Camrail is a company operating passenger and freight traffic between the two largest cities in

Cameroon Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (french: République du Cameroun, links=no), is a country in west- central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west and north; Chad to the northeast; th ...

and several smaller cities. The company was formed in 1999 and granted a 20-year concession to operate the Cameroon National Railway. The company is a subsidiary of French investment group

Bolloré Bolloré SE () is a French conglomerate headquartered in Puteaux, on the western outskirts of Paris, France. Founded in 1822, the company has interests in Vivendi, international freight forwarding, oil storage and pipelines in France, solid stat ...

and the railway has been operated by

Comazar Comazar is a company that operates railways in Africa. Its stock is majority owned by the French investment group Bolloré. Comazar was founded by Eric Peiffer and Patrick Claes in conjunction with Transnet (Spoornet) and Transurb Consult (a B ...

, a subsidiary of Bolloré, since 1999. According to the Comazar website, the government of Cameroon owns the track while the

rolling stock The term rolling stock in the rail transport industry refers to railway vehicles, including both powered and unpowered vehicles: for example, locomotives, freight and passenger cars (or coaches), and non-revenue cars. Passenger vehicles can ...

is owned by Camrail. According to a report by the

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Inte ...

in 2011, Camrail ranked relatively high amongst African countries for productivity indicators and was considered a regional leader in terms of implementing a concession to a non-state operator. The

2016 Eséka train derailment On 21 October 2016, a Camrail Inter-city rail, inter-city passenger train travelling from Cameroon's capital, Yaoundé, to its largest city, Douala, derailed in Eséka, Centre Region (Cameroon), Centre Region. By 30 October 2016, the official ...

took place on Camrail tracks and the company was under investigation by the government and was sued by relatives of the 79 passengers who died in the crash.

Services

Passenger

As of May 2014, Camrail operated regular daily services on three routes: *

Douala Douala is the largest city in Cameroon and its economic capital. It is also the capital of Cameroon's Littoral Region. Home to Central Africa's largest port and its major international airport, Douala International Airport (DLA), it is the comm ...

–

Kumba Kumba is a metropolitan city in the Meme department, Southwest Region, Western Cameroon, referred as "K-town" in local slang. Kumba is the most developed and largest city in the Meme Department and has attracted people from the local villag ...

–

Yaoundé Yaoundé (; , ) is the capital of Cameroon and, with a population of more than 2.8 million, the second-largest city in the country after the port city Douala. It lies in the Centre Region of the nation at an elevation of about 750 metres (2,50 ...

–

Ngaoundéré Ngaoundéré, or N'Gaoundéré (Fula: N'gamdere 𞤲'𞤺𞤢𞤥𞤣𞤫𞥅𞤪𞤫𞥅) is the capital of the Adamawa Region of Cameroon. It had a population of 152,700 at the 2005 census. According to the film ''Les Mairuuwas – Maitre de l'e ...

Freight

In 2021, the track including bridges are being upgraded to carry increased bauxite traffic from the Minim, Martap deposits. In the initial stages 5Mt of ore would be carried per annum. A link to the new deepwater port at

Kribi Kribi is a beach resort and sea port in Cameroon. Location The coastal town of Kribi lies on the Gulf of Guinea, in Océan Department, South Province, at the mouth of the Kienké River. This location, lies approximately , by road, south of ...

is anticipated, requiring a link line from

Edéa Edéa is a city located along the Sanaga River in Cameroon's Littoral Region. It lies on the Douala–Yaoundé railway line. Its population was estimated at 122,300 in 2001. There are bauxite facilities, aluminium processing facility, stee ...

of about 130 km in length. The mining company concerned is Canyon Resources. Camrail and Canyon are co-operating closely.

Characteristics

Gauge

* 1,104 km of

gauge Gauge ( or ) may refer to: Measurement * Gauge (instrument), any of a variety of measuring instruments * Gauge (firearms) * Wire gauge, a measure of the size of a wire ** American wire gauge, a common measure of nonferrous wire diameter, es ...

track (1995 est.).

Loading Gauge

* Vertical * Horizontal

Sleepers

* mainly

concrete sleeper A concrete sleeper (British English) or concrete tie (American English) is a type of railway sleeper or railroad tie made out of steel reinforced concrete. History In 1877, Joseph Monier, a French gardener, suggested that concrete reinforced ...

Axle load

* Stage 1 upgrade to 25T completed in 2019.

Couplers

* SA3 for locomotive hauled rolling stock *

Scharfenberg coupler The Scharfenberg coupler (german: Scharfenbergkupplung, abbreviated ''Schaku'') is a commonly used type of fully automatic railway coupling. Designed in 1903 by Karl Scharfenberg in Königsberg, Germany (today Kaliningrad, Russia), the coupler ...

for multiple unit passenger trains

Gradients

* 1.6% (1 in 63) in loaded and empty directions.

Crossing Loops

* Average spacing about 40 km.

Bridges

* 13 bridges renewed

Communications

* Fibre optic cable

Colour scheme

* primarily red * one shunting/branch line loco green and yellow

Rolling stock

* Locomotives: 50 *

Railroad car A railroad car, railcar ( American and Canadian English), railway wagon, railway carriage, railway truck, railwagon, railcarriage or railtruck (British English and UIC), also called a train car, train wagon, train carriage or train truck, is ...

s: 1299 * DMU ~~

Accidents

On 21 October 2016 at approximately 1100 local time, a passenger train derailed close to the town of Eséka. The train, traveling from the capital

to the country's main port and economic hub, (

), was crammed with people because of road traffic disruption between the two cities and came off the tracks just before reaching Eséka. Initial reports are over 60 killed with many hundreds injured. The cause of the accident is currently unknown.

Timeline

* Camrail- Canyon Resources cooperation Bauxite mining
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References

{{reflist

External links

Camrail homepage

Map of railways in Cameroon
Transport companies of Cameroon Rail transport in Cameroon Railway companies of Cameroon Companies based in Douala