Company of the railroad from Dakar to Saint-Louis

The question of the railroad of Cayor is raised first once on September 10th, 1879, at the time of the ratification of a convention with Lat Dior. The railroad of Dakar at Saint Louis is conceded for 99 years with the Compagnie of construction of Batignolles by a convention of October 30th, 1880, with possible repurchase starting from May 1st, 1908.

The law of June 29th, 1882 approves the schedule of conditions. If the company has a capital of 5 franc million, the State provides him an advance of 12.680.000 francs. The financial montage of the operation is alambiqué enough: the line will be built and exploited with the expenses of the State which, under the terms of the guarantee granted to the company, will have to pay the interest on capital of construction and the insufficiencies of exploitation. The State has good reasons to offer such advantages to the dealer. Colonization hardly begins and the inhabitants show themselves resolutely hostile with the attempts at penetration . Military operations are not finished, and the wars with the Damel S of the Cayor and the Tineas of the Baol will end only with the death of the last damel, killed in December 1886.

The construction and beginnings of the exploitation

Started simultaneously with Rufisque and Saint-Louis, work follows a fast walk starting from July 27th, 1883 under the direction of the director as a chief of the service construction Blondelet . The exploitation starts as of the startup of the first sections, under the direction of the staff officer Bois , collaborator direct of the colonel Pinet-Laprade.

The first years of exploitation are rather hard, the local populations fighting against the new means of colonization which is the railroad. December 29th, 1884, the house of team of the km No 37,5 is attacked by the Sérères. A man of team is wounded, but two prisoners remain between the hands of the police superintendent. At the origin of the business, a murky story of palm wine flight. February 19th, 1885, the train runs off the line with Bargny, causing the death of a child and three seriously injureds. March 8th, 1885, at the time of the passage of the train n° 2 with the km No 182,4, one announces various projectile jets on the convoy by of the blacks already rather large . March 24th, the train n° 2, definitely cursed, runs off the line near the bridge of Rufisque following a depression of the embankment. The engine, the van and a car disappear in the marsh.

It is also necessary to take into account the men of the damel, who do not take really the railroad to the serious one. April 12th, 1885, a telegram announces: the king of Cayor came to complain that the employees of the way had désharnaché a horse yesterday with the km No 102 and moreover, according to its expressions, that these employees made silly things with its men. He threatens to complain with the governor . More prosaically, it seems well that a brawl burst between the workmen and a man of Cayor which wanted to circulate with horse on the line. October 14th, the foreman n° 17 which carries out a round in trolley finds with the km No 131,5 a coal briquette placed in order to make run off the line the train . With the km No 132, it is straightforwardly a root of tree which is placed across the rails. One thus decides to found a special monitoring on all this section.

During this time, the administrators of the company continue their small combine with the damel. An additional act with the treaty of January 22nd, 1885, concluded between the France and Cayor, offers exceptional conditions to the railroad, namely an extension of the grounds reserved to the company around the stations. In exchange, it is necessary to grant the concession to the damel of the exemption from payment of the course on all the line for him and its continuation of 20 people .

Opening of the line to the exploitation

A difficult modernization at the beginning of the XXe century

The installations age quickly. The company decides to modernize the whole at the beginning of the 20th century, but small keys. In 1906, the Téléphone starts to replace the old man Télégraphe Bréguet. New traffics are born, in particular thanks to the policy of great work of the colony which requires a great quantity of materials. Two careers open in 1907 and are connected to the railroad: that of Mr. Peignet , with the km No 24,482, and that of Mr. Sallenave , contractor with Dakar, with the km No 2,550, where a long junction of 5,3 km is built.

The construction of the line of the Baol , first starter of CFTK exploited by the Dakar-Saint-Louis until 1910, is a genuine basket for the company: in 1909, this line gets for it only a traffic of 45.000 tons groundnuts, almost all bound for Rufisque. But the situation does not have only advantages, and it especially emphasizes the lack of material of the company. The same year, the Dakar Saint-Louis is requested to establish ways on the commercial port of Dakar, while the new station of Saint-Louis of Senegal is inaugurated on July 24th, 1909.

Despite everything, these attempts at modernization remain quite timid. Since 1910, the local chambers of commerce put the company on the bolster, which ends up causing a very official investigation of the governor. The results are particularly edifying: the exploitation is defective from all the points of view. The passenger trains arrive never, or seldom, at the regulatory hour. Often, the delays exceed one or two hours, and even more. These delays generally come from the considerable time wasted in the stations to charge and discharge from the goods, to leave empty coaches to take the full ones, and insufficiency of the personnel. That would not arrive if the passenger trains were only passenger trains. The material, as well machines as coaches, is defective and insufficient. The coaches badly maintained travellers spnt, of a pushing back dirtiness, the cushions of benches mackled of grease stains. One saw travellers, ladies, to remain upright all the way until the terminus, that is to say 10 hours of road, rather than to sit down on cushions whose dirtiness was repugnant to them. It as should be announced as the coaches old and are badly included/understood . The investigation reveals that the complaints of the chambers of commerce are partly justified . Indeed, the delays are frequent. During the first half of 1910, train 1 will show 73 delays of an amplitude going from 30 to 255 minutes. Train 2 " contente" of 47 delays. For the governor, the bad exploitation comes from the instability of the European personnel, which is too little paid . A modernization program much more ambitious is then launched. In July 1912, the company decides to replace all the metallic bridges of the line. 10 new aprons are ordered, and the operation is finished in 1915. But this one is especially justified by the introduction of the new engines of the Mallet type.

The rebuilding of the station of Dakar

The First World War

The entry in war of the France does not have large consequences for the company. The express trains, temporarily suspended, are reintroduced at the end of 1915. The company is then placed under the mode of the limited requisition. The year 1915 is especially remembered by torrential rains and many derailments due to the bad condition of the way: in August, this one is cut on 13 kilometers, between Thiès and Tivaouane.

Following a convention of February 1st, 1916, an important particular junction east creates to serve the camp of Thiaroye. Some new careers also connect up on the line, like that of Misters Morel and Pron , with the km No 31,7, at the end of 1915.

The demolition of the old station of Dakar, at the beginning of 1914, had caused the transfer of the service low speed in provisional hutments on the mole n° 1. In front of the increase in the transport of coal recorded since 1914, it is again necessary to move it. It will be done on a new site installed 1 rue de Traz in February 1917.

A little later the company proposes a recasting of the general terms of application of the flat rates and special, approved in July 1917. At the request of the general governor, the Dakar Saint-Louis presents shortly after a very complete study on the reduction of the coal consumption, proposing in particular:

the reduction with 3 per week in each direction of the number of the passenger trains during the period from May 15th to November 15th
the reduction of the number of the goods trains which would be started only when the quantities to be transported are sufficient
a lengthening of the turn-around times of the material of CFTK

The governor will refuse, finding these measurements too Draconian.

The Dakar-Saint-Louis will continue an advantageous exploitation in the Twenties. The general government of AOF will take again the line with its load by convention of the August 9th and September 9th, 1932. The old line of Saint-Louis will then be integrated into RDN.

The material

Engines with vapor:

Sources

Files of the service of public works of the AOF. Preserved in the form of microfilm at the Public records, Paris.

See too

Railroad of Dakar-Niger
Transport in Senegal

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