Mozambique expects 26.6% increase in rail traffic in 2025

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Mozambique expects 26.6% increase in rail traffic in 2025

2:08 CAT | 06 May 2025

in file CoM

The Mozambican government is acquiring new wagons to strengthen rail transport in the country, forecasting a 26.6% increase in traffic this year, according to data compiled today by Lusa from the State Budget proposal.

According to the proposed Economic and Social Plan and State Budget (PESOE) 2025, now analysed by specialised commissions of the Assembly of the Republic in Maputo, the forecast growth in traffic is justified “by the increase in passenger flow, linked to the investments made in the acquisition of more than 750 wagons”.

This growth is also justified in the government document by “the expected increase in freight traffic in 2025, with the full operation of the rehabilitated and expanded railway lines of Ressano Garcia (double track), Matola Gare-Moamba and Machipanda, which will allow connections between the southern and central ports, thus ensuring greater capacity and response to the demand for rail freight transport”.

The Mozambican government announced at the end of April that it intends to invest more than €190 million by 2030 in the doubling of railway lines, acquisition of carriages, locomotives and wagons to increase passenger and freight transport capacity.

“In the southern and central railway system, under the direct management of the company Portos e Caminhos de Ferro de Moçambique (CFM), we plan to invest around 14 billion meticais [€193.3 million] in the period 2025-2030 in the implementation of strategic projects,” said Minister of Transport and Logistics, João Matlombe, on April 26, when inaugurating three new locomotives in Maputo.

The Minister added that the government wants to invest the money in completing the doubling of the remaining 25 kilometres of the Ressano Garcia railway line in Maputo, which connects Mozambique and South Africa, and also in the acquisition of more than 30 carriages to increase passenger transport capacity.

For the same amount, the Government of Mozambique intends to acquire at least 250 wagons by 2030 to meet the growing demand for mineral transport and the purchase of at least 15 locomotives.

The Minister of Transport and Logistics said that the three new locomotives inaugurated cost 422.4 million meticais (€5.8 million) and are intended to strengthen the capacity of rail passenger transport in the Greater Maputo region, acknowledging their impact on community development.

The operating results of the state-owned Porto e Caminhos de Ferro de Moçambique (CFM) rose 55% in 2024, to almost 2.52 billion meticais (€34.7 million), and more than seven million passengers were transported, the management announced.

According to the chairman of the board of directors of CFM, Agostinho Langa, recorded by Lusa on April 14, this performance contrasts with the operating result of 1.63 billion meticais (€22.5 million) in 2023, a balance that is still provisional but already considered positive, despite the constraints in 2024, namely the impact of several months of post-election social unrest.

CFM operates the Ressano Garcia, Limpopo and Goba railway lines, the Beira Railway System, which includes the Sena, Machipanda and Marromeu rail lines, the section common to the three railway lines of the southern network and the Maputo shunting area, the general workshops of the south and centre of the country and the Matola Aluminium Terminal.

It also operates fuel terminals in all national ports, cereal and coal terminals in the port of Maputo, and the ports of Quelimane, Nacala and Pemba.

Source: Lusa