History of rail transport in Zambia
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

:''This article is part of the history of rail transport by country series'' The history of rail transport in Zambia began at the start of the twentieth century.


Northern Rhodesia

The
British South Africa Company The British South Africa Company (BSAC or BSACo) was chartered in 1889 following the amalgamation of Cecil Rhodes' Central Search Association and the London-based Exploring Company Ltd, which had originally competed to capitalize on the expecte ...
(BSAC) was responsible for building the Rhodesian railway system in the period of primary construction which ended in 1911, when the main line through Northern Rhodesia reached the Congo border and the Katanga copper mines. Railway construction in British South Africa Company-administered
Northern Rhodesia Northern Rhodesia was a British protectorate in southern Africa, south central Africa, now the independent country of Zambia. It was formed in 1911 by Amalgamation (politics), amalgamating the two earlier protectorates of Barotziland-North-West ...
(now Zambia) was undertaken by
Rhodesian Railways The National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ), formerly Rhodesia Railways, is a state-owned company in Zimbabwe that operates the country's national railway system. It is headquartered in the city of Bulawayo. In addition to the headquarters, it has ...
, established in 1899, as an extension of the system in Southern Rhodesia. Railway development was driven by
Cecil Rhodes Cecil John Rhodes (5 July 1853 – 26 March 1902) was a British mining magnate and politician in southern Africa who served as Prime Minister of the Cape Colony from 1890 to 1896. An ardent believer in British imperialism, Rhodes and his Br ...
, whose original intention was for a railway extending across the Zambesi to Lake Tanganyika, popularly considered as part of a great
Cape-Cairo railway The Cape to Cairo Railway was an unfinished project to create a railway line crossing Africa from south to north. It would have been the largest and most important railway of that continent. It was planned as a link between Cape Town in Sout ...
linking all the British colonies of Africa. However, Rhodes was as much a capitalist in his motivation as a visionary, and when little gold was found in
Mashonaland Mashonaland is a region in northern Zimbabwe. Currently, Mashonaland is divided into four provinces, * Mashonaland West * Mashonaland Central * Mashonaland East * Harare The Zimbabwean capital of Harare, a province unto itself, lies entirely ...
in Southern Rhodesia, he accepted that the scheme to reach Lake Tanganyika had no economic justification. Railways built by private companies without government subsidies need enough of the type of traffic that can pay high freight rates to recover their construction costs. The agricultural products that fueled much of Rhodesia's early economic growth could not provide this traffic; large quantities of minerals could. Most early railways in Africa were built by the British government rather than Chartered Companies. The need to raise capital and produce dividends prevented most Chartered Companies from undertaking such infrastructure investments. However, in the early period of railway construction, BSAC obtained finance from South African companies including Consolidated Gold Fields and De Beers in which Rhodes was a dominant force. BSAC also benefited from the personal fortunes of Rhodes before his death.S Katzenellenbogen, (1974). Zambia and Rhodesia: Prisoners of the Past: A Note on the History of Railway Politics in Central Africa, pp. 63-4. The railway reached Bulawayo in 1897, and was extended to the Victoria Falls in 1902. Lines were built in the or
Cape gauge A cape is a clothing accessory or a sleeveless outer garment which drapes the wearer's back, arms, and chest, and connects at the neck. History Capes were common in medieval Europe, especially when combined with a hood in the chaperon. Th ...
