Railways Africa

On 27 February, an agreement was signed at Gammarth between the Tunis Rapid Railway Network (RFR) Company and the Siemens-Tunisia consortium, Colas Rail and Somatra, marking the start of work on the first section of the Tunis Rapid Rail project. The French-German-Austrian consortium won the tender worth about 305 million Tunisian Dinars. Completion is scheduled [...]

According to Tunis Afrique Presse (Tunis), Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer Tunisiens (SNCFT – the Tunisian National Railways) suffered “significant losses in revenue” in the movement of phosphates during the first ten months of 2012. Phosphate traffic is essentially the mainstay of the railway.

Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer Tunisiens (SNCFT – the Tunisian National Railways) has taken delivery of four 130km/h, 117-seat, diesel-multiple-unit sets built by the China South concern. They form part of an order for 20 trains signed in 2009, for use on the metre-gauge sections Tunis-Bizerte, Tunis-Sousse-Sfax-Gabes, Tunis-Beja-Jendouba-Ghardimaou and Tunis-Gaâfour-Kalaa-Khasba-El Kef. The first two [...]

Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer Tunisiens (SNCFT – the Tunisian National Railways) has taken delivery of a further six locomotives supplied by China South Locomotive and Rolling Stock Corporation Limited (CSR). Of the first six delivered earlier from CSR, two are currently in service on the Tunis-Beja-Jendouba line.

On 6 April, electric trains started running from the southern suburbs of Borj Sedria and Riadh into the Tunisian capital Tunis. The new sets, which will work 158 trips daily, replace 30-year-old diesel rolling stock. They can attain 120km/h and the new schedules reduce commuting times by 26%. Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer Tunisiens [...]

Passenger service between the Tunisian cities of Sfax, Gafsa and Gabes came to a sudden halt on 2 November when employees of Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer Tunisiens (SNCFT – the Tunisian National Railways) went on strike. According to law, 10 days notice must be given of the intention to down tools, but this [...]

With the introduction of the summer timetable on 1 July, Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer Tunisiens (SNCFT – the Tunisian National Railways) reinstated the night train to the south-west and services have resumed between Gafsa and Tozeur. Thus both day and night services are running again between Tunis and Tozeur. Between Tunis and Monastir [...]

On 8 June, the electric overhead catenary between Tunis Ville station, Hammam Lif and Erriadh was energised at 25kV AC. Power is supplied via the Seltène electric sub-station. The first test runs with the new electric rolling stock are to be undertaken over the coming nine to twelve weeks. Test runs and familiarisation of the [...]

Systra together with Tunisian group Studi have gained a 43 month contract to manage construction of the first phase of the RFR suburban rail network in the city of Tunis. Phase I, to be finished in 2015, consists of a 17.9km double track system, Y-shaped with 14 stations. The 11.5km Line D, linking the city [...]