The Future Of Chemin De Fer Congo-Ocean
Speaking at the African Union Commission (AUC)’s Department of Infrastructure and Energy (IED) Continental Workshop on the Implementation of the Africa Integrated Railways Network (AIRN), held in May 2024, in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, Georges Olivier Itoua – Director General of Chemin De Fer Congo-Ocean (CFCO), outlined the activities of the CFCO.
The Congolese railway was relaunched in 2024 after work commenced in 2021 and continued for 13 years. This vital railway links the port of Pointe-Noire to the city of Brazzaville, facilitating the transportation of goods from the Atlantic Ocean and the Congo River. Spanning 110km, this metre-gauge (MG) railway was originally intended to transport products from Gabon, Cameroon, Chad, and the Central African Republic to the ocean, and in the opposite direction, to carry manufactured goods from Europe.
In the early years, from 1959 to 1962, a railway was constructed to transport manganese from Gabon. This line, stretching 280km, was built to enable the efficient movement of minerals through Mont Belo to Pointe-Noire. The increasing traffic and challenges led to further developments between 1978 and 1986, with the construction of a 91km line between Bilinga and Dolisie to ensure seamless operations. The network faced high traffic volumes, especially during the peak manganese transport years until Gabon constructed its own 600km railway in 1990, from Libreville to Franceville, diverting traffic away from Congo, specifically manganese.
Despite historical interruptions and maintenance challenges, the current demand for railway services in Congo is substantial, driven by the country’s mineral resources and wood exploitation. To meet this demand, CFCO has embarked on a comprehensive modernisation plan. This includes rehabilitating existing lines, modernising infrastructure, and acquiring new locomotives and wagons.
In the medium and long term, the General Directorate has set an objective of achieving 2,400,000 tonnes of goods excluding mining traffic and 1,500,000 passengers. To achieve this traffic, it is planned on the commercial level to make available an average of 50 mainline locomotives, 15 shunting locomotives, and 3,000 freight wagons of all types, as well as 100 passenger coaches.
The transport of minerals from M’Binda to Pointe-Noire will be carried out in three phases: 6 million tonnes per year for the first phase, 21.6 million tonnes per year for the second phase, and 32 million tonnes of minerals for the third phase.
The achievement of these objectives relies on the implementation of the Congo-Ocean Railway rehabilitation and modernisation project, the subject of a memorandum of understanding signed between the Republic of Congo and the People’s Republic of China on 12 March 2019, and on the modernisation of the Pointe-Noire/Mont-Belo/M’Binda section, the subject of preliminary feasibility studies conducted by CIM, BUMCHANG ENGINEERING, and COSER in November 2014. This rehabilitation and modernisation plan was developed to ensure safety, reliability, and to meet the essential requirements of railway operations, based on the principle of economic investment in the works as much as possible and reducing maintenance and upkeep costs.
The related studies were presented in four phases:
- Rehabilitation of the existing line;
- Modernisation of light signalling and electrification;
- Realignment of small radius curves;
- Rehabilitation and modernisation of the former COMILOG line (Mont-Belo/M’Binda) and the Mont-Belo/Pointe-Noire section to ensure mineral traffic.
The rehabilitation plan for the existing line is broken down into three aspects:
- Ensuring the circulation of trains;
- Improving operational safety and transport efficiency;
- Implementing measures for the transformation and modernisation of the railway network.
To ensure the circulation of trains, this project aims to thoroughly renovate and recondition the most vulnerable sections of the track (roadbed, engineering structures, tunnels, etc.), to carry out the general rehabilitation of all track infrastructures, to restore the geometric condition of the rails, and to complete the fleet of high-power locomotives. The total investment for this phase of rehabilitation is US$344 million, while the technical and economic indicator is US$660,000 per kilometre of track.
The objective of this second phase of the project is to update, restore, and modernise the railway equipment of the Congo-Ocean Railway (C.F.C.O) to further improve railway operational safety and traffic efficiency, as well as enhance the quality of service buildings. In terms of telecommunications, it is necessary to deploy the physical material layer on which the voice and data transmission system will rely. This layer will be supported by a twelve-strand (or core) optical fibre. Redundancy will be ensured by microwave links (VHF – Very High Frequency) or GSM-R (Global System for Mobile Communications – Railways).
The transport control and dispatching system (CTC), the train control system, the station interlocking system, the centralised monitoring system, and various signals will constitute the modern signalling system of this project. All stations will be connected to the national power distribution network from medium/low voltage transformer substations. The total investment for this phase is US$247 million, while the technical and economic index is US$480,000 per kilometre of track.
The completion of this phase will enable the C.F.C.O to improve the train’s speed, reduce the speed limitation sections, decrease internal rail friction on curves, and reconstruct the section with a minimum curve radius of 300 metres along the line. The total investment for this project is US$607 million, while the technical and economic index is US$8.62 million per kilometre of track.
REHABILITATION AND MODERNISATION OF THE FORMER COMILOG LINE (MONT-BELO/M’BINDA) AND THE POINTE-NOIRE/MONT-BELO SECTION TO ENSURE MINERAL TRAFFIC:
To increase its traction capacity, improve safety, ensure the smooth flow of trains, and meet the needs of its clients (mining, forestry, agro-industrial, etc.), in the long term, the Congo-Ocean Railway (C.F.C.O) has set the following objectives:
- Rehabilitation of the existing Mont-Belo/M’Binda track;
- Renovation of all stations between Pointe-Noire/Mont-Belo and between Mont-Belo and M’Binda;
- Rehabilitation and equipping of the depots in Dolisie and M’Binda;
- Modernisation of signalling through the acquisition and installation of modern light signalling;
- Modernisation of telecommunications (optical fibre, GSM-R, microwave links, etc.);
- Acquisition of new locomotives, new freight wagons, and new passenger cars.
To achieve these objectives and attain these effective improvements while considering the economic imperatives and the operation of the railway line, six possible solutions have been selected.
The cost of the work must be updated to account for the current level of degradation of this former COMILOG line in particular, and the Pointe-Noire/Mont-Belo/M’Binda section in general.
CFCO is actively seeking funding to achieve these ambitious objectives, with part of the financing expected from the Chinese Exim Bank and other potential sources, including the African Union. The successful modernisation of the Congolese railway will not only boost national traffic but also re-establish Congo as a vital transit hub for neighbouring countries, enhancing the region’s economic connectivity and growth.
CFCO, a public industrial and commercial establishment, was created by Ordinance No. 3-2000 of 16th February 2000 following the dissolution of the Transcongolaise Communications Agency. It operates with financial and management autonomy, governed by the statutes approved by Decree No. 2000-15 of 29th February 2000. CFCO’s primary mission is to operate all railway transport activities (goods and passengers) and to develop and expand the railway network.