The National Railways of Zimbabwe is a company whose business is the transportation of freight and passengers. It achieves this through its Customer Services Units, Passenger Services Units, Goods and Reservations Offices that can be found in its key access points throughout Zimbabwe.

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Brief History

The development of the Railways in Zimbabwe was directed by several considerations among which were a line to serve the mining and agricultural enterprises which were fast being established along the Zimbabwean watershed and elsewhere, and to link the land locked country with sea-ports in Mozambique and South Africa.

Line construction began from Fontesvilla (55 km from Beira) to Mutare in September, 1892 and from Vryburg in Cape Province to Bulawayo in May 1893. The latter was completed in October 1897 and the former four months later in February 1898. The link-up between Harare and Bulawayo took place in October 1902 after initial construction was brought to a halt by the outbreak of the Anglo-Boer war in October 1899, when materials had to be supplied via the Beira line.

The next stage was the line Northward which began in 1903 and eventually reached the Zaire border in December 1909.

Up to 1927 the whole system was operated by the Mashonaland Railways Company under the title Beira and Mashonaland and Rhodesian Railways, but as from October 1, 1927 the Rhodesia Railways Company became the working company. From October 1, 1936 the Rhodesia Railways Ltd., became the owners of the whole Railway System in Zimbabwe, Zambia, the Vryburg and the Bulawayo section. The Vryburg-Ramatlhabama portion was purchased by the South African Railways in December in 1959.

On April 1, 1947 the then Rhodesian government acquired the assets of the Rhodesia Railways Ltd. and on November 1 1949 the Railway undertaking became a statutory body known as Rhodesia Railways. On July 1, 1967 the system was divided at the Victoria Falls bridge - Zambia Railways in the north and Rhodesia Railways in the south.

Rhodesia Railways was re-designated Zimbabwe Rhodesia Railways on June 1, 1979. This was subsequently changed to National Railways of Zimbabwe on May 1, 1980 after the attainment of independence.

The existing system, comprising some 2 745 km of 1067 mm gauge track, stands astride the cross roads of Central Africa and is the prime mover of import/export and transit traffic. With this established rail network Zimbabwe is in a very strong position to develop its future export markets to the coast and to the south and north, with lines serving the ports of Beira and Maputo, through lines linking up with Botswana Railways, the South African Railways network and ports, and a line capable of serving Zambia, Zaire, Angola and Tanzania. The line in Botswana was taken over by that government in 1987.

The infrastructure of the Railways, is in a sound condition and well able to accept the projected increases in traffic forecast-ample spare capacity exists in all sections. Flat marshalling yards exist at Bulawayo and Harare, with modern Mechanical Hump yard at the hub of the system at Dabuka near Gweru, which also possesses a container control centre and a container terminal at Lonchinvar (opened in May 1985). The line from Dabuka to Harare is the first portion of our Railway system to use electric locomotives, having been inaugurated in 1983. It is hoped to gradually introduce electric trains in 4 more stages covering each portion of our main line if and when funds become available.

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Our business is to satisfy the transport needs of our customers by providing an efficient service, which is          cost effective, convenient and reliable. We consider our contribution pivotal to the development of the economy and our success is measured by our ability to meet these ideals profitably.

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Vision

Our vision is to be the safest, most focused and competitive transport organisation.

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The Agriculture Business Sector is one of four Business Sectors that the  has established within the Marketing Branch. Where would Zimbabwe be without agriculture? Indeed where would NRZ be without this vital business sector? The Zimbabwean economy has been referred to so often as agro-based, one needs not emphasize the role agriculture plays in the economy of our country.

Our agricultural sector is fully developed. It is therefore no more coincidence that Zimbabwe has the responsibility for food security within the Southern African Development Community (SADC). Among major agricultural inputs transported by NRZ are fertilizer, agricultural lime and coal for the farmers. This nation is also the third largest exporter of Virginia Tobacco in the world, and is the largest cotton producer within SADC. It is within the context of our nation's agricultural achievements that NRZ has, of necessity, stepped in to play its full role in the transportation of agricultural inputs and outputs. Our client base is very wide, and to remain competitive the Business Unit has put into place price and service strategies which should see total success in satisfying customer requirements and expectations.

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The Energy and Mining Business Sector is one of four Business Sectors that the NRZ has established within the Marketing Branch. Commodities falling within this Business Sector include among others coal and coke products, petrol, diesel, avtur, iron and steel, asbestos, limestone, chrome ore, granite and nickel.

All the fuels and mineral products falling within this sector account for approximately 31% of the total freight revenue and 40% of  tonnages moved.

Fuel from Beitbridge


Coal from Wankie Colliery

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The Industrial Business Unit encompasses all manufactured goods and other general goods which cannot be classified into either Agriculture or the Energy and Mining Business Units. Discernible categories in the Industrial Business Unit are metals and metal products such as steel, billets, wire and non metallic products such as timber, cement and fertilizers, and foods as well as stock feeds. The largest component of the Industrial Business Unit is "other general goods" so defined because the many individual commodities in this category move in neither significant quantities nor pattern.  In order to contain the competitive forces, that is road haulers, the Business Unit has embarked on :

• Working out suitable service plans together with the client and in conjunction with Operations Management Center (OMC). The service plans are especially targeted at large volume movers who also have invested in rail facilities.

• Joint Marketing with contiguous Railway Administrations. This means a joint effort in conferring competitive advantage to rail by improving its attributes such as reliability, transit times and rates.

• For other movements, a personal selling approach complemented with short-term contractual agreements tied up to guaranteed tonnage has been adopted.

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Bookings for Sleeper and Standard Classes are open 30 days before the desired date of travel for local trains and 60 days for international services. Payment for reserved seats must be made at the time of booking or at least 24 hours before departure of the train, failing which the reservation will be cancelled.

Passengers who are unable to take up reserved bedding and seat must notify Railways at least 24 hours in advance  failing which they will forfeit a percentage of the fare paid.

Inter-city overnight Parcel services are available on the routes served by Passenger Trains. Individual packages must not exceed 125kgs.

Major Reservation Centres

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