Imperial Railway Company of Ethiopia
Encyclopedia
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. A new rail network is planned.
name Compagnie Impériale des Chemins de Fer Éthiopiens) was a semi-private firm founded in 1894 to build and operate a railway across eastern Ethiopia
from Addis Ababa
to the port of Djibouti
in what was at the time French Somaliland
. The firm failed in 1906 when political discord halted construction, and it failed to obtain any new capital. The portion it had completed ran from Djibouti to the middle of the Ethiopian desert. Its terminus evolved into the city of Dire Dawa
.
Discussion of an Ethiopian railway was initiated by Alfred Ilg
, an advisor to Emperor Menelek II
. He had attempted to interest the previous emperor and other Ethiopian political figures in the construction of a railway to replace the six-week mule trek between the capital and the French port city, but had no success. When Menelek acceded to the throne in 1889, negotiations began anew and a decree was granted on February 11, 1893, to study the construction of rail line. Ilg, a Swiss
citizen, and a number of French associates put together a firm and received a royal charter on March 9, 1894, enabling them to start work. Menelek resisted personally putting any funds into the venture, but did grant a 99-year lease to Ilg and his associates in return for a number of shares in the firm 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.
It took until 1897 before the necessary permission from French authorities was received, by which time significant opposition in Ethiopia had materialised. Elements of the traditional nobility were opposed to the construction, 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
.
The firm also had difficulty selling its shares in Europe. Investor interest was restrained, and official interest from the French government was at best lukewarm. All in all, the initial stock offering only earned 8,738,000 francs of the 14 million projected, and an additional offering of 25.5 million francs of 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 that expanded primarily to serve the railway. A crew of Arab and Somali workers, overseen by Europeans, began to press inland with the line 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 aqueduct
s, an additional unplanned expense, to serve the line.
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 firm which essentially controlled the railway and supplied it with further capital. The first commercial service began in July 1901, from Djibouti to Dire Dawa.
This mixture of French and British interests proved volatile, as each group of investors stood increasingly for both national and commercial interests. Both governments became interested in monopolising Ethiopian trade and conspired to force the other into a minor position. The demands and threats of the two governments led Emperor Menelek in 1902 to forbid the expansion 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 signature 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.
In 1908, the assets of the company were transferred to a new firm, the Compagnie de Chemin de Fer Franco-Ethiopien de Jibuti à Addis Abeba, which received a new concession to finish the line to Addis Ababa. After a year of wrangling with the previous financiers and their governments, construction began anew. By 1915 the line reached Akaki, only 23 kilometers from the capital, and two years later came all the way to Addis Ababa itself.
Ethiopia's share in the railway was seized by the Italian government
in the Second Italo-Abyssinian War
, but was regained by Ethiopia after the Second World War. Following the independence of Djibouti in 1977, the French share in the railway was transferred to the new nation.
. They organized one of the first labor unions in Ethiopia in 1947, the Railroad Workers Syndicate of Dire Dawa, for mutual welfare purposes. Although its leadership co-operated with the Government, an attempted strike in 1949 was brutally suppressed by government troops; at the time, all strikes were seen by government officials as a form of insurrection.
The railway company carried out surveys for extending its line 310 kilometers south from Adama
to Dilla
between 1960 and 1963. The government formed a Nazareth-Dilla Railway Development Corporation to support this new branch. Although the French government offered a loan to fund this new branch in 1965, and Yugoslav experts had studied and thought the project would be worthwhile, this project was never carried out.
After the independence of Djibouti (1977), France transferred its ownership to the government of Djibouti for the now newly formed Ethio-Djibouti Railways
(about 1982).
In 2003 the European Commission
prepared a grant of EUR 40 million for the rehabilitation of the Djibouti-Ethiopia Railway. Reflecting increases in fuel and steel prices, the commission has increased this grant to EUR 50m in 2006. The Djiboutian Ministry of Equipment and Transport and the Ethiopian Ministry of Transportation and Communications chose the South African firm Comazar
to administer the railway in March, 2006. A 25-year concession was due to be signed in June 2007, but this failed to happen, and negotiations began with Kuwaiti company Fouad Alghanim and Sons Group.
