Rail transport in Zambia
Rail transport in Zambia plays an important role, especially in freight transport in the country. Two railway companies operating in Zambia. The route length is a total of 2157 km. All routes are run in Cape gauge, single track and not electrified.
Geography
Zambia is a landlocked country. The distances to the seaports be over 2000 kilometers. Large parts of the country are located in a 1000 to 1400 meter high plateau. From the north, stands a large area of the Democratic Republic of Congo into the Zambian territory. There lies the Copperbelt, be recovered in the copper ores, which are traversed by rail. At the southern border flows with the Zambezi one of the widest streams Africa. He is border to Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe and is crossed at Victoria Falls by a railway line on a bridge. Other neighboring countries are Angola, Tanzania, Mozambique and Malawi. With Angola, Namibia, Botswana, Mozambique and Malawi, Zambia has no rail link.
History
Railway construction in the then British Northern Rhodesia was promoted mainly by Cecil Rhodes. 1899, the corporation of the Rhodesian Railways was established. The track construction was mostly from south to north. In 1905 the Zambezi bridge was completed at Victoria Falls, opened the same year the section Livingstone Kalomo. 1906 Broken Hill (now Kabwe ) achieved in 1909 the border of the Belgian Congo in Sakania and thus the connection to the Congolese railway network. The route was part of the projected line connecting Cape Town to Cairo. As a gauge of the usual in Southern Africa Cape gauge was chosen. 1916, the section Kalomo Broken Hill was operated by the Mashonaland Railway Company. 1929, the Benguela railway was completed, so that the Atlantic port of Benguela could be achieved. In Zambia, more lines were built. In the Copperbelt was approximately parallel to the track in the Belgian Congo a connection from Ndola about Kitwe to Chingola. 1923-1924 was the Zambezi Sawmills Railway - later Mulobezi Railway - built as a private railway track for the extraction of teak wood from Mulobezi and north of it from Kataba. She pointed to several branch lines and was operated until Kataba also in passenger transport. Furthermore, the route Choma - Masuku in the southwest of the country, and three short branch lines in the Copperbelt that lead to Chilabombwe, Mufulira and Luanshya emerged.
Until the mid- 1960s drove sleeper trains from Ndola on Livingstone to Bulawayo in what was then Southern Rhodesia. 1964 Northern Rhodesia became independent as Zambia. The railway company was divided, called the part pertaining to Zambia Zambia Railways. The traffic between Zambia and Rhodesia - which called itself Rhodesia until 1979 - was interrupted until the founding of the State of Zimbabwe in 1980.
The route Dar es Salaam - Tanzania Zambia Railway Kapiri Mposhi the Authority ( TAZARA ) was established under Chinese management and opened in 1976. The aim was to Zambia following the Tanzanian port Dar es Salaam on the Indian Ocean, thus reducing the economic dependence of Zambia from South Africa, where at that time there was apartheid, and of Rhodesia, which was also ruled by a white minority. The track was also built in Cape gauge and graduated in Kapiri Mposhi on to the existing network. 891 km of the route are in Zambia. This route forms a separate railway company and is legally independent from the rest of the network. 1986, a route through the northern South Africa and Swaziland was completed, which facilitated the transport of goods from Zambia to South African ports of Durban and Richards Bay.
In 2003, the group of investors NLPI that primarily South African company represents to operate the concession, Zambia Railways for 20 years. Under the name of Railway Systems of Zambia ( RSZ ), it operates the routes of Zambia Railways.
Presence
The two main routes are operated mainly in freight transport. 55-60 per cent of freight traffic are generated in the Copperbelt, around 25-30 per cent in the space Lusaka. Occasionally, the Pride of Africa luxury train coming from South Africa runs over Victoria Falls and Kapiri Mposhi direction Dar es Salaam and back.
TAZARA
On the TAZARA route operate weekly two pairs of passenger to Dar es Salaam, one to Nakonde in Ostsambia. RSZ operates two pairs of passenger per week between Kitwe and Livingstone, who need each way about 34 hours in the country.
Railway Systems of Zambia
Also two pairs of trains run from the capital Lusaka to Livingstone. In addition, weekly runs a passenger train from Livingstone to Mulabezi; this is by means of a steam locomotive built in 1926 in Glasgow No. 204 operated. Operated by RSZ network is 1273 km long.
Projects
Several new lines are planned, including the connection of Mchinji in Malawi after Mpika in eastern Zambia to the TAZARA route. The route of the cross-border section Mchinji - Chipata is completed. Objective is to improve access of Zambia to the ports on the Indian Ocean, especially Beira and Nacala in Mozambique.
A second project is the construction of a stretch of Chingola in the Copperbelt in the north-western province of Zambia, where more copper ore were discovered. It is planned to extend the line north to the Benguela railway in Angola, so that the transit traffic through the Democratic Republic of Congo would remove.