A BEITBRIDGE Bulawayo Railway (BBR) Company goods train derailed just before the coal mining town of Hwange on the Bulawayo-Victoria Falls rail line around midnight on Tuesday.
Staff reporter
National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) spokesperson Fanuel Masikati confirmed that the privately-owned train had derailed, but no one was injured.
“It was not an NRZ train, but a BBR Company goods train that derailed close to Hwange just before midnight yesterday (Tuesday). There were no injuries,” he said.
Zimbabwe’s rail tracks have become a death trap forcing NRZ to suspend passenger trains following a number of accidents this year.
The 470km rail track between Bulawayo and Victoria Falls has recorded the highest number and NRZ has attributed the derailments to rampant vandalism. The summer season is the worst period for NRZ as tracks will be expanding due to heat.
NRZ canned the Bulawayo-Harare passenger train service after coaches were badly damaged by a derailment at Heany Junction on August 24.
That derailment left 22 people hospitalised. NRZ said its artisans were working on repairing the damaged coaches to ensure that they could be used safely for carrying passengers.
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The Bulawayo-Beitbridge train service is currently not running due to some problems between Esigodini and Mbalabala.
This has left NRZ only operating the Bulawayo-Victoria Falls and Harare-Mutare passenger trains.
NRZ board chairperson Alvord Mabena is on record condemning the country’s railway tracks as totally unreliable and warning that it was now risky to travel by train as some of the rail company’s infrastructure was obsolete.
