Algeria and Tunisia want to connect their rail networks, but this project depends on the correspondence of the basic infrastructure used in the two countries.
This is what the Minister of Public Works and Minister of Transport by interim, Farouk Chile, announced Thursday in Algiers during a plenary session at the National People’s Assembly (APN) devoted to oral questions.
The realization of the project to connect the national rail network to the Tunisian network “remains linked to the correspondence of the basic infrastructures used by the rail transport companies of the two countries, and this is what Algeria and Tunisia seek to achieve” , explained the minister.
The reopening of the rail line between Algiers and Tunis was scheduled for May 2, 2017. A few days after this announcement, the National Railway Transport Company (SNTF) indicated that the reopening of this line had been postponed “to a later date” for technical reasons.
“The SNTF informs its friendly customers that due to technical convenience, the reopening of the Algiers-Tunis railway line is postponed to a later date,” SNTF said in a statement.
In 2018, the former director of the SNTF, Yacine Bendjaballah, also announced the postponement of the reopening of this railway line. He then spoke of the dilapidation of the Tunisian rail network.
“The railways in Tunisia must be completely rehabilitated so that the project can see the light of day” he declared. Their condition must adapt to the technical requirements and specificities of the new Algerian trains.
The approximate cost of the Algiers-Tunis trip with a connection to Annaba was estimated at some 5,000 DA, for a journey covered in six (6) hours, according to him.
This project to connect the Algerian and Tunisian rail networks, if it succeeds, will facilitate the movement of tourists and goods in both directions.