The new management was expected to raise the capacity of the railroad from its current average of 240,000 tons to 1.5 million tons.
The governments of Djibouti and Ethiopia signed an agreement with the Italian consortium Costra 29 November 2006; work will begin early 2007 on sections of the line that deteriorated following the Ogaden War
. The gauge of the line is .
with four companies, the China Communications Construction
, China Railway Engineering Corporation
, and an Indian and Russian company. After all parties except the Chinese firms failed to take further action, the contract was awarded to the CRCG. In August, funding for the project was agreed to come from the Export and Import Bank of China. In September 2010, construction began on the project.
The new network will be 5,000 km long, and radiate from the capital, Addis Ababa. The system will be constructed in two phases, the first phase involving the construction of five lines. The project will provide 300,000 jobs in construction and cost $336 million annually for five years. The system will handle 6 million tonnes of freight.
The gauge of the new railway will be as there is no point in increasing the size of the network four fold on a obsolete gauge, and also standard gauge
proposed changes in adjacent countries.
Also included was a light rail system in Addis Ababa.
- no break-of-gauge Eritrea
- break-of-gauge / Somalia
- no railways Sudan
- break-of-gauge /
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...
to 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....
. The line continues from Dire Dawa to Addis Ababa
Addis Ababa
Addis Ababa is the capital city of Ethiopia...
, but is no longer operational. A new rail network is planned.
Overview
The Imperial Railway Company of Ethiopia (often referred to by its FrenchFrench language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
name Compagnie Impériale des Chemins de Fer Éthiopiens) was a semi-private firm founded in 1894 to build and operate a railway across eastern 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...
from Addis Ababa
Addis Ababa
Addis Ababa is the capital city of Ethiopia...
to the port of 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...
in what was at the time French Somaliland
French Somaliland
French Somaliland was a French colony in the Horn of Africa. Established after the French signed various treaties between 1883 and 1887 with the then ruling Somali Sultans, the colony lasted from 1896 until 1946, when it became an overseas territory of France....
. The firm failed in 1906 when political discord halted construction, and it failed to obtain any new capital. The portion it had completed ran from Djibouti to the middle of the Ethiopian desert. Its terminus evolved into the city of 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....
.
Alfred Ilg
Alfred Ilg was a Swiss engineer and a confident to Ethiopian Emperor Menelik II. He was born in Frauenfeld, Switzerland.- Life :...
, an advisor to Emperor Menelek II
Menelek II of Ethiopia
Emperor Menelik II GCB, GCMG, baptized as Sahle Maryam , was Negus of Shewa , then of Ethiopia from 1889 to his death. At the height of his internal power and external prestige, the process of territorial expansion and creation of the modern empire-state had been completed by 1898...
. He had attempted to interest the previous emperor and other Ethiopian political figures in the construction of a railway to replace the six-week mule trek between the capital and the French port city, but had no success. When Menelek acceded to the throne in 1889, negotiations began anew and a decree was granted on February 11, 1893, to study the construction of rail line. Ilg, a Swiss
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
citizen, and a number of French associates put together a firm and received a royal charter on March 9, 1894, enabling them to start work. Menelek resisted personally putting any funds into the venture, but did grant a 99-year lease to Ilg and his associates in return for a number of shares in the firm and half of all profits in excess of 3,000,000 francs
French franc
The franc was a currency of France. Along with the Spanish peseta, it was also a de facto currency used in Andorra . Between 1360 and 1641, it was the name of coins worth 1 livre tournois and it remained in common parlance as a term for this amount of money...
. Furthermore, the firm was obliged to construct a telegraph
Telegraphy
Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages via some form of signalling technology. Telegraphy requires messages to be converted to a code which is known to both sender and receiver...
line along the route.
