2015.

According to Jornal de Angola in May 2012, Empresa do Caminho de Ferro de Benguela-E.P. employed 1,321 workers, and transported 129,430 passengers and 5,640 tons of goods in 2011. Two trains per day run between Lobito and Benguela, one per week to Huambo, and three per week between Lobito and Cubal.

On 5 March 2018, ore transport was restarted from the Tenke Fungurume Mine, in the DRC, from where copper and cobalt are extracted, and the cargo transported to the port of Lobito. From that date the railway went into full operation, connecting the city of Tenke to the city of Lobito.

In April 2023 the Angolan government confirmed funding to build a new 260km railway from Luena on the Benguela Railway to Saurimo, the capital of Lunda Sul province.

Lobito Atlantic Railway

Main article: Lobito Atlantic Railway

On 4 July 2023, the Lobito Atlantic Railway company secured a 30-year concession for railway services. This joint venture involved Trafigura, a Singapore-based company, Mota-Engil, headquartered in Portugal, and Vecturis SA, a Belgium-based rail operator. The concession agreement encompassed the entire 1,300km railway line in Angola, extending to the 400km line into the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) (up to Kolwezi), and also includes any potential service extensions in Zambia. To support their operations, the company committed to investing in Angola and up to in the DRC. The awarding of the concessions took place in the presence of Presidents João Lourenço of Angola, Félix Tshisekedi of the DRC, and Hakainde Hichilema of Zambia.

Expected to operate at least 1555 wagons and 30 locomotives in Angola, an initial 275 wagons were ordered by contract from South Africa in June 2024. Operations launched at the LAR mineral terminal at the Port of Lobito the following month, with the docking of MV Lindsaylou, a bulk cargo vessel, on 12 July 2024, with cargo later transferred to train cars to journey to the DRC.

Accidents

In the Tolunda rail accident on 22 September 1994, damaged brakes caused a train to plunge into a canyon, killing 300.

References

References

1. [https://www.railjournal.com/financial/angola-to-launch-concession-for-benguela-railway/ Angola to launch concession for Benguela Railway]. International Railway Journal. 25 August 2021.
2. {{usurped
3. (13 August 2014). "Chinese company completes massive Angolan railway".
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5. (16 February 2015). "Angola rail line, built by China, gets rolling".
6. (13 November 1989). "Railroad in Angola to Be Revived". The New York Times.
7. (13 August 2012). "CNR Dalian locomotives arrive in Angola".
8. "GE to supply 100 locomotives to Angola".
9. ''Benguela Railway Company.'' (1929)
10. William A. Hance and Irene S. van Dongen. (October 1956). "The Port of Lobito and the Benguela Railway". American Geographical Society.
11. (15 December 1909). "Railway extension northwards". The Beira Post.
12. (1907). "Mineral Wealth of the Congo Free State". Mining Journal.
13. Portuguese Africa before the real storm. ''[[The Economist]]'', Saturday, 24 August 1974, Issue 6835, Page 74.
14. "EMPRESA DO CAMINHO DE FERRO DE BENGUELA- E.P.".
15. (11 January 2015). "Benguela - More than just a current".
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17. (1985). "The Third Portuguese Empire, 1825–1975: A Study in Economic Imperialism". Manchester University Press.
18. (1986). "Beggar Your Neighbours: Apartheid Power in Southern Africa". Indiana University Press.
19. (11 January 2015). "Benguela - More than just a current".
20. 100,000 Angolans were employed on the railway reconstruction. Trains reached [[Huambo]] in 2011, [[Kuito]] in 2012, and [[Luau, Moxico Leste. Luau]] near the Congolese border in 2013.Comboio entre Benguela e Huambo opera após 19 anos de interrupção, ''Jornal de Economia & Finanças'', 30 August 2011, page 3
21. "Comboio experimental do CFB chegou este sábado ao Kuito". Angop.
22. (20 August 2013). "FIRST CFB TRAIN REACHES LUAU". Railways Africa.
23. (29 May 2012). "Navios em Cabinda e comboio no Luena". Jornal de Angola.
24. "Desenvolvimento Sustentável".
25. "Transfer commences of the concession of railway services and support logistics of the Lobito Corridor in Angola to the Lobito Atlantic Railway".
26. Boechat, Geraldine. "Presidents of Angola, Zambia and DRC get together to launch Lobito corridor – Medafrica Times".
27. "Trafigura-led consortium pledges R10.5bn for key rail project to link Angola, DRC and Zambia".
28. [https://zambiatransportandlogistics.com/2024/06/20/a-south-african-manufacturer-will-supply-275-new-container-wagons-for-the-lobito-railway-project/ A South African manufacturer will supply 275 new container wagons for the Lobito railway project] Access date: 2024-08-23
29. [https://m.miningweekly.com/print-version/consortium-receives-maiden-vessel-at-port-of-lobito-as-concession-takes-shape-2024-07-16 Consortium receives maiden vessel at Port of Lobito as concession takes shape] Mining Weekly. Access date: 2024-08-23
30. [https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3650835.stm World's worst rail disasters BBC Article]