. The railway arrived in the future Zambia early in 1905, when the long Livingstone–Kalomo line was built in advance of completion in September of that year of the
Victoria Falls Bridge The Victoria Falls Bridge crosses the Zambezi River just below the Victoria Falls and is built over the Second Gorge of the falls. As the river forms the border between Zimbabwe and Zambia, the bridge links the two countries and has border post ...
from the then Southern Rhodesia to
Livingstone Livingstone may refer to: * Livingstone (name), a Scottish surname and a given name. **David Livingstone (1813–1873), Scottish physician, missionary and explorer, after whom many other Livingstones are named Places *Livingstone Falls, on the Con ...
. The first wagons on the line were hauled by oxen, then a single locomotive was conveyed in pieces by cableway across the gorge where the bridge was being built to start up operations to Kalomo in advance of the main line connection. The next section was to Broken Hill, (now Kabwe), which the railway reached in 1906. BSAC was assured that there would be much traffic from its lead and zinc mines, but this did not materialize because technical mining problems. The railway could not meet the costs of the construction loans, and the company faced major financial problems. The only area likely to generate sufficient mineral traffic to relieve these debts was Katanga. Another major bridge was required to cross the Kafue River and the long Kafue Railway Bridge, the longest on the Rhodesian Railways or Zambian Railways network, was completed in 1906. Initially, the Congo Free State had concluded that Katanga's copper deposits were not rich enough to justify the capital cost of building a railway to the coast, but expeditions between 1899 and 1901 proved their value. Copper deposits found in Northern Rhodesia before the First World War proved uneconomic to develop. In Zambia more lines were built. In the Copperbelt, a connection from Ndola to Chingola via
Kitwe Kitwe is the third largest city in terms of infrastructure development (after Lusaka and Ndola) and second largest city in terms of size and population (after Lusaka) in Zambia. With a population of 517,543 (''2010 census provisional'') Kitwe is ...
was opened approximately parallel to the line in the Belgian Congo. In 1923 to 1924, the '' Zambezi Sawmills Railway'' – later ''
Mulobezi Railway The Mulobezi Railway (once known as the Zambezi Sawmills Railway) was constructed to carry timber from Mulobezi to Livingstone in the Southern Province of Zambia, when the country was Northern Rhodesia. The line uses the narrow gauge, also kn ...
'' – was built as a private railway for the extraction of teak from
Mulobezi Mulobezi is a small town in the Western Province of Zambia, and the centre of its timber industry. Timber extends into Southern Province with which the town is economically linked. Extensive forests of Zambian Teak grow on the sandy soils of th ...
and
Kataba Kataba is a town located in the Western Province of Zambia. Its original name was Kataba Masamba. It is in the Mulobezi District Mulobezi District is a district of Zambia, located in Western Province. It was separated from Sesheke District ...
to its north. It linked with several branch lines, and also operated passenger services as far as Kataba. A line from Choma to
Masuku Masuku is the former name of Franceville, a city in Gabon. It is also an African surname that may refer to: *Bandile Masuku, South African politician *Bongani Masuku, South African vocalist *Davidson Masuku (1940–2000), South African military co ...
was also built in the southwest of the country and three short branch lines in the Copperbelt, leading to Chililabombwe,
Mufulira Mufulira, is a town in the Copperbelt Province of Zambia. Mufulira means "Place of Abundance and Peace". The town developed around the Mufulira Copper Mine in the 1930s. The town also serves as the administrative capital of Mufulira District. ...
