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Ethiopia Railroads
Ethiopia's two original rail systems were the FrancoEthiopian Railroad (FER) and the Akordat-Mitsiwa railroad. A
French company, the Compagnie Impériale des Chemins de Fers
Ethiopiens, built the FER by authority of Emperor Menelik
II. Construction began in l897 at the port city of Djibouti,
and the final link reached Addis Ababa in l9l7. In l959 the
Ethiopian government acquired a 50 percent holding in the
line.
By the early 1960s, however, Ethiopia had taken steps to
reduce its dependence on the FER, which could be disrupted
by natural disaster or an attack by antigovernment forces.
Nevertheless, Ethiopia suffered economically when sabotage
associated with the 1977-78 Ogaden War temporarily closed
the FER. As an alternate to the FER, the government expanded
the port of Aseb and constructed a highway between Addis
Ababa and Aseb. The opening of the Addis Ababa-Aseb highway
prompted the FER to improve the railroad to remain
competitive. In particular, the FER expanded investment in
diesel locomotion, new rolling stock, and track. Despite
these efforts, competition between the rail and road systems
remained intense. For example, in 1986/87 the FER moved
335,400 tons of freight compared with a high of 375,000 tons
in the mid-1960s. One of the major reasons for the decline
was attacks on the rail line by rebel groups.
An Italian company completed construction of the AkordatMitsiwa line in l922. The Ethiopian government acquired
ownership of the line after World War II. In the mid-1960s,
the volume of freight and passenger traffic stagnated. By
the early l970s, the railroad's equipment was old, and the
line was in need of track improvements. In the mid-1970s,
operation ceased to be viable because of the threat posed by
Eritrean guerrillas and the realization that existing road
facilities could handle the railroad's traffic. For these
reasons, the government closed the line in l976, and it was
partially destroyed in later fighting.
Data as of 1991
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