It took until 1897 before the necessary permission from French authorities was received, by which time significant opposition in Ethiopia had materialised. Elements of the traditional nobility were opposed to the construction, and there were popular demonstrations against it. There was also opposition from the British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
legation in Addis Ababa, which feared a reduction in traffic to the port of Zeila
Zeila
Zeila, also known as Zaila , is a port city on the Gulf of Aden coast, situated in the northwestern Awdal region of Somalia.Located near the Djibouti border, the town sits on a sandy spit surrounded by the sea. It is known for its offshore islands, coral reef and mangroves. Landward, the terrain is...
in British Somaliland
British Somaliland
British Somaliland was a British protectorate in the northern part of present-day Somalia. For much of its existence, British Somaliland was bordered by French Somaliland, Ethiopia, and Italian Somaliland. From 1940 to 1941, it was occupied by the Italians and was part of Italian East Africa...
.
The firm also had difficulty selling its shares in Europe. Investor interest was restrained, and official interest from the French government was at best lukewarm. All in all, the initial stock offering only earned 8,738,000 francs of the 14 million projected, and an additional offering of 25.5 million francs of 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 that expanded primarily to serve the railway. A crew of Arab and Somali workers, overseen by Europeans, began to press inland with the line 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 aqueduct
Aqueduct
An aqueduct is a water supply or navigable channel constructed to convey water. In modern engineering, the term is used for any system of pipes, ditches, canals, tunnels, and other structures used for this purpose....
s, an additional unplanned expense, to serve the line.
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 firm which essentially controlled the railway and supplied it with further capital. The first commercial service began in July 1901, from Djibouti to Dire Dawa.
This mixture of French and British interests proved volatile, as each group of investors stood increasingly for both national and commercial interests. Both governments became interested in monopolising Ethiopian trade and conspired to force the other into a minor position. The demands and threats of the two governments led Emperor Menelek in 1902 to forbid the expansion of the railway line to Harar
Harar
Harar is an eastern city in Ethiopia, and the capital of the modern Harari ethno-political division of Ethiopia...
. 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 signature of the Entente Cordiale
Entente Cordiale
The Entente Cordiale was a series of agreements signed on 8 April 1904 between the United Kingdom and the French Republic. Beyond the immediate concerns of colonial expansion addressed by the agreement, the signing of the Entente Cordiale marked the end of almost a millennium of intermittent...
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.
Reconstruction
Ethiopia's share in the railway was seized by the Italian government
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
in the Second Italo-Abyssinian War
Second Italo-Abyssinian War
The Second Italo–Abyssinian War was a colonial war that started in October 1935 and ended in May 1936. The war was fought between the armed forces of the Kingdom of Italy and the armed forces of the Ethiopian Empire...
, but was regained by Ethiopia after the Second World War. Following the independence of Djibouti in 1977, the French share in the railway was transferred to the new nation.
Post-War history
Workers for the Railway were pioneers in the Ethiopian labor movementTrade unions in Ethiopia
The trade unions of Ethiopia have a total membership of approximately 300,000. Over 203,000 are members of the Confederation of Ethiopian Trade Unions ....
. They organized one of the first labor unions in Ethiopia in 1947, the Railroad Workers Syndicate of Dire Dawa, for mutual welfare purposes. Although its leadership co-operated with the Government, an attempted strike in 1949 was brutally suppressed by government troops; at the time, all strikes were seen by government officials as a form of insurrection.
The railway company carried out surveys for extending its line 310 kilometers south from Adama
Adama
Adama , better known as Nazret or Nazreth , is a city in central Ethiopia and the previous capital of the Oromia Region. It is located in the Misraq Shewa Zone of Oromia, at at an elevation of 1712 meters, 99 km southeast of Addis Ababa...
to Dilla
Dila, Ethiopia
Dilla is a market town in southern Ethiopia. The administrative center of the Gedeo Zone in the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples Region , and located on the main road from Addis Ababa to Nairobi, this town has a longitude and latitude of with an elevation of 1570 meters above sea...
between 1960 and 1963. The government formed a Nazareth-Dilla Railway Development Corporation to support this new branch. Although the French government offered a loan to fund this new branch in 1965, and Yugoslav experts had studied and thought the project would be worthwhile, this project was never carried out.
