ANGOLA RAIL 2023 – II CRTC: New Railway Projects, Including the Acquisition of 20 DMU Trainsets for CFL
The closing session of the second edition of the cycle of Railway Technical Conferences was attended by the Secretary of State for Land Transport, Dr. Jorge Bengui representing Dr. Ricardo de Abreu Angola Minister of Transport.
Jorge Bengui, who was speaking at the closing of the second edition of the Cycle of Railway Technical Conferences – Angola Rail 2023, to celebrate the 135th anniversary of the beginning of railway exploration in Angola and the SADC Railway Safety Week, events promoted by the Association of Railway Technicians of Angola (ATECFA), pointed out some ongoing projects for the improvement of the CFL (Caminho de Ferro de Luanda), and, above all, the fact that it is one of the access routes to the Dr. António Agostinho Neto International Airport (AIAAN).
Jorge Bengue also presented Bungo’s signalling and telecommunications to AIAAN as another ongoing project, with a view to assessing more quality, more safety and more efficiency in what is the service to be provided by CFL.
For next year, he continued, the project of fencing the CFL in the Bungo section to KM44 is underway, which due to the lack of this component has seen the constant use of the line for all purposes and especially the use of the space for informal sale.
The Master Plan of the The Transport Sector also foresees for the CFL its expansion to the three railway lines and their interconnection. “From the point of view of priorities, the bet goes to the connection of Malanje and Saurimo and to the branch from Luena to Saurimo, from Malanje to Cuito and from Cuito to Menongue,” he explained.
According to Jorge Bengue, the development of railways depends on several factors, fundamentally the quality of the human capital available to companies and the regulator.
“We have many challenges ahead, we want to underline here our concern about the degradation of some railway infrastructures in our country, the weaknesses in terms of signalling and telecommunications systems, the unsafe state of level crossings, vandalisation actions.
One of the focuses of this Conference is linked to the training and professional certification of technicians, aiming at safer operations, and ATECFA makes itself available to the authorities of the railway sector, working in partnership for a better qualification of the workforce.
Jorge Bengui also, on the other hand, emphasized the importance of managers of public companies establishing sustainable cooperation ties with ATECFA (Associations of Railway Technicians of Angola)
Of particular note are the important messages from Dr. Christian Chavanel, Director of Railway Systems and Coordinator for the Africa region of the International Union of Railways (UIC) and Minister João Galamba, Minister of Infrastructure and Housing of Portugal, both addressed to the participants of the Conference and specially to Dr. Ricardo de Abreu, Minister of Transport of Angola.
Experts from Angola and foreign companies participated in the event and the topics covered ranged from infrastructure maintenance, rolling stock, signaling and communication, professional training and workforce certification, among other relevant topics in the context of the universe of railway exploration and operations in Angola. Companies and Associations from Brasil, China, Israel, USA, Portugal, South Africa and Franca were involved in the realization of this international class event, promoted by ATECFA and partners.
The expectations are that after this successful realization of this edition in Luanda, the capital of the country, the Organizing Committee will work with public and private partners so that the Third Cycle of Railway Technical Conferences – ANGOLA RAIL 2024 takes place in the very important railway city of Lobito.
