Rehabilitation
On 29 August 2011, Caminhos-de-Ferro de Benguela (CFB) resumed service linking Huambo with Benguela. CFB quit running the Benguela/Huambo route in October 1992 due to the armed conflict in Angola. After the ribbon-cutting ceremony at the Lobito station, the guests rode a train along the Lobito/Benguela section using 54-person cars made in South Africa and a locomotive produced by General Electric that has been in service since 1973.
On March 31, 2012, a test train ran the 202 km from Huambo to Kuito in Bié Province (actually to Cunje, some kilometers north of the actual city), with transport minister Augusto da Silva Tomás on board. Tomás said that two teams work on the reconstruction between the Bíe province and Luena, Moxico Province, one from Kuito eastward, and the other from Luena westward On 25 May, 2012, a technical test train reached Luena, says Tomás. The government promised that the line would be operational up to the border station Luau, Moxico until the end of the year 2012.
According to Jornal de Angola, CfB employs (May 2012) 1.321 workers, transported in 2011 129.430 passengers and 5.640 tons of goods. Two trains per day run between Lobito and Benguala, one per week to Huambo, and three per week between Lobito and Cubal.
Read more about this topic: Benguela Railway