Mozambique: Central bank's advances and loans to the State increased by 52% in 2024
Mozambique: Record 6.9M passengers on south, centre region trains in 2024 – Photos
12:18 CAT | 10 Jun 2025
Photo: Luisa Nhantumbo/Lusa
Mozambican rail transport grows every year and, even after the disruption of the recent social unrest, has become one of the hallmarks of the 50th anniversary of independence, achieving a record 6.9 million passengers in 2024.
One of these regular passengers is 20-year-old Vitória Novela, who is travelling to Magude, on the outskirts of Maputo, on one of the trains of the Mozambique Railways (CFM), a 130-year-old alternative that today, she says, is “safe and cheap”, despite being slower than the semi-collective “chapas” [passenger transport vans].
“The train is cheaper and also safe, it’s not like the chapas,” explains Vitória, sitting opposite her friend Cleita Maurício and chatting with Lusa.
Both travel together in the same carriage from Maputo and agree that the risk of accidents on the train is very low, so, despite the extra time it takes to get home, they prefer it.
“There were a few times when I took the chapa, but I didn’t like the experience because it went too fast, it accelerated a lot,” says Vitória, adding that the delay on the train is not a problem when you get home safely.
“Chapa is faster, but it is not safe because of the accidents […]. The drivers speed a lot,” stresses Cleita Maurício, as she leaves behind the station in Maputo’s central business district – the ‘Baixa’.
In Maputo, the central hub for passenger transport, the train journey from the capital city up to Magude, the destination of most passengers leaving the central station, costs 100 meticais (€1.37), below the 160 meticais (€2.2) for road transport.
“The prices of the buses are sometimes expensive, but the train is cheap. I can take any material, as long as I pay for the ticket,” said 28-year-old bricklayer Abílio Cossa, adding that, in addition to the higher prices and risk of accidents in the van, the price of the trip also increases depending on the load being transported.
Abílio and his co-workers from a construction site in Katembe, on the outskirts of the country’s capital, also mention the comfort of the train journey – even being able to play cards, something impossible in the van.
In 2024, CFM trains transported 6,815,251 passengers on the central and southern system, almost half a million more than the company predicted, according to official data, and 3% above the 2023 record. And not even the period of post-election social unrest, which has been experienced since October, and which, in addition to successive stoppages in rail transport, also caused destruction of rolling stock, has stopped this growth.
During the colonial period, with a railway network that was practically identical to the current one, just over 3,000 kilometres long, trains transported over five million passengers in one year. Independence on 25 June 1975 was followed by a civil war involving forces from the Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo) and the government, from 1977 to 1992, and the railway system practically came to a standstill, with successive attacks, including on passenger trains. The almost complete rehabilitation of several lines over a period of years became necessary, followed by a progressive increase in the number of passengers transported.
The Mozambican railway network is divided into three zones: south, centre and north, which are not directly connected, but which in turn connect to several neighbouring countries, such as South Africa, Eswatini and Zimbabwe.
After leaving the centre of Maputo, the train whistle announces the stops and more and more people loaded with goods get on, filling the empty seats in the carriages from first to third class.
The buzz increases, and in the third class corridors there is already a fight for space between the passengers getting on and food vendors, who take advantage of the train’s short stop to display cakes, soft drinks, sweets and biscuits to customers.
Still far from her destination of Bobole – 50 kilometres from the centre of Maputo – retired Teresa Amade, 67, tells Lusa that it is an old tradition to take the train. Now, because of her age, she pays only 15 meticais (€0.2) to get home, compared to the 46 meticais (€0.6) she would pay for the chapa, by road.
“When I was working, before I retired, I took the train every day, there and back. The train is affordable, it can take three to five families,” he said, advising people to take the “very affordable, comfortable and safe” transport.
Now celebrating its 130th anniversary, the railway system is already preparing to electrify the approximately 100 kilometres between Maputo and Ressano Garcia, on the border with South Africa, to be completed in the next five years, a period in which a public investment of almost €200 million is also planned.
Source: Lusa
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