The Ethio-Djibouti Railway (, C.D.E.; ) is a metre gauge railway in the Horn of Africa that once connected Addis Ababa to the port city of Djibouti. The operating company was also known as the Ethio-Djibouti Railways. The railway was built in 1897–1917 to connect the Ethiopian capital city to French Somaliland. During early operations, it provided landlocked Ethiopia with its only access to the sea. After World War II, the railway progressively fell into a state of disrepair due to competition from road transport.
The railway has been mostly superseded by the Addis Ababa–Djibouti Railway, an electrified standard gauge railway that was completed in 2017. The metre gauge railway has been abandoned in central Ethiopia and Djibouti. However, a rehabilitated section is still in operation near the Ethiopia-Djibouti border. As of February 2018, a combined passenger and freight service runs two times a week between the Ethiopian city of Dire Dawa and the Djibouti border, stopping at Dewele (passengers) and Guelile (freight). Plans were announced in 2018 to rehabilitate track from Dire Dawa to Mieso.
Overview
The Ethio-Djibouti Railway is a gauge railway built in 1897–1917. The line connected the new Ethiopian capital city of Addis Ababa (1886) to the Port of Djibouti in French Somaliland, providing landlocked Ethiopia with railway access to the sea. The railway is single track and stretched 784 km, of which about 100 km lay in Djibouti.
Railway construction started in 1897, one year after Ethiopia preserved its independence against Italian imperialism at the Battle of Adwa. Prior to the construction of the railway, it took six weeks to travel from the coast to Addis Ababa by camel and mule caravan. The Ethio-Djibouti Railway made the Ethiopian Empire more accessible to the outside world, improving its economic and military competitiveness. Cities grew along the railway line with the expanded opportunities for trade. The railway served as Ethiopia's main transport link until the 1950s, when it began facing competition from road transport.Michał Kozicki: "The history of railway in Ethiopia and its role in the economic and social development of this country", Studies of the Department of African Languages and Cultures 49 (2015), Adam Mickiewicz University; ISSN 0860-4649
Originally, the railway was French-dominated and served as a French exclave in Ethiopia. In 1909, the railway was nationalized in Ethiopia. The role of Ethiopians in railway operation grew over the decades until they occupied most positions after 1959. The railway became a symbol of Ethiopian independence and a source of national pride.
Rolling stock
The railway was initially operated exclusively with steam locomotives. In 1936, the company owned 60 locomotives, 45 coaches and 353 goods wagons. Until 1951, the main supplier of heavy locomotives was the Swiss Locomotive and Machine Works (SLM), which was known for the performance of its steam locomotives in mountainous terrain. In 1954, the main provider of diesel-powered locomotives became Alsthom.
The main locomotives and self-propelled railcars were: SLM steam locomotives 1-9 and 21-33 (1898–1950s) SLM M-series diesel (1950–1990s) Alsthom BB-series diesel (1954–present) Soulé diesel-electric railcars (1964–present)
Overnight locomotive-hauled trains consisted of 1st salon sleepers, 2nd class couchettes, and 3rd class coaches. Daytime passenger services were operated by 3rd class diesel railcar at speeds of up to 85 km/h. The first diesel-powered railcar was ordered in 1938 (Fiat "Littorina" series), and only DMUs were ordered after 1950. For political reasons, only the 3rd class coaches and railcars were retained on the railway after 1974.
Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia traveled on an imperial train, which consisted of two locomotives, a baggage car with a diesel generator, four imperial carriages for the emperor and his family (lounge, sleeping compartments, offices, kitchen and restaurant), two 1st class salon-sleeper cars for guests of the royal family and government officials, and two 2nd passenger cars.
Freight wagons carried 9–30 tonnes until 1987, when new freight wagons were ordered that could carry 30–40 tonnes.
Stations
Since the railway was single-track, most stations along the railway included a passing loop. From 1898 until roughly 1960, there were also water towers for supplying steam locomotives. Most stations also had a small operations building in addition to the passenger station building.
Dedicated railway stations with a single platform and station facilities for travellers were present at only three stations along the railway: Legehar train station, Dire Dawa, and Djibouti City. The Addis Ababa railway station was completed its current form in 1929, the Dire Dawa station in 1910, and the Djibouti City station in 1900. The Dire Dawa station is the main intermediate stop, as most maintenance workshops and other facilities are located there. Only the Dire Dawa railway station remains operational as of 2018.
Specifications
The Ethio-Djibouti Railway was based on French railway standards. The ballast bed for the rails was made by crushed stone, usually 4 centimetres in size. French steelworks supplied almost all of the rails and sleepers from 1898 to 1975, when maintenance of the railway ceased. The 2007–2012 rehabilitation program funded by the European Union set up two factories in Ethiopia, one in Dukem for steel products and one in Dire Dawa for concrete sleepers.
