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The railway line roughly follows old trade routes between the ancient trading centre of Benguela and its hinterland of the Bié plateau. [9] In 1899, the Portuguese government initiated the construction of the railway to give access to the central Angolan plateau and the mineral wealth of the then Congo Free State. [10]
The Empresa do Caminho de Ferro de Benguela-E.P. (ECFB-EP; in English: Railway Company of Benguela) is an Angolan state-owned company responsible for the administration of the Angolan stretch of the Benguela Railway. The company's headquarters are in the city of Lobito.
Rail transport in Angola consists of three separate Cape gauge lines that do not connect: the northern Luanda Railway, the central Benguela Railway, and the southern Moçâmedes Railway. The lines each connect the Atlantic coast to the interior of the country. A fourth system once linked Gunza and Gabala but is no longer operational.
The initiative aims to create an efficient transport link from Africa’s mineral-rich interior to the port of Lobito on its west coast for export.
The 1994 Tolunda rail disaster happened near Tolunda, in the Namibe Province, Angola on 22 September 1994. A freight train of the Benguela railway derailed due to malfunctioning brakes and crashed into a 10 metres deep ravine. 300 people died and around 147 people were injured. It is among the deadliest train disasters in history. [3] [4]
Katanga-Benguela line A branch of the Katanga Railway was built from Tenke junction just north-west of Likasi via Kolwezi to Dilolo at the Angolan border. 522 km, [4] 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in) gauge. This connects with the Benguela Railway from Luau to the Atlantic port of Lobito.
Until independence, the town was called Teixeira de Sousa, [1] having been named after the Portuguese Prime Minister António Teixeira de Sousa.The town once had a population of nearly 90,000 due to its creation as a stopping point on the Benguela railway, which continued east to cross the nearby Luao River and enter Dilolo, where it connected to the Katanga rail network.
The Benguela railway was less successful than had been hoped, and most of the minerals were carried east by the Chemin de Fer du Bas-Congo au Katanga (BCK) and the Rhodesian railway to Beira, Mozambique. [3] In 1975 the Benguela railway was closed in the unrest that followed independence. [30]