Malawi Railways

Malawi Railways was a government corporation that ran the national rail network of Malawi until its privatization on 1 December 1999, Africa's first rail privatization not to involve a parastatal operator, after which the Central East African Railways consortium, headed by the Railroad Development Corporation, assumed operation. At independence in 1964 Malawi inherited three narrow-gauge lines from the former British protectorate of Nyasaland connecting Lake Malawi to ports in Mozambique; the network today spans 797 kilometers of 1,067-millimeter gauge track running from the Zambian border at Mchinji west through Lilongwe to Blantyre and Makhanga in the south, linking to the Mozambican port of Nacala. Sugar, tobacco, pigeon peas and tea move primarily through Nacala, while fertilizer, fuel, containerized goods and food arrive as imports, and a government-subsidized passenger service still runs twice weekly between Blantyre and Nayuchi at the Mozambique border.