:''This article is part of the

history of rail transport by country The history of rail transport began in the BCE times. It can be divided into several discrete periods defined by the principal means of track material and motive power used. Ancient systems The Post Track, a prehistoric causeway in the va ...

series''

The history of rail transport in Madagascar began at the start of the twentieth century, with the construction of a metre gauge line between Brickaville (now Ampasimanolotra) and

Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...

's capital, Tananarive (now

Antananarivo Antananarivo (French language, French: ''Tananarive'', ), also known by its colonial shorthand form Tana, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Madagascar. The administrative area of the city, known as Antananarivo-Renivohitra ("An ...

). That line was the first section of the Tananarive–Côte Est railway (TCE) from Tananarive to

Toamasina Toamasina (), meaning "like salt" or "salty", unofficially and in French Tamatave, is the capital of the Atsinanana region on the east coast of Madagascar on the Indian Ocean. The city is the chief seaport of the country, situated northeast of it ...

, the country's chief seaport. It eventually became the nucleus of a network of three railways, the Network North (french: Réseau Nord). Between 1926 and 1936, an isolated line, the Fianarantsoa-Côte Est railway (FCE), was built, again in metre gauge, in the south east of the island. The FCE is also known as Southern Network (French: ''Réseau Sud''). The two separate networks were combined under the same management in 1944. The whole system was nationalized in 1974. By the 1990s, the national system was very run down, and the Malagasy government decided to privatize it. Since 2003, Network North has been run by a

joint stock A joint-stock company is a business entity in which shares of the company's stock can be bought and sold by shareholders. Each shareholder owns company stock in proportion, evidenced by their shares (certificates of ownership). Shareholders a ...

company,

Madarail The government of Madagascar has granted Madarail a 25-year concession to operate the northern of the two national rail lines. The company is investing in Madagascar's rail system. Operations began in 2003 with one locomotive; 7 more locomotiv ...

, under a 25-year concession, while the Southern network had remained under

parastatal A state-owned enterprise (SOE) is a government entity which is established or nationalised by the ''national government'' or ''provincial government'' by an executive order or an act of legislation in order to earn profit for the government ...

operation. In 2022 the private investors desisted and the company is now 100% owned by the state of Madagascar. Madagascar has also had a number of

industrial railway An industrial railway is a type of railway (usually private) that is not available for public transportation and is used exclusively to serve a particular industrial, logistics, or military site. In regions of the world influenced by British ra ...

s, including a line serving a

sugar cane Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of (often hybrid) tall, perennial grass (in the genus '' Saccharum'', tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar production. The plants are 2–6 m (6–20 ft) tall with stout, jointed, fibrous stalk ...

plantation A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. The ...

on the small island of

Nosy Be Nosy Be (formerly Nossi-bé and Nosse Be) is an island off the northwest coast of Madagascar. Nosy Be is Madagascar's largest and busiest tourist resort. It has an area of , and its population was 109,465 according to the provisional results of ...

, north west of the main island. The line from Antananarivo to Antsirabe (159 km) was closed in the mid-1990th after the passage of the Cyclone Ana that damaged a bridge over the river Sasaony.L'Express de Madagascar: Ligne Antananarivo-Antsirabe
/ref> Reopening is projected for 2023 only as earlier governements found more urgent utilities for the funds.

References

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External links

{{Africa in topic, History of rail transport in

Rail Rail or rails may refer to: Rail transport *Rail transport and related matters *Rail (rail transport) or railway lines, the running surface of a railway Arts and media Film * ''Rails'' (film), a 1929 Italian film by Mario Camerini * ''Rail'' ( ...

Rail transport in Madagascar de:Schienenverkehr auf Madagaskar#Geschichte no:Jernbane på Madagaskar#Historie ru:Железнодорожный транспорт на Мадагаскаре#История

See also

References

External links