Gauge: Metre gauge Railway total length: 784 km Operational length: 1902: 311 km (Djibouti-Dire Dawa) 1917–2004: 784 km (Djibouti-Addis Ababa) 2004–2014: 311 km (Djibouti-Dire Dawa) Since 2014: 213 km (Guelile-Dire Dawa) Axle load: 1898–1947: 8 tonnes 1947–2010: 9.5-12.5 tonnes 2012–2014: 12.5-17 tonnes Since 2014: 16-17 tonnes Rail weight: 1898–1947: 20–25 kg/m 1947–2010: 20-25-30 kg/m Since 2012: 30-36-40 kg/m Minimum railway curve radius: 1898–2014: 200 meters, 150 meters at difficult locations, one curve with 100 meter Since 2014: 200 meters (ruling) gradient: 1.35% (2.7% with double-locomotive operation in difficult terrain) Maximum speed: 90 km/h (passenger trains), 65 km/h (freight trains) Operating speed: 45 km/h Maximum train load (freight): 300 tonnes (at a speed of 15 km/h at high railway gradients) Bridges, viaducts and culverts: 187 viaducts and steel bridges Major bridges and viaducts: Chebele viaduct (156 m long), Holhol viaduct (138 m long), Awash River bridge (151 m long, 60 m deep) Tunnels: One tunnel through the 'Gol du Harr' northeast of Dire Dawa (170 m long)
History
Origins
The Imperial Railway Company of Ethiopia ( or Compagnie Impériale Éthiopienne) was founded in 1894 to build and operate a railway from the port of Djibouti to the Ethiopian capital city of Addis Ababa. The company was founded by Alfred Ilg and Léon Chefneux, headquartered in Paris, France.
Discussion of an Ethiopian railway was initiated by the Swiss engineer Alfred Ilg. He attempted, without success, to interest Emperor Yohannes IV in the construction of a railway to replace the six-week mule trek from central Ethiopia to the French colonial port city. Negotiations began anew when Menelik II acceded to the Ethiopian throne in 1889. On February 11, 1893, Menelik II issued a decree to study the construction of a rail line from the new capital city of Addis Ababa.
In 1894, Ilg and his French associate Léon Chefneux founded the Imperial Railway Company of Ethiopia ( or Compagnie Impériale Éthiopienne, and with its headquarters in Paris. The company received a royal charter on March 9, 1894, but Menelek resisted putting any of his personal funds into the venture. Instead, the company received a 99-year concession to operate the railway, in return for giving Menelek shares in the company and half of all profits in excess of 3,000,000 francs. Furthermore, the firm was obliged to construct a telegraph line along the route.
Construction (1897–1917)
It took until 1897 before the necessary permission from French authorities was received, by which time significant opposition in Ethiopia had materialized. The emperor himself was irate at the involvement of the French government, which had offered to fund the line, and there were popular demonstrations against it. There was also opposition from the British legation in Addis Ababa, which feared a reduction in traffic to the port of Zeila in British Somaliland. These fears proved well-founded: even half-finished, without links to either Harar or Addis Ababa, the railroad quickly eclipsed the port's former caravan-based trade.
The firm also had difficulty selling its shares in Europe. Robert Le Roux campaigned for the line at municipal chambers of commerce around France, but investor interest was restrained. All in all, the initial stock offering only raised 8,738,000 francs of the 14 million projected, and an additional offering of 25.5 million francs in bonds yielded only 11,665,000 francs. This was far too little to complete the line. Despite the shortfall, construction began in October 1897 from Djibouti, a hitherto minor port city that eventually expanded thanks to the railway.
A crew of Arab and Somali workers, overseen by Europeans, began to press inland with the railway and its associated telegraph. Ethiopians were hired largely as security forces, to prevent the theft of materials on the line. This was also an important source of corruption for the primarily French administration, which fabricated incidents of sabotage and requested funds to buy off local chiefs that it claimed were responsible for it. Furthermore, the line was forced to avoid interfering with local communities and water sources, pushing it out into the desert. This meant that the railway company had to build aqueducts to supply its steam locomotives, an additional unplanned expense.
Even before reaching the Ethiopian border, it was clear the firm had serious financial problems. A group of British investors calling themselves the New Africa Company effectively took control of the firm over several years. They provided a new source of capital, and by 1901 had joined with the French investors to form the International Ethiopian Railway Trust and Construction Company, a holding company which controlled the railway and supplied it with further capital. The mixture of French and British interests proved volatile, as each group of investors stood for both national and commercial interests. Both governments grew interested in monopolizing Ethiopian trade and conspired to force the other into a minority position. The demands and threats of the two governments led Emperor Menelek in 1902 to forbid the extension of the railway line to Harar. French negotiations to resume work were blocked by Menelek's growing suspicion of French motives, and the line could not earn enough to pay back the company's debts with such a limited service. The signing of the Entente Cordiale in 1904 reopened the possibility of continued joint Anglo-French investment and development, but there was enough resistance to such proposals on both sides that no progress was made. The firm went formally bankrupt in 1906.
The portion completed ran from Djibouti to just short of Harar, the principal entrepôt for commerce in southern Ethiopia." The terminus evolved into the city of Dire Dawa, which grew to become larger than Harar itself. The first commercial service began in July 1901 from Djibouti to Dire Dawa.