Tunisia
2.4 Tunisia Railway Assessment
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TRailway Overview

The Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer Tunisiens (English: Tunisian Railways), 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 1⁄2 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 Algeria via the border at Ghardimaou, 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 Moknine and Mahdia, 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 Tunis and Kasserine (Line 6) as well as its modernization (signalling of stations and lines between Djebel Djeloud and Gaafour, telecommunications between Djebel Djeloud-Dahmani-Kef and track works).

Travel Time Matrix

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


Tunis

Sousse

Sfax

Gabès

Bizerte

Gafsa

Kasserine

Tunis


2h 07 mins

3 hrs 33 mins

4 hrs 38 mins

1 hrs 50 mins

7 hrs 17 mins

5 hrs

Sousse

2 hrs 07 mins


1 hr 45 mins

4 hrs 45 mins

4 hrs 30 mins

4 hrs 57 mins

6 hrs 29 mins

Sfax

3 hrs 33 mins

1 hrs 45 mins


1 hrs 59 mins

5 hrs 44 mins

3h 07 mins

4h 39 mins

Gabès

4 hrs 38 mins

4 hrs 45 mins

1 hr 59 mins


8 hrs

4 hrs 26 mins

5 hrs 38 mins

Bizerte

1 hr 50 mins

4 hrs 30 mins

5 hrs 44 mins

8 hrs


10 hrs

7 hrs 41 mins

Gafsa

7 hrs 17 mins

4 hrs 57 mins

3 hrs 07 mins

4 hrs 26 mins

10 hrs


13 hrs 40 mins

Kasserine

5 hrs

6 hrs 29 mins

4 hrs 39 mins

5 hrs 38 mins

7 hrs 41 mins

13 hrs 40 mins


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-Ouest: Tunis - Gaafour - Kasserine

La Ligne du Cap Bon: Bir Bou Regba - Nabeul

La Ligne de la Côte: Tunis - Sousse - Sfax

Les Lignes du Grand Sud: Sfax - Metlaoui - Tozeur and Sfax - Gabès, and branches Metlaoui - Redeyef and Moulares.

Track gauge

471 km of 435 mm of (4 ft 8 12 in)

1674 km 1,000 mm of (3 ft 3 3⁄8 in)

489 km of 1,435 mm of (4 ft 8 12 in)

1686 of 1,000 mm of (3 ft 3 3⁄8 in)

Ruling gradient

1:50 (2%)

1:50 (2%)

1:50 (2%)

1:50 (2%)

Total track distance (single and/or double)

8 km double track.

8 km double track.

8 km double track.

8 km double track.

Type of rail (weight and if welded or not)

(1435 mm) – 120mt/6  not welded


(1435 mm) – 120mt/6  not welded


1435 mm) – 120mt/6  not welded

1435 mm) – 120mt/6  not welded

Type of sleeper and fastenings

Vossloh

Vossloh

Vossloh

Vossloh

Total track travel time

5h

1h31’

3h33’

4h38’

Maintenance (Good, marginal, bad)

Good

Good

Good

Good

Companies-consortiums operating on line

SNCFT

SNCFT

SNCFT

SNCFT

Traffic frequency (monthly/weekly/daily)

daily

daily

daily

daily

Security (Good, marginal, bad)

Good

Good

Good

Good

Main stations (Add details below)

Ref to key stations

Ref to key stations

Ref to key stations

Ref to key stations

Key Stations

N ° 

Line

length

5

Tunis-Gabès

415 km

6

Tunis-Kasserine

314 km

7

Bir kassa-La Goulette

9 km

8

Les Salines- Le Kef

33 km

9

Fej Ettameur-Tajerouine

18 km

10

Bir Bou Rekba-Nabeul

17 km

11

Kalaa Sghira-Kasserine

195 km

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- Tataouine : 136 km.
  • Gabes- Djerba : 125 km.
  • Gabes- Zarzis 177 km.

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

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