and
Luanshya Luanshya is a town in Zambia, in the Copperbelt Province near Ndola. It has a population of 117,579 (2008 census). Luanshya was founded in the early part of the 20th century after two prospector/explorer, William Collier shot and killed a Roan A ...
. Until the mid-1960s, sleeper trains went from Ndola via Livingstone to Bulawayo in what was then Southern Rhodesia. In 1906 Union Minière du Haut Katanga was formed to exploit the Katanga mines. King Leopold favoured a railway route entirely in Congolese territory, linked to the Congo River. However, in 1908, BSAC agreed with Leopold to continue the Rhodesian railway to Elizabethville and the mines. Between 1912, when full-scale copper production began, until 1928 when a Congolese line was completed, almost all of Katanga's copper was shipped over the Rhodesian network to Beira. Even after the Congo route was opened, up to a third of Katanga's copper went to Beira, and the mine's supply of coal and coke mostly came from Wankie, the cheapest available source. This railway's revenue from Katanga enabled it to carry agricultural produce at low rates. Large-scale development of the Copperbelt only began in the late 1920s, with an increasing world market for copper. Transport was no problem as only short branches had to be built to connect the Copperbelt to the main line. In 1929, the Benguela Railway was completed, giving access to the Atlantic port of
Benguela Benguela (; Umbundu: Luombaka) is a city in western Angola, capital of Benguela Province. Benguela is one of Angola's most populous cities with a population of 555,124 in the city and 561,775 in the municipality, at the 2014 census. History Por ...
. The Benguela Railway provided the shortest, most direct route for copper from both Katanga and Northern Rhodesia, but it was never used to full capacity because both the Congo and the Rhodesias restricted its traffic in favour of their own lines. When the BSAC administration of the Rhodesias was terminated, an agreement between the Colonial Secretary and the company of 29 September 1923 recognised that BSAC was entitled to protection because of the size of its railway investment in Northern and Southern Rhodesia. The agreement required the governors of each territory to refer any
Bill Bill(s) may refer to: Common meanings * Banknote, paper cash (especially in the United States) * Bill (law), a proposed law put before a legislature * Invoice, commercial document issued by a seller to a buyer * Bill, a bird or animal's beak Plac ...
authorizing the construction of new railways or altering the rates that the existing railways charged to the Colonial Secretary. This prevented the legislatures of Northern or Southern Rhodesia from introducing competition or exerting pressure on the BSAC-controlled railways to reduce rates without British government sanction. European settlers in Northern Rhodesia had two main criticisms of British South Africa Company railway policy. Firstly, that its financial arrangements unfairly benefited the company and its shareholders, and secondly, that the settlers paid for these benefits through exorbitant railway rates. Although the allegations were probably ill-founded, from 1914 onwards, the European settlers called for the replacement of BSAC control of the railways through
nationalisation Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately-owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to pri ...
. In 1923 responsible government was achieved, but rather outright nationalisation, the settler government opted for a form of public control under the Railway Act of 1926. This left BSAC as the owner of the railways, which were called Beira and Mashonaland and Rhodesia Railways until 1927, and Rhodesia Railways Limited after. This remained the situation until 1947, when the Rhodesian Government acquired the assets of Rhodesia Railways Limited.


