Railways in
South Sudan
A train arrives at Wåu shortly after the reopening of the line from Sudan.
South Sudan gained independence from Sudan in 2011.
The first railway in South Sudan was an extension of Sudan Railways from the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, to the city of Wåu. The line was constructed to Sudan Railways gauge of 3ft 6in (1067mm) and was completed in 1961. An important viaduct at Aweil was destroyed by civil war action in the 1980s. The remaining section of line north of Aweil was used intermittently for military purposes during the conflict over the course of the next couple of decades, but otherwise the line remained disused. A program of reconstruction formed part of an autonomy agreement for the Southern Sudan region (later to become the Republic of South Sudan) in 2005; the railway reopened throughout to Wåu in 2010. The line crosses the border between South Sudan and Sudan roughly midway between Aweil and Babanusa.
There are proposals for the construction of a new standard (1435mm) gauge line southwards from Wåu via the South Sudan capital, Juba, to Gulu in Uganda, where it would connect with the Ugandan Railways network to allow international traffic between Sudan, South Sudan and Uganda, and through Uganda to Kenya.
© 2010-2020
Glyn Williams
Photo image from the website of South Sudan Development Network
