Eswatini Railways (ESR), formerly known as Swaziland Railway or Swazi Rail, is the national railway corporation of Eswatini.

Overview

As in the rest of Southern Africa, the rail system of Eswatini is built to the narrow Cape gauge of . ESR provides only service for transportation of goods, not passengers. ESR's rail system is used to connect the land-locked country to the sea. The east-west link, called the Goba line, leads from

Matsapha Matsapha is a town in central Eswatini. The Matsapha urban boundary is defined in the Urban Government Act of 1969, as amended in 2012, and covers an area of approximately . Matsapha was established as an industrial park in 1965 and was officially g ...

(near

Manzini Manzini may refer to: *Manzini, Eswatini, a town in the Manzini Region of Eswatini *Manzini Region, a region of Eswatini *Manzini (surname), an Italian surname See also *Roman Catholic Diocese of Manzini The Diocese of Manzini ( la, Manzinien(si ...

) through Sidvokodvo,

Phuzumoya Phuzumoya is a small town situated in the rural village of kaMkhweli under the chieftaincy of Mtfuso II in eastern Eswatini on the MR8 road, located close to the confluence of the Umtimphofu River and Lusutfu Rivers, some ten kilometres east of ...

and

Mpaka Mpaka is a town in eastern central Eswatini in western Lubombo District. It lies about northwest of Siteki on the MR3 highway. Transports Mpaka has one of the main railway stations in the country, serving as a connection between the Goba railwa ...

Goba Goba ( Oromo: ', Amharic: ጎባ) is a town and separate woreda located in the Bale Zone of the Oromia Region, Ethiopia approximately 446 km southeast of Addis Ababa, this city has a latitude and longitude of and an elevation of 2,743 meters ...

Mozambique Mozambique (), officially the Republic of Mozambique ( pt, Moçambique or , ; ny, Mozambiki; sw, Msumbiji; ts, Muzambhiki), is a country located in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi ...

. From Goba a

Mozambique Ports and Railways Portos e Caminhos de Ferro de Moçambique (abbreviated CFM; in English Mozambique Ports and Railways) is a state-owned company that oversees the railway system of Mozambique and its connected ports. The rail system is composed of a total of 2,9 ...

line connects to the ports of

Matola Matola is the largest suburb of the Mozambique capital, Maputo, adjacent to its westernmost side. It is the nation's second most populated city. Matola is the capital of Maputo Province and has had its own elected municipal government since 199 ...

and

Maputo Maputo (), formerly named Lourenço Marques until 1976, is the capital, and largest city of Mozambique. Located near the southern end of the country, it is within of the borders with Eswatini and South Africa. The city has a population of 1,0 ...

. Swazi Rail also has two connections to

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

: a northern link from Mpaka to

Komatipoort Komatipoort is a town situated at the confluence of the Crocodile and Komati Rivers in Mpumalanga province, South Africa. The town is 8 km from the Crocodile Bridge Gate into the Kruger Park, and just 5 km from the Mozambique border ...

in Mpumalanga on the Pretoria–Maputo railway, and a southern link from Phuzumoya to Golela in KwaZulu-Natal, from where the Transnet Freight Rail, Transnet network connects to the ports of Richards Bay and Durban.

History

In 1902 the British administration of Eswatini agreed with the Portuguese administration of Mozambique to construct a railway line from Lourenço Marques (now Maputo) to Eswatini. The Mozambican section as far as Goba was opened in 1905, but the line was not continued across the border. In 1927 the Zululand Railway in South Africa reached Golela on the southern border of Eswatini. The development of the Ngwenya Mine in the 1960s gave a new impulse to railway construction in Eswatini. Between 1961 and 1964, the east-west line was constructed from Goba to Matsapha and onwards to Ngwenya. Mining at Ngwenya ceased by 1980, and the railway beyond Matsapha was abandoned. The Mozambican War of Independence and the subsequent Mozambican Civil War caused disruption to Swazi trade through the Mozambican ports, and in 1977 the South African Railways agreed to the construction of a link from the railhead at Golela to the existing line at Phuzumoya. This line, opened in 1978, gave Eswatini rail access to Durban and Richards Bay. In 1986 the northern link from Komatipoort to Mpaka was opened, providing a shorter route for traffic from Phalaborwa and the Lowveld to Richards Bay.

Managed infrastructure

The company manages three main railway lines, the Goba railway, the Komatipoort railway and the Richards Bay railway.

Goba railway line

It is the main railway trunk in Eswatini. It serves as a link between the city of

and the city of Mlawula, allowing connection with the Port Maputo, port of Maputo, in

Komatipoort railway line

It serves as a connection between the cities of

, in

, and

, in Eswatini.

Richards Bay railway line

It serves as a connection between the cities of Richards Bay, in South Africa, and Siphofaneni/

, in Eswatini.

Interconnection projects

Swazilink

In January 2012, the Swazilink project was announced, which would connect Sidvokodvo to Lothair, South Africa, Lothair in Mpumalanga in

. This would divert freight traffic from the Richards Bay line and the Goba line. In June 2014, SR estimated that the link would cost R17 billion and could enter service in 2017.

References

CIA Factbook

External links

Eswatini Railways Official Site
{{Africa in topic, Rail transport in Railway companies of Eswatini