Rehabilitation of the line will restore Malawi’s access to the port of Beira.

Rehabilitation of the line will restore Malawi’s access to the port of Beira.

MCC is expected to assist the Malawi government financially in conducting feasibility studies, preliminary designs and environmental-impact assessment studies on this and other transport-related projects before approval of a five-year compact grant.

Millennium Challenge Account Malawi (MCA-Malawi), according to public outreach coordinator Susan Banda, has already embarked on preliminary arrangements, in conjunction with Malawi’s ministry of transport and public infrastructure, to commence rehabilitation of the rail network.

Director of transport planning in the ministry of transport and public infrastructure Victor Lungu explains that rail movement in Malawi and to neighbouring countries is currently very slow because of the poor condition of the infrastructure. “Trains move at a speed of between 30km/h and 40km/h. The project will ensure that trains are able to move at 60km/h to 70km/h, which is the case in other Southern African countries,” Lungu says.

In the words of ministry of transport and public infrastructure principal secretary Francis Chinsinga, the MCC deal has come at a time when Malawi is working with neighbouring countries to implement regional transportation corridors. He says the Malawi government has approached the World Bank and the European Investment Bank for additional funds for the rail rehabilitation project.

Cear chief executive Henry Chimwaza told Thom Khanje of the Malawi Daily Times that appreciable amounts of imported fuel, wheat and fertiliser are being moved inland from the Mozambiquan port of Nacala, and in the other direction, significant export traffic from Malawi comprising tobacco, sugar and pigeon peas.

“There is a lot of support from industry,” Chimwaza explained to Khanje, “because of the increased confidence they have in us as we are now able to move their cargo as required”. Cear’s major clients currently include Farmers World, Export Trading Company, Bakhresa Grain and Milling, Petroleum Imports Limited, Illovo Sugar and the tobacco exporting companies.

On the Mozambiquan side, repair work along the problem 77km of track west of Cuamba has enabled a reduction in transit time from five hours to three. Trains are now able to move at 25km/h compared with the previous maximum of 15. It is hoped to double the speed to 50km/h by the end of 2009.

Malawian Privatisation Commission spokesperson Chimwemwe Matonga is quoted saying that government, following the recommendations of consultants, is renegotiating the concession agreement with Cear, “to take into consideration new developments in the railway business and to yield more benefits”. The agreement, signed in 1999, gave Cear a 20-year concession to operate the former Malawi Railways. However, according to the commission’s 2008 annual report, eight years after granting the concession, “there has not been any significant improvement in either operational or financial performance”, compared to the situation when government operated the services. The report continues: “It is hoped that by reviewing and successfully renegotiating the concession, government and Cear will identify areas that require attention and mutually seek to find ways of addressing the situation.”


[ In September 2002, Agence France Presse reported, “Britain and Canada will donate $US5.6 million to repair a vital rail link between Malawi and Mozambique which would help speed up the transport of emergency food aid, a top UN official has said. The poorly-maintained 77km Nacala rail link is the shortest and cheapest route to the sea for land-locked Malawi.” – editor

In October 2007, Zambian President Mwanawasa promised that the line was to be completed at last. “You have waited for 25 years,” he told the locals. “This time around this job is going to be done. This is the commitment I am making to you in front of the Malawian President Mbingu Wa Mutharika.” According to President Mwanawasa, the $US10 million project would be funded by the Zambian government and was “earmarked for completion at the end of 2007”. That didn’t happen, and the item disappeared yet again from the news pages.

An 8 May 2009 press report quotes Central East African Railways (Cear) director of marketing and commercial services Wilfred 
Ali saying that “an advanced stage has been reached in preparing to extend the country’s railway network into Zambia as part of the Nacala Development Corridor Programme.” A cost estimate of $US7 million is mentioned.

As far as local traffic within Malawi is concerned, the biggest growth has been in green tobacco conveyed from depots at Mchinji, Salima and Balaka to auction in Limbe and Lilongwe. Very little of this commodity moved by rail in 2007.

CEAR is making every effort to increase its market share further but has been thwarted by extensive vandalism and squatter encroachment on the right of way. Sleepers are damaged, steel pandrol clips are stolen and Armco pipes used as culverts are removed. The formation is weakened and rendered more prone to washaways. Many trains have been cancelled due to these problems.

Increased revenue from freight traffic helps to improve passenger services, it is reported, and this was reflected in better results during 2008.

“We are constructing the 45km stretch of railway from Vila Nova da Fronteira up to Nsanje but we have asked the Malawi Government to let us continue with the 100km to Blantyre,” Fonseca was quoted saying. He estimated that the work would cost around $US11 million US dollars, but said CFM was prepared to make the investment to ensure that Malawian goods could travel directly by rail to the port of Beira, once current rehabilitation of the Sena line – including the spur to Vila Nova de Fronteira. – is complete.

Malawi was a major user of the port at Beira until the Sena line was destroyed in the Mozambiquan civil war. Malawian goods using Beira at present has to reach the port by road.

[ According to Cook’s Overseas Timetable, Vila Nova da Fronteira to Nsanje is 22km (not 45) and Nsanje-Blantyre is 182km (not 100) – editor, Railways Africa.

CEAR statistics reflect that 400,000 tonnes of freight were carried by the railway in 2007, compared with only 150,000 tonnes in 2001. Passenger totals of a million are expected in 2008, up from 650,000.

Originally established in 1902 as the Shire Highlands Railway, the name was changed to Nyasaland Railways in 1909 and Malawi Railways Limited in 1964. Following privatisation in 1999, the system became Central East African Railways (CEAR) with Railroad Development Corporation of the USA as a major shareholder.

CEAR achievements mentioned to the Nyasa Times by public relations and administration officer Daniel Undani include the introduction of radio communication between locomotive drivers and central control, the reinstating of the Rivirivi Bridge following severe washaways some years ago and the setting up of a fully fledged safety department.

Undani concedes that competition from road hauliers is affecting the company’s performance, though some areas are accessible to rail only.

Encroachment on the railway reserve is a problem, with agricultural activity too close to the line resulting in washaways during heavy rain.

“Another serious problem,” Undani told the paper, “is vandalism of the railway structures such as slippers and culverts, which people steal for making hoes and this has also compromised our railway lines.”

[ Glossary: For “slippers” (colloquial East African English), read “sleepers”. – editor

South of Nsanje, the connecting rail branch from Mozambique’s Beira-Tete line, which is expected to be operational by mid 2009, runs from a junction at Mutarara on the north bank of the Zambezi to the Malawi border near Vila Nova de Fronteira.

[ Malawi recently severed ties with Taiwan, which formerly provided substantial assistance to the country. – editor