Camrail is a company operating passenger and freight traffic between the two largest cities in

Cameroon Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon, is a country in Central Africa. It shares boundaries with Nigeria to the west and north, Chad to the northeast, the Central African Republic to the east, and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the R ...

and several smaller cities. The company was formed in 1999 and granted a 20-year concession to operate the Cameroon National Railway. The company is a

subsidiary A subsidiary, subsidiary company, or daughter company is a company (law), company completely or partially owned or controlled by another company, called the parent company or holding company, which has legal and financial control over the subsidia ...

of French investment group

Bolloré Bolloré SE () is a French conglomerate headquartered in Puteaux, on the western outskirts of Paris, France. Founded in 1822, the company has interests in Vivendi, international freight forwarding, oil storage and pipelines in France, solid state ...

and the railway has been operated by Comazar, a subsidiary of Bolloré, since 1999. According to the Comazar website, the government of Cameroon owns the track while the

rolling stock The term rolling stock in the rail transport industry refers to railway vehicles, including both powered and unpowered vehicles: for example, locomotives, Railroad car#Freight cars, freight and Passenger railroad car, passenger cars (or coaches) ...

is owned by Camrail. According to a report by the

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and Grant (money), grants to the governments of Least developed countries, low- and Developing country, middle-income countries for the purposes of economic development ...

in 2011, Camrail ranked relatively high amongst African countries for productivity indicators and was considered a regional leader in terms of implementing a concession to a non-state operator. The 2016 Eséka train derailment took place on Camrail tracks and the company was under investigation by the government and was sued by relatives of the 79 passengers who died in the crash.

Services

Passenger

As of May 2014, Camrail operated regular daily services on three routes: *

Douala Douala is the largest city in Cameroon and its economic capital. It is also the capital of Cameroon's Littoral Region (Cameroon), Littoral Region. It was home to Central Africa's largest port, now being replaced by Kribi port. It has the country ...

– Kumba *

–

Yaoundé Yaoundé (; , ) is the Capital city, capital city of Cameroon. It has a population of more than 2.8 million which makes it the second-largest city in the country after the port city Douala. It lies in the Centre Region (Cameroon), Centre Region o ...

–

Ngaoundéré Ngaoundéré or N'Gaoundéré (Fula: N'gamdere, , 𞤲'𞤺𞤢𞤥𞤣𞤫𞥅𞤪𞤫𞥅) is the capital of the Adamawa Region of Cameroon. It had a population of 152,700 at the 2005 census. According to the film ''Les Mairuuwas – Maitre de l ...

Freight

In 2021, the track including bridges are being upgraded to carry increased bauxite traffic from the Minim, Martap deposits. In the initial stages 5Mt of ore would be carried per annum. A link to the new deepwater port at

Kribi Kribi is a beach resort and sea port in Cameroon. Location The coastal town of Kribi lies on the Gulf of Guinea, in Océan, Océan Department, South Province (Cameroon), South Province, at the mouth of the Kienké River. This location, lies a ...

is anticipated, requiring a link line from Edéa of about 130 km in length. The mining company concerned is Canyon Resources. A line between

and Chad's capital city may start around 2026-2027.This will boost Cameroon and Chad's economic trade

Characteristics

Gauge

* 1,104 km of

gauge Gauge ( ) may refer to: Measurement * Gauge (instrument), any of a variety of measuring instruments * Gauge (firearms) * Wire gauge, a measure of the size of a wire ** American wire gauge, a common measure of nonferrous wire diameter, especia ...

track (1995 est.).

Loading Gauge

* Vertical * Horizontal

Sleepers

* mainly

concrete sleeper A concrete sleeper (British English) or concrete tie (American English) is a type of railway sleeper or railroad tie made out of steel reinforced concrete. History In 1877, Joseph Monier, a French gardener, suggested that concrete reinforced ...

Axle load

* Stage 1 upgrade to 25T completed in 2019.

Couplers

* SA3 for locomotive hauled rolling stock *

Scharfenberg coupler The Scharfenberg coupler (, abbreviated ''Schaku'') is a commonly used type of fully automatic railway coupling. Designed in 1903 by Karl Scharfenberg in Königsberg, Germany (today Kaliningrad, Russia), the coupler has gradually spread from tr ...

for multiple unit passenger trains

Gradients

* 1.6% (1 in 63) in loaded and empty directions.

Crossing Loops

* Average spacing about 40 km.

Bridges

* 13 bridges renewed

Communications

* Fibre optic cable

Colour scheme

* primarily red * one shunting/branch line loco green and yellow

Rolling stock

Locomotive A locomotive is a rail transport, rail vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. Traditionally, locomotives pulled trains from the front. However, Push–pull train, push–pull operation has become common, and in the pursuit for ...

s: 50 *

Railroad car A railroad car, railcar (American English, American and Canadian English), railway wagon, railway carriage, railway truck, railwagon, railcarriage or railtruck (British English and International Union of Railways, UIC), also called a tra ...

s: 1299 * DMU ~~

Accidents

On 21 October 2016 at approximately 1100 local time, a passenger train derailed close to the town of Eséka. The train, traveling from the capital

to the country's main port and economic hub, (

), was crammed with people because of road traffic disruption between the two cities and came off the tracks just before reaching Eséka. 79 people were killed and nearly 600 injured. The investigation of the accident revealed that not only speeding but also a dilapidated fleet of equipment and rolling stock of Camrail were the cause of the accident. The express train connection on the route was relaunched in 2021.

Timeline

* Camrail- Canyon Resources cooperation Bauxite mining
/ref>

References

{{reflist

External links

Camrail homepage

Map of railways in Cameroon
Transport companies of Cameroon Rail transport in Cameroon Railway companies of Cameroon Companies based in Douala