Camrail: 300 billion FCFA invested over 27 years

The injection of resources aimed to address the chronic underinvestment that was crippling the mobility of goods and people at the end of the last century. The funding enabled the modernization of operating structures and the renewal of part of the rail network. The technical upgrade is now part of the orientations of the second five-year program negotiated with the State, whose underlying ambition is the integral reconstruction of the network, with the exception of the western line.

The breakdown of financial resources indicates that a predominant share, estimated at 288 billion FCFA, was specifically allocated to heavy maintenance of infrastructure and traction equipment over 27 years of private management. From an operational perspective, the locomotive fleet has been expanded, growing from an initial contingent of 9 units to 43 engines in active service, recently complemented by the purchase of four GL30-type tractors. The renewal of the rail network required the installation of 54-kilogram rails to replace the old 36-kilogram profiles, in parallel with the incorporation of bi-block concrete sleepers on over a third of the national network and the rehabilitation of 1,800 hydraulic structures.

The commercial yield of the AGL subsidiary is reflected in a consolidated freight traffic of 1.5 million tons of goods per year, relying on a logistics fleet of 1,250 wagons that will be enriched with 100 platform transport units. The passenger segment, for its part, recorded 359,000 users during the year 2025 via the Train Express service. In terms of tax revenue, the cumulative payments to the public treasury in the form of fees and taxes amount to 240 billion FCFA, generating an average annual budgetary contribution of 10 billion. The injection of 200 billion FCFA into the local subcontracting fabric completes the economic impact, as future rail extensions to the Kribi industrial pole take shape.

Bernardo