Zambia

In 1964,
Northern Rhodesia Northern Rhodesia was a British protectorate in southern Africa, south central Africa, now the independent country of Zambia. It was formed in 1911 by Amalgamation (politics), amalgamating the two earlier protectorates of Barotziland-North-West ...
became independent under the name Zambia. The railway company was divided, and the part belonging to Zambia was renamed
Zambia Railways Zambia Railways (ZR) is the national railway company of Zambia, one of the two major railway organisations in Zambia. The other system is the binational TAZARA Railway (TAZARA) that interconnects with the ZR at Kapiri Mposhi and provides a link to ...
. Traffic between Zambia and Southern Rhodesia – which renamed itself as ''
Rhodesia Rhodesia (, ), officially from 1970 the Republic of Rhodesia, was an unrecognised state in Southern Africa from 1965 to 1979, equivalent in territory to modern Zimbabwe. Rhodesia was the ''de facto'' successor state to the British colony of S ...
'' in November 1965 – was suspended until the foundation of the state of Zimbabwe in April 1980.


TAZARA Railway

From 1964, discussions took place about a proposed railway line between Tanzania and Zambia. The government of the People's Republic of China sponsored construction of the railway specifically to eliminate Zambia's economic dependence on Rhodesia and South Africa.Thomas W. Robinson and David L. Shambaugh. ''Chinese Foreign Policy: theory and practice'', 1994. Page 287. The contractual foundations were closed in 1967, and one year later, the ''Tanzania-Zambia Railway'' ( TAZARA) was established, as a condominial railway owned by Tanzania and Zambia. The TAZARA was built in the or
Cape gauge A cape is a clothing accessory or a sleeveless outer garment which drapes the wearer's back, arms, and chest, and connects at the neck. History Capes were common in medieval Europe, especially when combined with a hood in the chaperon. Th ...
, which was common in southern Africa, but new to Tanzania. The line was handed over to the company as it was completed in sections in 1973 and 1974. The TAZARA has been a major economic conduit in the region. However, it has never been profitable and more recently it has suffered from competition from road transport (such as the
Trans–Caprivi Highway The Walvis Bay-Ndola-Lubumbashi Development Road (previously ''Trans-Caprivi Corridor'' and until 2004 ''Trans-Caprivi-Highway'', accessed on 27 August 2014.) runs from Walvis Bay, through Rundu in north eastern Namibia, along the Caprivi Strip ...
and Walvis Bay Corridor to Namibia) and the re-orientation of Zambia's economic links towards South Africa after the end of apartheid. As of October 2008, a Tanzanian newspaper described the TAZARA's condition as being "on the verge of collapse due to financial crisis", with the operator being three months late on paying worker's wages and most of its 12 locomotives being out of service. At the beginning of 2010 the Chinese government gave the financially crippled operator a US$39 million interest-free loan to revive its operations.


Sena railway

The subsequent discovery of the Chipata mines in Zambia made it possible to extend the Sena railway from
Mchinji Mchinji is a town and the capital of the Mchinji District in the Central Region of Malawi. Mchinji Boma, located from the Zambian border and from the national capital, Lilongwe, is the major hub of government and general business. It has a m ...
, Malawi, to
Chipata The city of Chipata is the administrative centre of the Eastern Province of Zambia and Chipata District. It was declared the 5th city of the country, after Lusaka, Ndola, Kitwe and Livingstone, by President Edgar Lungu on 24 February 2017. The c ...
, Zambia.Project for the Study on Development of the Sena Corridor Final Report/ Chapter 3 Present Situation of Transport System in the Study Area
Jicareport. 2003.
The works for this extension were completed in 2019, with Chinese funding.Chipata-Mchinji line complete on Zambian side
Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation. 9 de janeiro de 2019. The Sena railway connects with the cities of
Lilongwe Lilongwe (, , ) is the capital and most populated city of the African country of Malawi. It has a population of 989,318 as of the 2018 Census, up from a population of 674,448 in 2008. In 2020 that figure was 1,122,000. The city is located in th ...
, Blantyre and
Nsanje Nsanje (formerly Port Herald) is the main city in Nsanje District within the Southern Region of Malawi. The intense urbanization in the fertile Shire River valley has formed an extensive urbanized zone that runs from the city of Bangula, furth ...
, in Malawi, and with the cities of
Nhamayabué Mutarara, or Nhamayabué, is a town in Mozambique. It lies on the north bank of the Zambezi River. Transport Mutarara is served by a station on the Sena railway of Mozambique Ports and Railways. It is the junction for the line to Malawi ...
and Dondo, in Mozambique, reaching the port of Beira. Through the Nkaya railway link, in the center of Malawi, it is possible to access the Nacala Railway, where there is access to the Port of Nacala.Mozambique, Malawi and Zambia to rebuild railroad to Nacala and Beira
MacauHub. 11 de agosto de 2006.


See also

* History of Zambia *
Rail transport in Zambia Rail transport in Zambia is primarily provided by two systems: * TAZARA Railway * Zambia Railways Limited (sub-systems: Cape to Cairo Railway and Sena railway) Zambia Railways operates a number of rail lines, including the Mulobezi Railway; as of ...
*
Railway Museum (Zambia) The Railway Museum is a museum in Livingstone, Zambia, dedicated to preserving Zambia Zambia (), officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central, Southern and East Africa, although it is typically ...


References


Notes


Bibliography

* * * * *


External links

* illustrated account of the development of the railways of Rhodesia {{DEFAULTSORT:History Of Rail Transport In Zambia Zambia Rail Rail transport in Zambia de:Schienenverkehr in Sambia#Geschichte