(Business in Cameroon) - The Douala-Yaoundé express train will officialy resume on July 1, 2021, according to a communique signed on June 23, by Minister of Transports Jean Ernest Ngallé Bibéhé Massena.  

In the communique, the official informed that the maiden voyage will start from the Bessengué central station in Douala. Also, “two daily trains departing from Douala (6:00 a.m.) and Yaoundé (2:30 p.m.) will serve the stations of Edéa, Messondo, Eséka, Makak and Ngoumou in both directions,” the communique reads.

At the end of a special meeting with the Interministerial Committee on Railways Infrastructure (COMIFER) and the Passenger Service Committee (CTV), Jean Ernest Ngalle Bibehe had announced the President of the Republic’s approval for this resumption. However, he did not specify any resumption date.

Weeks earlier, the official carried out a working visit, on April 29, 2021, to CAMRAIL’s headquarters in Douala. During the visit, he checked the 11 passenger cars that had been rehabilitated (to the tune of XAF1.1 billion, according to CAMRAIL) and even took part in a test drive.

The express was interrupted after the October 21, 2016, Eseka railway accident that officially claimed 79 lives and injured 600. The resumption of that intercity train, which is a mass transport means, will substantially boost the transport offer between the two most important cities of Cameroon.

BRM