Ethio-Djibouti Railways
The Ethio-Djibouti Railway (French: Chemin de Fer Djibouto-Éthiopien, C.D.E.; Amharic: የኢትዮ-ጅቡቲ ባቡር መስመር) is a metre gauge railway in the Horn of Africa that once connected Addis Ababa to the port city of Djibouti. The operating company was also known as the Ethio-Djibouti Railways. The railway was built in 1894–1917 to connect the Ethiopian capital city to French Somaliland. During early operations, it provided landlocked Ethiopia with its only access to the sea. After World War II, the railway progressively fell into a state of disrepair due to competition from road transport.
| Ethio-Djibouti Railways | |
|---|---|
Map of the Ethio-Djibouti Railway line | |
| Overview | |
| Other name(s) | Franco-Ethiopian Railway (1908–1981) |
| Status | Partially operational |
| Termini | |
| Service | |
| System | Heavy rail |
| History | |
| Opened | First commercial service in 1901, completed in 1917 |
| Superseded by | Addis Ababa–Djibouti Railway |
| Technical | |
| Line length | 784 km (487 mi) |
| Track gauge | 1,000 mm (3 ft 3+3⁄8 in) metre gauge |
Ethio-Djibouti Railway | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The railway has been mostly superseded by the Addis Ababa–Djibouti Railway, an electrified standard gauge railway that was completed in 2017. The metre gauge railway has been abandoned in central Ethiopia and Djibouti. However, a rehabilitated section is still in operation near the Ethiopia-Djibouti border. As of February 2018, a combined passenger and freight service runs two times a week between the Ethiopian city of Dire Dawa and the Djibouti border, stopping at Dewele (passengers) and Guelile (freight). Plans were announced in 2018 to rehabilitate track from Dire Dawa to Mieso.