The Trangabonais indicates the Railroad Gabon, whose first section was brought into service in 1978, and composed of a single line of 648 km connecting Owendo, port ore tanker located in the suburbs of the capital Libreville, with Franceville, located on the Fleuve Ogooué. It is a railroad to vocation primarily goods, ensuring the transport of barks and ore of Manganèse. Exploited originally by an official organization, the OCTRA (Office of the railroad transgabonais), it was privatisée in 1999. the development company is since 2003 Setrag (Eramet group). Its exploitation remains overdrawn. The manpower is of 1300 agents.

Qualified by some of Pharaonic work, this line is due above all to the will of the president Omar Bongo to disenclose her country, badly served by the highway network, with only 900 km of bituminized roads, and to support the exploitation of its natural wealths (Equatorial forest, layers mining: manganese, iron, uranium…). the total costs of work rose (at the time) to 1500 billion francs CFA (either approximately 3,7 billion euros).

History

• July 1968: beginning of the first studies (creation of an advisory committee for the study of a railroad Owendo-Bélinga ore tanker).
• July 11th 1973: international agreement on the financing of the first section (coordination EDF - European Development Funds).
• October 21st 1974: beginning of work (by Eurotrag, consortium of 17 european companies, leader Spie Batignolles).
• December 27th 1978: inauguration of the first section Owendo- Ndjolé, 183 km.
• January 18th 1983: inauguration of the second section Ndjolé - Booué, 157 km.
• March 28th 1986: inauguration of the third section Booué - Lastourville, 145 km.
• December 30th 1986: inauguration of the last section Lastourville - Franceville, 163 km.
• 1999 : privatization of transgabonais: the exploitation was conceded for 20 years at the National company of the wood of Gabon (SNBG) associated with the Belgian society Transurb within the framework of the consortium “Transgabonais”.
• May 15th 2003: the SNBG is dispossession of the exploitation and the Gabonese government once entrusts 4 months a temporary, renewable mandate, in Comilog (mining Company of Ogooué) in order to prepare an invitation to tender for a new patent of mining claims, within the framework of a new business, Setrag (development company of transgabonais). Comilog, subsidiary of the group Eramet is operating manganese layer of Moanda.
• 2004 : the Gabonese government prolongs 18 months the mandate of exploitation entrusted to Comilog within the framework of Setrag.
• August 11th, 2005: the Comilog company signs for thirty years with the Gabonese State the concession of the line.

The line

It is about a single-track line with normal spacing, long 648 km (for 814 km of ways). The layout connecting Owendo to Franceville dessert 23 stations, all identical, of which Djolé, Booué, Lastourville and Moanda (manganese mine). According to primarily the course of Ogoué, it profits from a profile longitudinally rather favorable, the slopes not exceeding 8 p. 1000. The culminating point of the line is at 360 m of altitude.

The way is armed with Rail S of 51 kg/m posed on Traverse S of wood (1667 traverses/km. It is ready to receive Train S up to 19.000 tons of total weight. Maximum speed is of 80 km/h for circulations travellers and of 60 km/h for the goods. It has two units control centralized, located at Owendo and Booué, equipped with an optical control board and a control panel.

An antenna of 237 km is projected to join starting from Booué the iron layer of Bélinga.

Rolling stock

Manpower with the startup of the line. The whole of the park is equipped with the coupler Willison (shock and traction).

• driving Machines
• 32 Locomotive S diesel-electric (22 Alstom standard BB 100 and 10 General Electric standard DC 200)
• 29 shunters of various origin
• 23 Draisine S
• Matériel travellers
• 23 passenger cars; 3 restaurant car
• 2 railcars Material Soulé
• goods
• approximately 420 Coach S (timber trucks, container ships, couvets, dishes). Not included/understood the coaches ore tankers used for the traffic of Comilog.
• 150 vehicles of service.

Traffic

In 2001, transgabonais it transported approximately three million tons of goods, including 1,7 manganese MT, and 0,97 MT of wood barks, like 280.000 travellers.

The same year, the turnover rose to approximately 35 frank billion CFA (either approximately 38 million euros), for a deficit of 92 franc million CFA (or 140.000 euros).

See too

Gabon | Railroad

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