2.4 Railway Assessment

TRailway Overview Travel Time Matrix Railway Companies and Consortia Capacity Table Key Route Information Key Stations Railway Cargo Movement Combined Road-Rail Transport

TRailway Overview

The Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer Tunisiens (English: ), abbreviated SNCFT, is the national railway of Tunisia and under the direction of the Ministry of Transport. SNCFT provides both passenger and freight services at a national level. Tunisia inherited much of its rail transport system from the French and the Tunisian Government has developed the infrastructure further. Due to historical reasons, the country has two different rail gauge systems. Thus SNCFT manages 471 km of standard 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 12 in) gauge network in the northern and a 1,674 km gauge network in the central and southern part of the country (65 km electrified); only 8 km are double gauged track . Tunisia has a rail link with neighboring via the border at , but passenger services are limited to a single round-trip per day. New developments are the following:

- The splitting and electrification of the terminal section of line 22 of the railways of the suburbs of the Sahel between and , the signaling of stations and lines between Monastir and Mahdia including the adaptation and rehabilitation of other facilities existing signage as well as the acquisition of six multiple electrical units (“UEM”) to strengthen the UABS fleet during the project.

- The rectification of the route of the West-South railway line between and (Line 6) as well as its modernization (signalling of stations and lines between Djebel Djeloud and Gaafour, telecommunications between Djebel Djeloud--Kef and track works).

Travel Time Matrix

Travel Time from Capital City to Major Towns (Hours / Days)

Tunis Gabès Kasserine

2h 07 mins 3 hrs 33 mins 4 hrs 38 mins 1 hrs 50 mins 7 hrs 17 mins 5 hrs Tunis

2 hrs 07 mins 1 hr 45 mins 4 hrs 45 mins 4 hrs 30 mins 4 hrs 57 mins 6 hrs 29 mins Sousse

Page 1 3 hrs 33 mins 1 hrs 45 mins 1 hrs 59 mins 5 hrs 44 mins 3h 07 mins 4h 39 mins Sfax

4 hrs 38 mins 4 hrs 45 mins 1 hr 59 mins 8 hrs 4 hrs 26 mins 5 hrs 38 mins Gabès

1 hr 50 mins 4 hrs 30 mins 5 hrs 44 mins 8 hrs 10 hrs 7 hrs 41 mins Bizerte

7 hrs 17 mins 4 hrs 57 mins 3 hrs 07 mins 4 hrs 26 mins 10 hrs 13 hrs 40 mins Gafsa

5 hrs 6 hrs 29 mins 4 hrs 39 mins 5 hrs 38 mins 7 hrs 41 mins 13 hrs 40 mins Kasserine

Railway Companies and Consortia

For information on Tunisia railway contact details, please see the following link: 4.5 Tunisia Railway Company Contact List.

Capacity Table

The Tunisian rail network has 23 lines with a total length of 2167 km, including :

471 km of standard gauge lines (1437 mm); 1688 km of meter gauge lines (1000 mm) 65 km of which are electrified.

8 km of lines mixed gauge (standard and metric).

In addition, the railway network comprises 267 stations, stations and stops. The maximum train speed is 130 km / h meter gauge and 140km / h in standard path. The maximum axle load varies between 16 tonnes and 20 tonnes.

Number of movements/days: Trains 244 travellers (56 trains Outline, 188 trains Suburbs) and 68 freight trains. Transport Equipment: 172 locomotives, railcars, trailers vans 274 passenger cars, 6 Electric railcars, wagons 3916, 1580 Containers.

Link of the distance: https://www.rome2rio.com/fr/map/Tunis/Nabeul

Rail Operator Capacity

SNCFT

Operates on (lines) 11 Lines

Max train length and/or pulling capacity 20

Locomotives (electric/diesel/steam) 172

Freight Wagons (covered) / size 1580

Freight Wagons (flat bed) / size 391

Key Route Information

Standard Route Information

La Ligne du Sud- La Ligne du Cap La Ligne de la Les Lignes du Grand Sud: Sfax - Metlaoui - and Ouest: Tunis - Gaafour Bon: Bir Bou Regba Côte: Tunis - Sfax - Gabès, and branches Metlaoui - and - Kasserine - Sousse - Sfax Moulares.

Track gauge 471 km of 435 mm of (4 ft 8 1674 km 1,000 mm of 489 km of 1,435 mm of 1686 of 1,000 mm of (3 ft 3 38 in) 1 (3 ft 3 38 in) 1 2 in) (4 ft 8 2 in)

Ruling gradient 1:50 (2%) 1:50 (2%) 1:50 (2%) 1:50 (2%)

Total track 8 km double track. 8 km double track. 8 km double track. 8 km double track. distance (single and/or double)

Type of rail (1435 mm) – 120mt/6 not (1435 mm) – 120mt 1435 mm) – 120mt 1435 mm) – 120mt/6 not welded (weight and if welded /6 not welded /6 not welded welded or not)

