Ethio-Djibouti Railways
Encyclopedia
The Ethio-Djibouti Railways, also Ethio-Djibouti Railway Enterprise, is the successor of the Imperial Railway Company of Ethiopia
Imperial Railway Company of Ethiopia
Rail transport in Ethiopia currently consists only of a line from Djibouti to Dire Dawa. The line continues from Dire Dawa to Addis Ababa, but is no longer operational...

 and jointly owned by the governments of Ethiopia
Ethiopia
Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...

 and Djibouti
Djibouti
Djibouti , officially the Republic of Djibouti , is a country in the Horn of Africa. It is bordered by Eritrea in the north, Ethiopia in the west and south, and Somalia in the southeast. The remainder of the border is formed by the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden at the east...

. It was formed after Djibouti gained independence in 1977 and received the French shares of the Imperial Railway Company. The railway links Addis Ababa
Addis Ababa
Addis Ababa is the capital city of Ethiopia...

, the capital of landlocked
Landlocked
A landlocked country is a country entirely enclosed by land, or whose only coastlines lie on closed seas. There are 48 landlocked countries in the world, including partially recognized states...

 Ethiopia, to the Port of Djibouti
Port of Djibouti
The Port of Djibouti is located at the crossroads of one of the busiest shipping routes in the world, linking Europe, the Far East, the Horn of Africa and the Persian Gulf.-History:...

 in coastal Djibouti. The maintenance shops are located in Dire Dawa
Dire Dawa
Dire Dawa is one of two chartered cities in Ethiopia . This chartered city is divided administratively into two woredas, the city proper and the non-urban woreda of Gurgura....

.

Overview




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The single track
Single track (rail)
A single track railway is where trains in both directions share the same track. Single track is normally used on lesser used rail lines, often branch lines, where the traffic density is not high enough to justify the cost of building double tracks....

 781 km railway has a gauge
Rail gauge
Track gauge or rail gauge is the distance between the inner sides of the heads of the two load bearing rails that make up a single railway line. Sixty percent of the world's railways use a standard gauge of . Wider gauges are called broad gauge; smaller gauges, narrow gauge. Break-of-gauge refers...

, most of it on Ethiopian territory, and about 100 km in Djibouti. The company is headquartered in Addis Ababa; the ministers of the Djiboutian Ministry of Equipment and Transport and the Ethiopian Ministry of Transportation and Communications are the president and vice-president of the company.

In 2009, it was reported that there is no passenger service beyond Dire Dawa, "for several years". The ED-Railways has annually run a deficit and is in need of rehabilitation. The European Commission
European Commission
The European Commission is the executive body of the European Union. The body is responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the Union's treaties and the general day-to-day running of the Union....

 prepared a grant of EUR 40 million in 2003 and raised it to EUR 50 million in 2006. On November 29, 2006, an agreement was signed with the Italian consortium Costra, and work began in 2007 on sections of the line that deteriorated following the Ogaden War
Ogaden War
The Ogaden War was a conventional conflict between Somalia and Ethiopia in 1977 and 1978 over the Ogaden region of Ethiopia. In a notable illustration of the nature of Cold War alliances, the Soviet Union switched from supplying aid to Somalia to supporting Ethiopia, which had previously been...

.

A change in management is anticipated. This change is expected to raise the capacity of the railroad from its current average of 240,000 tons to 1.5 million tons. Initially in 2006, the South African firm Comazar
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 and Transurb Consult in 1995.The headquarters are in Johannesburg.- Related organizations...

 was chosen to receive a 25-year concession. However, this plan was not executed, and in early 2008, it was announced that the railway was in negotiations with the Kuwait
Kuwait
The State of Kuwait is a sovereign Arab state situated in the north-east of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the south at Khafji, and Iraq to the north at Basra. It lies on the north-western shore of the Persian Gulf. The name Kuwait is derived from the...

i company Fouad Alghanim and Sons Group. The Ethiopian government announced that it had spoken with the visiting Indian Minister of State for External Affairs
Ministry of External Affairs (India)
The Ministry of External Affairs is the foreign ministry of India. It is the Indian government agency responsible for the foreign relations of India. The Minister of External Affairs holds cabinet rank as a member of the Council of Ministers. The current minister is S M Krishna...

, Shashi Tharoor
Shashi Tharoor
Shashi Tharoor is an Indian politician and a Member of Parliament from the Thiruvananthapuram constituency in Kerala...

, during his visit on 29 January 2010, about funding to improve the cargo capacity of the rail track from 14 to 17 tons, which would boost the national trade volume significantly.

Railway links to adjacent countries

Ethiopia - yes - Somalia
Rail transport in Somalia
The only railway in Somalia, the Mogadishu-Villabruzzi Railway, was built by Italy in the 1910s. The track gauge was , a gauge favoured by the Italians in Africa.The railway was dismantled in the 1940s by the British, and never restored.-See also:...

 - no railways Kenya
Rail transport in Kenya
The former Uganda Railway, was run by the company East African Railways jointly for the countries of Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya after World War I. Since the dissolution of the EAR corporation in 1977 the national company Kenya Railways Corporation runs the former Uganda Railway and its branches in...

 - no - same gauge Sudan
Rail transport in Sudan
Sudan has 4,725 kilometers of narrow-gauge, single-track railroads that serve the northern and central portions of the country. The main line runs from Wadi Halfa on the Egyptian border to Khartoum and southwest to Al Ubayyid via Sannar and Kusti, with extensions to Nyala in Southern Darfur and Wau...

 - no - break of gauge / Eritrea
Rail transport in Eritrea
Rail Transport in Eritrea is provided by the Eritrean Railway, which is narrow gauge. The line links the capital city, Asmara, with the port of Massaua on the Red Sea coast....

 - no break-of-gauge
Break-of-gauge
With railways, a break-of-gauge occurs where a line of one gauge meets a line of a different gauge. Trains and rolling stock cannot run through without some form of conversion between gauges, and freight and passengers must otherwise be transloaded...

 

Addis Ababa railway station

The Addis Ababa railway terminal, La Gare, is a century-old historical building. A current street project threatens to lead to its isolation or demolition.

See also

  • Railway stations in Ethiopia
    Railway stations in Ethiopia
    All railway stations in Ethiopia are served by the Addis Ababa - Djibouti Railway. These include:- Now defunct : Addis Ababa - national capital* Akaka Beseka* Debre Zeyit * Mojo...

  • Transport in Ethiopia
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