After the independence of Djibouti (1977), France transferred its ownership to the government of Djibouti for the now newly formed Ethio-Djibouti Railways
Ethio-Djibouti Railways
The Ethio-Djibouti Railways, also Ethio-Djibouti Railway Enterprise, is the successor of the Imperial Railway Company of Ethiopia and jointly owned by the governments of Ethiopia and Djibouti. It was formed after Djibouti gained independence in 1977 and received the French shares of the Imperial...
(about 1982).
In 2003 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 for the rehabilitation of the Djibouti-Ethiopia Railway. Reflecting increases in fuel and steel prices, the commission has increased this grant to EUR 50m in 2006. The Djiboutian Ministry of Equipment and Transport and the Ethiopian Ministry of Transportation and Communications chose 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...
to administer the railway in March, 2006. A 25-year concession was due to be signed in June 2007, but this failed to happen, and negotiations began with Kuwaiti company Fouad Alghanim and Sons Group.
The new management was expected to raise the capacity of the railroad from its current average of 240,000 tons to 1.5 million tons.
The governments of Djibouti and Ethiopia signed an agreement with the Italian consortium Costra 29 November 2006; work will begin early 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...
. The gauge of the line is .
New network
In January 2010, it was announced that the Ethiopian government had signed a memorandum of understandingMemorandum of understanding
A memorandum of understanding is a document describing a bilateral or multilateral agreement between parties. It expresses a convergence of will between the parties, indicating an intended common line of action. It is often used in cases where parties either do not imply a legal commitment or in...
with four companies, the China Communications Construction
China Communications Construction
China Communications Construction Company Group, China Communications in short form, is an infrastructure and engineering group based on mainland China.- History :...
, China Railway Engineering Corporation
China Railway Engineering Corporation
The China Railway Engineering Corporation , or simply CREC, is a large-scale state-owned enterprise in the People's Republic of China....
, and an Indian and Russian company. After all parties except the Chinese firms failed to take further action, the contract was awarded to the CRCG. In August, funding for the project was agreed to come from the Export and Import Bank of China. In September 2010, construction began on the project.
The new network will be 5,000 km long, and radiate from the capital, Addis Ababa. The system will be constructed in two phases, the first phase involving the construction of five lines. The project will provide 300,000 jobs in construction and cost $336 million annually for five years. The system will handle 6 million tonnes of freight.
The gauge of the new railway will be as there is no point in increasing the size of the network four fold on a obsolete gauge, and also standard gauge
Standard gauge
The standard gauge is a widely-used track gauge . Approximately 60% of the world's existing railway lines are built to this gauge...
proposed changes in adjacent countries.
Also included was a light rail system in Addis Ababa.
Railway links to adjacent countries
Djibouti - yes - KenyaRail 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 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....
- break-of-gauge / 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 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...
- break-of-gauge /
See also
- Ethio-Djibouti RailwaysEthio-Djibouti RailwaysThe Ethio-Djibouti Railways, also Ethio-Djibouti Railway Enterprise, is the successor of the Imperial Railway Company of Ethiopia and jointly owned by the governments of Ethiopia and Djibouti. It was formed after Djibouti gained independence in 1977 and received the French shares of the Imperial...
- (station km) - Railway stations in EthiopiaRailway stations in EthiopiaAll 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
External links
Further reading
- Tom C. Killion, "Railroad Workers and the Ethiopian Imperial State: The Politics of Workers' Organization on the Franco-Ethiopian Railroad, 1919-1959", The International Journal of African Historical Studies, 25 (1992), pp. 583–605.