Rail transport in Malawi
Rail transport in Malawi plays an important role, especially in freight transport in the country. The total length of the route is in Malawi (2010 ) 797 kilometers in the usual in Southern Africa Cape gauge. Operator is the Mozambican private investors group Insitec.
Topography
Malawi is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Northeast of Malawi located in Tanzania, east, south and southwest of Mozambique and Zambia to the west. The nearest sea ports of Nacala and Beira in Mozambique, Malawi which is connected by railway lines. Lake Malawi Malawi to the east is characterized by its large expansion in North-South direction an obstacle to railway construction. Only the southern half of the country is accessible by railway lines.
History
Today Malawi was a British protectorate as Nyasaland. By 1904, the Shire Highlands Railway from Port Herald (now Nsanje ) was built up by the private Chiromo Shire Highland Railway Company. Since expenditure on the construction exceeded the financial capabilities of the company, the British Central Africa Company took over the construction of the extension via Blantyre at that Fort Johnston, today Mangochi. It was opened in 1909. In 1912, a contract to build a railway connection to the Zambezi and on to Beira, today's Sena line, closed. The line was extended from 1977 within Malawi. It begins on the border with Zambia in Mchinji and performs on the capital, Lilongwe, Malawi on the harbor Chipoka, Mangochi, Blantyre Nkaya and south. In Makhanga they crossed the border into Mozambique and leads to Sena and on to Beira on the Indian Ocean.
Mid-1960s the steam locomotives used until then were retired and replaced by diesel locomotives. Part of the steam engines was used in the early 1970s again. In the 1970s, the route Nkaya - Cuamba was built to connect Malawi to the deepwater port of Nacala. In the 1980s, the track was destroyed as a result of the civil war to Beira in Mozambique. The route to Nacala was unusable.
In 1999, the state-owned company Malawi Railways was privatized and with the Mozambican Caminhos de Ferro de Moçambique North (CFM -North) to the Central East African Railways united. Operator was then on the Railroad Development Corporation, headquartered in Pittsburgh. Since 2005, go back trains from Malawi to Nacala. In September 2008 the company was sold to the investor group Insitec.
Presence
The depot and operating center located in Limbe, a district of Blantyre. In Balaka north from the separation station Nkaya there is a yard.
The two routes serve priority to freight. The tonnage in 2008 was about 220,000 tons. 19 diesel locomotives and 403 freight cars belonging to the railway company. Are transported mainly maize, container, fuel, fertilizer, cement, tobacco and sugar. A 35 -mile extension of the line from Mchinji to Chipata in Zambia is completed up to the tracks. From Chipata from the TAZARA to be achieved in the Zambian Mpika.
Passenger transport takes place only on some sections. From Blantyre to Balaka drives a pair of trains until Nayuchi on the eastern border of Malawi twice a week every day. From Limbe after Nsanje also operate twice weekly trains. Lilongwe is achieved not by passenger trains.