News / National
Derailed goods train still at crash site
14 Nov 2018 at 11:12hrs | Views
The Beitbridge Bulawayo Railway Company (BBR) is still working on modalities to remove its crashed goods train and repair the damaged track at the rail-road crossing in the border town.
It is Day 4 since the accident. The locomotives are still at the crash site as a rescue plan is being finalised.
The News crew is reliably informed that an SOS has been sent to experts from Harare and South Africa.
According to confidential information, the experts will bring in heavy equipment which includes cranes that have the required capacity for the task.
It is then expected that after the removal of the wreckage, engineers will start working on restoring the damaged rail track which was completely ripped off due to the magnitude of the crash.
This is expected to take a few more days although no fixed timeline has been put in terms of the deadline.
Personnel are, however, at the worksite in different capacities and part of the goods train which fell beyond the crash site has also been toured away.
In the process, a small portion of the rail towards the Bulawayo direction has also been repaired.
The BBR train crashed last Sunday evening after it hit a track at the road-rail intersection.
BBR is a build-operate-transfer project that has shortened the distance between Bulawayo and South Africa to 317 kilometres.
Prior to its inauguration, rail service between South Africa and Bulawayo used a route through Botswana that is about 200 kilometres longer.
The shorter line has been used primarily for freight transportation and forms an important trade link between South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The task at hand now is to remove the locomotives which are said to weigh over 112 tonnes each.
The carriers are also estimated to weigh 70 tonnes including the cargo.
It is Day 4 since the accident. The locomotives are still at the crash site as a rescue plan is being finalised.
The News crew is reliably informed that an SOS has been sent to experts from Harare and South Africa.
According to confidential information, the experts will bring in heavy equipment which includes cranes that have the required capacity for the task.
It is then expected that after the removal of the wreckage, engineers will start working on restoring the damaged rail track which was completely ripped off due to the magnitude of the crash.
This is expected to take a few more days although no fixed timeline has been put in terms of the deadline.
Personnel are, however, at the worksite in different capacities and part of the goods train which fell beyond the crash site has also been toured away.
In the process, a small portion of the rail towards the Bulawayo direction has also been repaired.
The BBR train crashed last Sunday evening after it hit a track at the road-rail intersection.
BBR is a build-operate-transfer project that has shortened the distance between Bulawayo and South Africa to 317 kilometres.
Prior to its inauguration, rail service between South Africa and Bulawayo used a route through Botswana that is about 200 kilometres longer.
The shorter line has been used primarily for freight transportation and forms an important trade link between South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The task at hand now is to remove the locomotives which are said to weigh over 112 tonnes each.
The carriers are also estimated to weigh 70 tonnes including the cargo.
Source - zbc
