Mozambique Transport Minister Inaugurates Railcars

[John Ashworth]

Mozambique: Transport Minister Inaugurates Railcars

allAfrica.com
12 May 2009

Marracuene — Mozambican Transport Minister Paulo Zucula on Monday inaugurated three diesel powered railcars, acquired to boost rail passenger transport in the south of the country.

The ceremony took place at Marracuene, 30 kilometres north of Maputo. The railcars each cost the publicly owned rail and port company, CFM, 1.6 million euros (2.2 million US dollars).

They first saw service in Yugoslavia in the 1970s, but were purchased by the Portuguese rail company, to replace steam trains on some of the Portuguese routes. The have been out of service for a long time, but have been thoroughly refurbished to fit CFM's needs, including adjusting the axles to the southern African rail gauge.

They will be allocated to the established passenger routes between Maputo and Marracuene and Maputo and Matola, and at weekends will operate express routes to Ressano Garcia, on the South African border, and to Chokwe in Gaza province.

"The project to purchase these railcars is part of a programme to improve the quality of passenger transport services as defined in the government's five year programme, aiming at responding to people's expectations and to minimise the shortage of urban public passenger transport", said Zucula.

He noted that this project is not an end by itself, but is "one of the steps towards improving transport conditions, as we head towards a diversification of means of transport".

Zucula said that the government hopes to integrate road, rail and maritime transport in a single urban passenger transport system.

"Now that the railway transport system has been strengthened with the purchase of these railcars, we are working to purchase boats that will form part of the system, traveling between Matola and the Maputo suburb of Costa do Sol", said the minister.

Zucula said he was confident that CFM will improve the services it provides to rail users, and urged the company to guarantee that the railcars have a long and useful working life.

One of the CFM directors, Domingos Baina, urged local leaders and the police to make the public aware of the need to conserve this equipment. "On the conservation and good use of these railcars will depend other investment in this sector", he said.

He also announced that the timetables and fares for the new services will be published next Monday. He said that the price of a ticket will be fixed taking into account the high cost of living and the need for people to travel every day to their jobs.

He explained that, under current conditions, passenger services are not profitable for CFM, with the fares paid by covering only 15 per cent of the operating costs, and the remaining 85 per cent being met by the company.

Copyright © 2009 Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique

[Kevin Wilson-Smith]

Interesting that they have gone for railcars - and sensible too. I have always maintained that rail cars woul have been ideal in South African "rural" areas - and still could be in some cases.....

[Steve Appleton]

I loved the Wickham's that the old Rhodesia Railways ran twice daily between Umtali (now Mutare) and Salisbury (now Harare). They were a great service. Took about 4.5 hrs to cover, in comfort, the 280 km at a top speed of about 120 km/h, compared with the mail train's 9 hours. They were withdrawn after a year or two, apparently because they still could not compete with the 2.5 hrs or less by road (about 260 km). Some say the reason was actually their (un)reliability. At the Rhodesia Railways breakup, they were shed (perhaps without a tear) to Zambia to do the Lusaka to Copperbelt run. Last I heard those 3 railcars were lying derilict in the railway workshops in Kitwe (whatever that's now called).