Railways in
Angola
Under British influence, most of the railways in Angola were built
to 3ft 6in (1067mm) gauge, though the Moçâmedes Railway was originally
built to 600mm gauge, being converted to 1067mm in the 1950s. Railways
generally ran from the coast inland, with few north to south links, so
that several isolated networks developed.
The first and only international rail connection came in 1929 with
the opening of the Benguela Railway from Lobito to the Belgian Congo
(present day Democratic Republic of the Congo). Two years later, this
railway was linked through the Belgian Congo with Northern Rhodesia
(present day Zambia).
The railways were largely devastated during three decades of civil
war at the end of the 20th century. Since 2002 reconstruction has been
taking place.
- CFB Benguela Railway: Lobito to the border of DR Congo, about
1344km. Of this 423km is currently in operation. Reconstruction of the
remainder of the line as far as Luau, about 10km from the Congolese
border, is planned to be completed in 2012 (No website located
at present)
- CFL Luanda Railway: Luanda to Malanje, 424 km, with a 55 km
branch from Zenza (135 km from Luanda) to Dondo.
(No website located at present)
- CFN Namibe (Moçâmedes) Railway: commuter services out of Namibe
and freight over longer distances. The entire network consists of a line
from Namibe to Menongue, with branches to Chiange and Chamutete. The
total length of line is over 903km, about 500 km of which is currently in
service. Reconstruction of the remainder of the line is planned to be
completed in 2012. There is also a firm, but long term, proposal for a
rail link between the iron ore rich area of Chamutete and the Namibian
border at Oshikango, where it would connect with Namibian Railways
(No website located at present)
