Zambia Railways

Zambia Railways (ZR) is the national railway company of Zambia and one of the two organisations providing services on the Zambian rail network. The other system is the binational TAZARA Railway (TAZARA) that interconnects with the ZR at Kapiri Mposhi and provides a link to the Tanzanian port of Dar es Salaam.

As of March 2026, Zambia Railways operated passenger trains between Livingstone and Kitwe via Choma, Mazabuka, Lusaka, Kabwe, Kapiri Mposhi, and Ndola. Trains depart on Mondays from Livingstone and arrive on Wednesdays in Kitwe, and depart on Fridays from Kitwe and arrive on Sundays in Liviingstone. Occasional mixed freight and passenger services operate between Livingstone and Mulobezi. Freight services are offerred within Zambia, and between Zambia and DR Congo, Zimbabwe, and Tanzania (via TAZARA).[1]

Zambia Railways has an eastern division with a station at Chipata and a line running to Mchinji in Malawi with connections to the port of Nacala in Mozambique. Limited freight services started in 2014 but ceased in 2016 due to flood damage on the line and have not operated from Chipata since. In April 2025 ZR executieves visited Nacala to explore the possibilities for restarting freight services.[2]

History

Main article: History of rail transport in Zambia

The 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in) gauge Cape gauge ZR network was built during British colonial rule as part of the vision of the Cape-Cairo railway but the economic spur was to access the mines of Central Africa. The railway started as part of Rhodesia Railways, the company which ran the railways of Northern Rhodesia and Southern Rhodesia as an integrated operation, which was one of the largest employers and enterprises in both countries. The railway arrived in the future Zambia early in 1905 when the 150 km Livingstone-Kalomo line was built in advance of completion in September of that year of the Victoria Falls Bridge from the then Southern Rhodesia to Livingstone. The first wagons on the line were hauled by oxen, then a single locomotive was conveyed in pieces by cableway across the gorge where the bridge was being built to start up operations to Kalomo in advance of the main line connection.[3]

Another major bridge was required to cross the Kafue River and the 427 m long Kafue Railway Bridge, the longest on the Rhodesia Railways or Zambian Railways network, was completed in 1906.

The line reached Broken Hill (Kabwe) in 1906 and Ndola in the Copperbelt in 1909 (connecting to Sakania in the Belgian Congo), some 20 years before the first large-scale copper mines opened there.

Zambia Railways operates the Mulobezi Railway, a branch line from Livingstone, built as a private timber line.

In the mid-1960s, spurred by the Rhodesian UDI crisis, the newly independent Zambia split its railways off from Rhodesia Railways, and Zambia Railways came into being.[4]

Railway Systems of Zambia

Main article: Railway Systems of Zambia

Railway Systems of Zambia Limited (RSZ) was a private company incorporated and registered in Zambia. It is a subsidiary of NLPI Ltd, an investment holding company.

The NLPI Consortium participated in a tender in respect of the Zambia Railways Concession. The Consortium was declared the winner with the signing of the Freight Concession Agreement on 14 February 2003.

The Concession was to operate for a period of 20 years with a possible extension for a further 10 years. However, in September 2012, the government revoked the concession and Zambia Railways resumed control.[5]

There are no current international passenger services of the ZR, only of the TAZARA railway.

Democratic Republic of the Congo

Main article: Rail transport in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

The Copperbelt reaches into the Katanga province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo with mines at Lubumbashi and further north-west. The ZR network connects to Lubumbashi via Ndola and Sakania. At one time the Lubumbashi line connected to the Benguela Railway through Angola to Lobito Bay, but the line did not operate from the 1970s, until reopening in 2018.[6]

TAZARA Railway

Main article: TAZARA Railway

As most of its major export routes ran through then apartheid controlled South Africa, Zambia needed an alternate export route for its copper. In 1976, Chinese construction crews completed the 1,860-kilometer-long Tanzania-Zambia Railway (TAZARA) which runs from Kapiri Mposhi (200 km north of the Zambia capital Lusaka), to the Tanzanian capital and major East African port of Dar es Salaam.[7] After being operated jointly by the two nationalised railway systems, the Chinese again took over the running of TAZARA in a joint transport agreement from January 2007, which covered both direct air links to Beijing Capital International Airport and copper ore export.

Zimbabwe and South Africa

Via Victoria Falls Bridge the Zimbabwe rail network and the ports in Mozambique (Beira, Maputo) and the South African Railways of South Africa can be reached. The condition of the 100-year-old bridge restricts traffic.

Up to the mid-1960s, passenger and sleeper services ran from Ndola to Bulawayo, Zimbabwe (then Rhodesia), connecting with a sleeper service to Cape Town and the Union Castle shipping line to Southampton, UK. This was the main travel route between south-central Africa and Europe before the Jet age. The journey from Ndola to Cape Town took five days.

Ndola-Bulawayo passenger services ended when Zambia suspended all services across the Victoria Falls Bridge in response to Rhodesia's UDI crisis. Freight services were occasionally resumed up to the line re-opening in 1980, but successful passenger services have not resumed.

Malawi and Mozambique

Main articles: Sena railway and Nacala railway

A rail link from eastern Zambia to the Sena railway between Malawi and Mozambique, allowing access to the port of Nacala, was first planned in 1982. On the Malawi side of the border, the line to Mchinji was finished in 1984,[8] but a connection to Chipata in Zambia was only constructed in 2010. In 2013 the line was reported as idle because there are few facilities at Chipata.[9] Freight services operated in 2014–2016 but have been idle since.[2]

Maps

See also

References

  1. ^ "Passenger Services". Zambia Railways Limited. Retrieved 16 March 2026.
  2. ^ a b "ZRL UNDERTAKES STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP MEETINGS FOR OPERATIONALIZATION OF CHIPATA-MCHINJI RAILWAY LINE". 8 May 2025.
  3. ^ Horizon magazine: "Zambia's Second Industry", February 1965, pp4-11.
  4. ^ Kunda, Jean. "Zambia Railway System". pp. 5–6 – via Academia.edu.
  5. ^ "ZRL takes charge as Zambian concession revoked". Railway Gazette International. Archived from the original on 6 December 2012. Retrieved 19 November 2012.
  6. ^ "O sonho de muitos angolanos tornou-se realidade – CAMINHO DE FERRO DE BENGUELA – E.P." (in European Portuguese). Archived from the original on 2019-08-09. Retrieved 2019-08-09.
  7. ^ "Chinese company to operate Zambia Tanzania railway". Danwei.org. November 7, 2006. Retrieved 2008-03-12.
  8. ^ "Railway Gazette: News in Brief". Archived from the original on 2010-10-01. Retrieved 2010-09-26.
  9. ^ "ZAMBIA'S IDLE CHIPATA LINE". Railways Africa. 20 August 2013. Archived from the original on 3 January 2014. Retrieved 25 August 2013.
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