Mauritania Railway

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from SNIM)
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Template:Short description Template:Infobox rail line

The Mauritania Railway is the national railway of Mauritania. Construction of the line began in 1960, with its opening in 1963.[1][2] It consists of a single, Template:Convert railway line linking the iron mining center of Zouérat with the port of Nouadhibou, via Fderik and Choum. The state agency Société nationale industrielle et minière (SNIM) controls the railway line.

Since the closure of the Choum Tunnel, a Template:Convert section of the railway cuts through the Polisario Front-controlled part of the Western Sahara (Template:Coord).

History

Script error: No such module "Labelled list hatnote". The line was a success and provided a major portion of Mauritania's GDP; as a result, the line was nationalized in 1974.[2] Following Mauritania's annexation of southern Western Sahara in 1976, the line came under constant attack by Polisario militia, effectively putting the line out of use and thereby crippling Mauritania's economy.[2] This played a major role in prompting the army to overthrow Mauritanian President Moktar Ould Daddah in 1978, followed by a withdrawal from Western Sahara the following year. With the line now secure, repairs were conducted and trains starting using it once again in the early 1980s.[2] This railway is unusual for its usage of the Soviet type coupler SA-3, which is quite rare in non-ex-Soviet countries.Script error: No such module "Unsubst".

Traffic

Trains on the railway are up to Template:Convert in length,[3] making them among the longest and heaviest in the world. They consist of 2 diesel-electric EMD locomotives, 200 to 210 cars each carrying up to Template:Convert of iron ore, and 2-3 service cars. The total traffic averages Template:Convert per year.

File:Il mitico treno del ferro al nord della Mauritania.jpg
Iron ore cars on a typical train
File:SNIM ore train Nouadhibou.jpg
Mauritania Railway train at the station in Nouadhibou

Passengers are also occasionally transported by train; these services are managed by an SNIM subsidiary, the société d'Assainissement, de Travaux, de Transport et de Maintenance (abb. ATTM).[4] Passenger cars are sometimes attached to freight trains, but more often passengers simply ride atop the ore hopper cars freely. Passengers include locals, merchants, and occasionally some adventure tourists. Conditions for these passengers are incredibly harsh with daytime temperatures exceeding 40 °C, night-time temperatures approaching freezing, and death from falls being common.Script error: No such module "Unsubst".

In January 2019, the railway resumed tourism after a ten-year hiatus; part of the track ran through a forbidden tourist area. One of the stops on the tourist route is an iron mine. The tourist route is typically operated by a locomotive carrying two passenger carriages.[5]

Locomotives

In October 2010, SNIM ordered six EMD SD70ACS locomotives, which featured a pulse filtration system, movable sand plows, EM2000 control system and FIRE display system together with similar modifications to allow for operations in high temperatures.[6]

Prior to this the railway had operated US-built EMD SDL40-2 locomotives, also with special modifications to deal with operating in dusty and high temperature environments, which themselves were the replacement for twenty-one MIFERNA Class CC locomotives which had been custom-made in France to operate in the same rough conditions.

Number Manufacturer Series Units Power Year of construction Photo
BB01-12 (?) Brissonneau et Lotz BB05 im Lokfriedhof F´derik im Februar 2025
BB201–208 EMD GPL-15T 8 1100 kW[7] File:BB 208 in Zouerat im Februar 2025.jpg
BB209–216 EMD GPL-15T 8 1100 kW File:BB 213 mit Service-Zug in Choum im Februar 2025.jpg
CC01–11 Alstom 11 1961–1962 File:SNIM Alsthom CC05 1994 02.JPG
CC12–21 Alstom 10 1965 CC 20 im Lokfriedhof F´derik im Februar 2025
CC101–106 EMD SDL40-2 6 2240 kW[8] 1981 CC 102, 106 und 104 mit Erzzug bei der Kreuzung mit dem Le Train du desert im Bahnhof km 420 im Februar 2025
CC107–110 EMD SDL40-2 4 2240 kW 1988
CC111–116 EMD SDL40-2 6 2240 kW 1993
CC117–121 EMD SDL40-2 5 2240 kW 1997 File:SNIM ore train Nouadhibou.jpg
CC122–127(?) EMD SD70ACS 6 2240 kW 2011(?) File:CC 123, dahinter CC 115 in Zouerat im Februar 2025.jpg

Glencore

In 2014, mining giant Glencore acquired 18 years of access to SNIM's rail and port infrastructure for $1 billion, intending to link it to branch lines for new iron mines at Askaf and Guelb El Aouj. This arrangement aimed to save costs by avoiding the construction of separate tracks and facilities.[9] Glencore withdrew from the project merely a year later, following a nearly 40% drop in the price of iron ore.[10][11]

See also

Script error: No such module "Portal".

References

Notes

Template:Reflist

Further reading

External links

Template:Sister project Template:Wikivoyage

Template:Africa in topic

  1. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  2. ↑ a b c d Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  3. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  4. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  5. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  6. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  7. ↑ The Diesel Shop
  8. ↑ The Diesel Shop
  9. ↑ http://www.railpage.com.au/f-t11332401.htm Template:Dead linkTemplate:Registration required
  10. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  11. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
Retrieved from "http://debianws.lexgopc.com/wiki143/index.php?title=Mauritania_Railway&oldid=1728958"