Rail transport in Angola

The rebels blew up bridges, tore up tracks, and sabotaged the right of way with land mines to prevent the railway from being restored.

After the end of the civil war, the government could start to plan both the rehabilitation of the "network" inherited from the colonial power and largely destroyed by the civil war, and its extension by building new lines, interconnecting the existing lines and connecting with all neighbouring countries.

[14][15] Related to the program to rehabilitate the network inherited from colonial times and the project to build new lines, the institutional framework of railway operations was changed in a series of presidential decrees in 2010.

[16] As the public administrator to oversee, regulate, certify and licence railway companies, infrastructure and rolling stock, the Instituto Nacional dos Caminhos de Ferro de Angola (INCFA – National Institute for Railways in Angola) was created out of the Directorate of Terrestrial Transport within the transport ministry.

All railway infrastructure, lines, tracks, stations, and maintenance facilities were declared to be in the public domain and controlled by the state.

[18] As at 2012, the plan involves eight new lines:[14][19] This line would start at downtown Luanda and reach the Congo River mouth at Soyo and then Cabinda via a wide eastwards curve passing through Caxito, Ucua, Quibaxe, Dande, Uíge, Songo, Lucunga, Madimba, Zaire, M'banza-Kongo, Quiende, Lufico to Soyo.

[15] This would branch off the Benguela railway at Luacano and go south-east via Lago Dilolo, Sapito, Moxico, Samucal, Cazombo, Camanga, and Calunda to Macongo, where it would link to the line serving a mine at Lumwana in Zambia.

This link of probably 343 km would start from the Moçâmedes railway (CFM) at Cuvango and to south via Cassai, Xamutete, Cuvelai, Mupa, Evale, Ondjiva to Namacunde, where it would connect with the Namibian line Tsumeb to Oshikango.

The Luanda railway would be extended beyond Malanje by 527 km via Caculama, Xá Muteba, Capenda, Camulemba, Cacolo, to Saurimo in Lunda Sul province.

This would extend the existing line by about 180 km beyond the current end point Menongue via Longa to Cuito Cuanavale where it would connect with the Transversal do Leste.

This line would create a direct rail link from the capital Luanda to Angola's second city Huambo and to Namibia.