of zimbabwe the emblem of the nrz three rail sections turned of 120 between each other between the national colours of zimbabwe on an electric locomotive type parastatal industry rail transport predecessor rhodesia railways rr founded 1980 headquarters bulawayo zimbabwe key people mike karakadzai general manager products rail transport cargo transport services owner republic of zimbabwe 100 % number of employees 7 543 2008 1 website www.nrz.co.zw the national railways of zimbabwe nrz is the parastatal railway of zimbabwe formerly rhodesia . the zimbabwean railway system was largely constructed during the time of british colonial rule and was called rhodesia railways rr until 1980 . segments of its systems were intended to be part of the cape to cairo railway . contents 1 rhodesia railways 2 operations 2.1 steam 2.2 crisis 3 major accidents 4 major lines and stations 5 museum 6 well known employees past and present 7 see also 8 references 8.1 notes 8.2 further reading 9 external links rhodesia railways edit rhodesia railways emblem in the colonial era rhodesia railways was the state railway operator in both southern rhodesia now zimbabwe and northern rhodesia now zambia . although zambia gained independence in 1964 it was not until 1967 that rhodesia railways surrendered the 1 300 km 810 miles of route and 80 90 locomotives to zambia railways . 2 rhodesia railways was a heavy user of the garratt locomotive . in june 1976 100 of its 109 locomotives were garratts . for operational purposes rhodesia railways was divided into two areas those lines north east of gwelo now gweru fell into the eastern area with all other lines in the southern area . 3 rhodesia railways steam locomotive allocation 1 june 1975 2 bulawayo gwelo total 12th class 4 8 2 5 1 6 14a class 2 6 2 2 6 2 7 6 13 15th class 4 6 4 4 6 4 52 0 52 16a class 2 8 2 2 8 2 8 9 17 19th class 4 8 2 3 0 3 20th class 4 8 2 2 8 4 18 0 18 total 93 16 109 operations edit opening of the railroad to umtali in 1899 nrz operates about 3 400 km 2 100 miles of railway lines all of 3 ft 6 in 1 067 mm providing passenger and freight services . the gauge is standard for all of southern africa . nrz has an important transit function in the southern part of africa and is well linked with neighboring countries toward the north at victoria falls the system links to the zambia railways crossing the victoria falls bridge . toward the indian ocean the system links to the beira railroad corporation in mozambique . a second line toward mozambique reaches maputo . to the west a connecting line link ups to botswana railways to reach south africa eventually reaching durban and cape town . a direct line to south africa from bulawayo was opened in 1999 by the beitbridge bulawayo railway . the 313 km 194 mile gweru harare section is electrified at 25 kv ac . steam edit steam locomotives are still used in zimbabwe ; they have proven so popular with tourists that there are plans to refurbish several more steam locomotives . 4 however funding is constrained and diesel hauled freight transport is a higher priority . 5 crisis edit the nrz has also suffered of the general decline of the country s economy . neglect of maintenance lacking spare parts and overdue replacement of equipment have led to a situation were only part of the railroad net is in good condition and equipment problems have led to reduced service . steam locomotives have been reintroduced since 2004 as coal is in relatively good supply while diesel must be imported and electricity shortages are common . further the company is seriously indebted making it impossible to solve this situation without external help . 6 goods transport has declined from 18 million tonnes in 1998 to 2 million tonnes in 2010 . 7 major accidents edit on 27 august 2006 more than 60 people were killed in a head on collision between a passenger train and a freight train 30 km south of victoria falls . 8 on 3 june 2006 five fatalities occurred in the ngungumbane rail crash . on 1 february 2003 forty people died in the dete train crash . 