Southern Africa — Concept Stage

Southern Africa — a network to the MMC standard.

19 corridors linking 45 cities, about 10,200 km measured city to city in straight lines (about 12,300 km built, at a route factor of 1.2), with 12 cross-border links and crossings. The African Spine from Lusaka through Harare and Johannesburg to Cape Town, the Trans-Kalahari line from Walvis Bay, links to Maputo and Beira, and a future Mozambique Channel crossing to Madagascar, the target as technology allows (about 690 km of open sea, up to 3,292 m deep, against 50 km for the Channel Tunnel).

The Network Concept

The corridors.

Each corridor is listed below in order of its cities.

Schematic map of an MMC network concept for Southern Africa: corridors, cross-border links, sea crossings, mountain tunnels and the spines. — MMC Southern Africa network concept, schematic. Dark lines are corridors; grey lines are neighbouring corridors; gold lines are cross-border links; blue dashed lines are sea crossings; gold dashed lines are mountain tunnels; the wide gold band marks the spines. Routes are indicative.

Routes are indicative. Corridors are drawn city to city, through the cities on the existing railway wherever a line exists: MMC corridors follow those lines, upgrading the line or running above it on viaduct. Where no line exists, the corridor is new build. Final alignments are set at detailed design by terrain survey, geotechnical analysis, environmental and cultural heritage assessment, and agreement between the nations they connect.

ZM-1 Copperbelt: Kitwe – Ndola – Kapiri Mposhi – Lusaka – Livingstone
ZM-2 TAZARA: Kapiri Mposhi – Mpika – Nakonde
ZM-3 Chirundu: Lusaka – Chirundu
ZW-1 Great North: Harare – Masvingo – Beitbridge
ZA-1 Great North: Musina – Polokwane – Pretoria – Johannesburg
ZA-2 Cape: Johannesburg – Kimberley – Beaufort West – Cape Town
ZA-3 Natal: Johannesburg – Harrismith – Durban
ZA-4 Garden Route: Cape Town – George – Gqeberha
ZA-5 Maputo: Pretoria – Mbombela – Komatipoort
NA-1 Trans-Kalahari: Walvis Bay – Windhoek – Gobabis
NA-2 Southern: Windhoek – Keetmanshoop
BW-1 Trans-Kalahari: Mamuno – Ghanzi – Gaborone
BW-2 Northern: Gaborone – Francistown
ZA-6 Northern Cape: Upington – Kimberley
ZW-2 Western: Victoria Falls – Bulawayo – Gweru – Harare
MZ-1 Beira: Beira – Chimoio
MZ-2 Zambezi Coast: Beira – Quelimane – Angoche
MG-1 Highlands: Mahajanga – Antananarivo – Antsirabe – Fianarantsoa
MG-2 East Coast: Antananarivo – Toamasina

Southern Africa — a network to the MMC standard.

The corridors.

To initiate the programme in Southern Africa.