Operation
The Benguela railway has a length of 1,344 kilometres (835 mi) in Angola and provides access to the inner part of the country, but achieved its greatest success through linking to the Copperbelts of Katanga province, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Zambia. The railway is Cape gauge, 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in), as used on most railways in the region. Investors in the copper mines invested in the railway to export copper via Lobito, made possible by the link in southern Katanga from Tenke junction on DR Congo's Katanga Line to Dilolo and Luau at the border.
Through passenger trains also ran between Lubumbashi and Lobito, connecting with passenger ship services to Europe. This provided a shorter route for Europeans working in the Katangan and Zambian Copperbelt, and the name "Benguela Railway" was sometimes used loosely for the Lubumbashi–Lobito route not just for the Luau–Lobito section to which it strictly applies.
Through the Katanga link and Zambia's connections to Beira and Dar es Salaam on the Indian Ocean, the Benguela railway is part of a transcontinental railway. It also connects indirectly to the rail system of South Africa. In its heyday the Benguela railway was the shortest way to transport mineral riches from the Congo to Europe.
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