9 major lines and stations edit line stations notes victoria falls bulawayo victoria falls thomson junction hwange dete bulawayo link from victoria falls to zambia railways zambia bulawayo harare bulawayo somabhula mbizi chiredzi sango chicualacuala gweru masvingo kwekwe kadoma chegutu harare link from chicualacuala to maputo mozambique bulawayo francistown marula plumtree border to botswana francistown botswana part of the line is in botswana connects further to mafeking south africa in 1911 rhodesia railways was granted a special agreement to preserve its rights of access under the tati concessions land act which formally annexed a former territory of matabeleland an area including francistown to the bechuanaland protectorate modern botswana . harare shamva kildonan zawi harare shamva maryland zimbabwe kildonan zawi harare mutare marondera macheke rusape nyazura mutare link from mutare to beira railroad corporation mozambique beitbridge bulawayo railway privately owned connects to beitbridge south africa . the privately owned beitbridge bulawayo railway bbr provides a direct rail link to south africa . this railway was opened in 1999 and will become part of the nrz after 30 years . museum edit steam locomotives of different classes at the museum area 1990 the zimbabwe national railways museum is in bulawayo ; it has a selection of locomotives railway carriages and other interesting things . one of the exhibits is a rhodesia railways class de2 diesel locomotive . well known employees past and present edit former vice president joshua nkomo worked there as a social worker in 1948 . roy welensky the last prime minister of the federation of rhodesia and nyasaland worked as an engineer for rhodesia railways before entering politics . see also edit transport in zimbabwe references edit notes edit railway union reports by international transport workers federation the restructuring and privatisation of the national railways of zimbabwe nrz . issue 6 july 2008 a b turk 1976 p. 76 turk 1976 pp. 76 77 refurbishing for more zim steam locos . railways africa . retrieved 9 november 2010 . bulawayo steam . railways africa . 12 december 2010 . retrieved 12 december 2010 . africa news.com zimbabwean trains held in china over debt . 6 december 2010 . nrz freight stats plummet . railways africa . retrieved 19 february 2011 . victoria falls train crash claims five lives . zimobservernews . 28 august 2006 . retrieved 18 september 2006 . bbc news 40 die in zimbabwe train crash . 2 february 2003 further reading edit durrant a e 1997 . the smoke that thunders . harare african pub . group . isbn 1779011342 . hamer edward d 1983 . steam locomotives of rhodesia railways the story of steam 1892 1979 . malm stenvalls . isbn 9172660775 . hamer edward d 2001 . locomotives of zimbabwe and botswana . malm stenvalls . isbn 9172661526 . robinson neil 2009 . world rail atlas and historical summary . volume 7 north east and central africa . barnsley uk world rail atlas ltd. isbn 978 954 92184 3 5 . turk andrew february 1976 . garratts galore . railway world . shepperton surrey ian allan 76 78 . external links edit wikimedia commons has media related to rail transport in zimbabwe . official website how to travel info about the railway museum winchester clarence ed . 1936 progress in rhodesia railway wonders of the world pp. 867 874 illustrated account of the development of the railways of rhodesia steam railway photographs zimbabwe v t e rail transport in africa sovereign states algeria angola benin botswana burkina faso burundi cameroon cape verde central african republic chad comoros democratic republic of the congo republic of the congo djibouti egypt equatorial guinea eritrea ethiopia gabon the gambia ghana guinea guinea bissau ivory coast c te d ivoire kenya lesotho liberia libya madagascar malawi mali mauritania mauritius morocco mozambique namibia niger nigeria rwanda s o tom and pr ncipe senegal seychelles sierra leone somalia south africa south sudan sudan swaziland tanzania togo tunisia uganda zambia zimbabwe states with limited recognition sahrawi arab democratic republic somaliland dependencies and other territories canary islands ceuta melilla plazas de soberan a spain madeira portugal mayotte r union france saint helena ascension island tristan da cunha united kingdom western sahara railways portal trains portal zimbabwe portal retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title national railways of zimbabwe & oldid 735030780 categories railway companies of zimbabwe3 ft 6 in gauge railways in zimbabwehidden categories use dmy dates from april 2011pages using infobox company with unsupported parametersarticles that mention track gauge 1067 mmcommons category with local link same as on wikidata navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version in other projects wikimedia commons languages deutschespa olmagyar edit links this page was last modified on 18 august 2016 at 06 19 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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