Page 2 Type of sleeper Vossloh Vossloh Vossloh Vossloh and fastenings

Total track travel 5h 1h31’ 3h33’ 4h38’ time

Maintenance Good Good Good Good (Good, marginal, bad)

Companies- SNCFT SNCFT SNCFT SNCFT consortiums operating on line

Traffic frequency daily daily daily daily (monthly/weekly /daily)

Security (Good, Good Good Good Good marginal, bad)

Main stations Ref to key stations Ref to key stations Ref to key stations Ref to key stations (Add details below)

Key Stations

N ° Line length

5 Tunis-Gabès 415 km

6 Tunis-Kasserine 314 km

7 Bir kassa- 9 km

8 Les Salines- Le Kef 33 km

9 Fej Ettameur- 18 km

10 Bir Bou Rekba-Nabeul 17 km

11 Kalaa Sghira-Kasserine 195 km

Page 3 12 Kalaâ Sghira-M'Saken 21 km

13 Ghraiba-Tozeur 234 km

14 Aguila-Sehib 25 km

15 Metlaoui-Kasserine 141 km

16 Tabeditt-Redayef 17 km

17 El Founi-El Hamada 19 km

18 M'Saken-Moknine 34 km

20 Tunis-La Goulette 10 km

21 Gafsa-El Aouinet 129 km

22 Sousse-Mahdia 65 km

Railway Cargo Movement

490 wagons covered with a capacity of 13 000 tonnes for transporting bagged products, food products, cement, chemicals and fertilizers . 1300 cars dishes with a capacity of 57 000 tonnes for the transport of rebar, angles, flat iron, scrap and containers.140 wagons bulk carriers with a capacity of 5300 tonnes for the transport of grain, clinker . 110 ore wagons with a capacity of 5,500 tonnes for the transport of minerals. 50 tank wagons for the transportation of fuels. 920 gondolas with a capacity of 18,000 tons of payload for transport of bulk fertilizer and sulfur 100 various cars with a capacity of 3500 tonnes in 1700 containers with a total capacity of 40 000 tonnes, 13 000 to 15 000 tonnes per day for the transport of all containerized goods. 40 trains of freight per day to serve the whole country: 24 trains on the Tunis-Sfax-Gabes Sousse-axis. 6 trains on the Tunis-Kasserine-Jerissa Gaafour-axis. 10 trains on lines Tunis-Beja-Tunis-Bizerte GHARDIMAOU and two trains to transport goods to and from Algeria.

Combined Road-Rail Transport

SNCFT Freight provides chargers 8 Logistics platforms and tilting flat trucks for combined railroad; service door to door or from deposits, factories, shipyards and ports. 8 logistics platforms provide handling operations as well as terminal services. The train stops at the port of Rades to transport goods to export and import & offers transportation service combined road-rail containers of 20 'and 40' to or from the port of Rades.

SNCFT main tasks are:

Rail passenger and freight operation on national railways network. Management and control of the property entrusted by the State in the form of concession

SNCFT safely ensures the transportation of:

Phosphate Goods (fertilizer and sulfur, building materials, food, petroleum coke, containers ...) Travelers of Suburbs and main lines.

It made an average flow of 283 trains / day.

Passengers and goods transportation of all kinds covers almost the whole national territory on a network of 2165 km with 23 lines:

1686 km metric gauge, of which 90 km electrified (65 km from Sousse Bab Jadid -Monastir-Mahdia and 25 km from Tunis - Hammam LIF - Borj Cédria) 471 km standard gauge 8 km double track.

The rail network includes 267 train stations, stations and stops. It also has 4 links Rail-road links to the objective of favoring multimodal passenger transport by combining rail and road transport.

These 4 combined road-rail links are the following :

Gabes- : 136 km. Gabes- Djerba : 125 km. Gabes- 177 km.

SNCFT‘s activities are performed by the following Five transport business units :

Main Lines Business Unit, which is responsible for Interurban Transport.

Page 4 Tunis Suburbs Business Unit which is responsible for suburbs passengers transport between Tunis and Borj-Cédria. Sahel Suburb Business Unit, which is responsible for suburbs passengers transport between Sousse-Bab Jdid -Monastir and Mahdia. Phosphate Business Unit which is responsible for transportation of phosphate Freight Business Unit, which is responsible of various goods such as Fertilizer, Sulphur, building materials, foodstuffs, petroleum coke, and containers.

These 4 business units are backed up by 4 business units:

Central Departement of Tunisian Railway network exploitation, responsible of network operations and real estate. Industrial Maintenance business Unit responsible for the maintenance of rolling stock. Central Department of the Railway Domain. Central Department of Management and Finance.

Fleet of trucks & trailers container:

A fleet of trucks and trailers Container Gantry container handling and Shopping areas of container

6 logistics platforms:

The port of Rades for entry and exit of containers at the port The Station Kalâa Sghira to serve the Sahel region The station to serve the Greater Sfax Sfax Train to serve Gabes and the South East Gare de Kasserine to serve the Central West region Gare de Gafsa to serve the South West

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