LIBYAN Railways has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with China Civil Engineering Construction (CCECC) that could lay the groundwork for construction to resume on the North African country’s stalled project to build a national railway network.

Libyan Railways signed three contracts with the Chinese company to support the development of three lines totalling more than 1400km in 2008. However, work came to a halt following the outbreak of civil war and the fall of the Gaddafi regime in 2011.

The lines are:

  • a 170km line running east-west along the Mediterranean coast from the capital Tripoli to the Tunisian border
  • a second 450km coastal section from Tripoli to Sirte, and
  • an 800km north-south line running from Misrata on the Mediterranean into the Sahara Desert towards the borders with Chad and Niger.

The east-west coastal line would be standard-gauge double-track, electrified and suitable for 250km/h operation. The north-south line would support 120km/h operation and be built with a view to future electrification.

Under the MoU, signed during a recent visit by Libyan Railways officials to Beijing, CCECC will resume work on the masterplan for the network, as well as establishing working groups to tackle legal, financial and technical issues, and in reviewing the final project design to enable work to resume.

CCECC is not providing any financial assistance to Libyan Railways to support the work.

Libyan Railways is studying potential cross-border lines to landlocked countries in the sub-Saharan region of Africa, with a view to establishing Libya as a transit corridor for freight traffic moving the European Union (EU) across the Mediterranean Sea.

It also held talks with Russian Railways (RZD) in 2024 over the possible resumption of construction of the 551km Sirte - Benghazi line. RZD was awarded a contract in 2008 to deliver the project, which was estimated to cost a total of $US 4bn at the time. Despite the award of several systems contracts, including for signalling and communications to Ansaldo STS (now Hitachi STS), work also came to a halt after the outbreak of civil war.

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