Adunis to Mambiza Railway
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| Adunis-Mambiza Railway | |
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| Overview | |
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|locale= |status=Operational |linelength_km= |start=Adunis, Tsabara |end=Mambiza, Garambura |planopen= |gauge=1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) standard gauge |electrification=25 kV 50/60 Hz AC }} The Adunis to Mambiza Railway, also known as the Trans-Bahian Railway and historically known as either the 'Adunis to Sainte-Germaine Railway' or the 'Imperial Rail', is a semi-complete railway linking eastern and western Bahia by way of the Ténéré desert. The construction of the railway began in the late 19th century under the supervision of Grégoire Cuvillier, Governor of Atudée. The main line was completed by 1922, with a planned modification and second line halting due to the Great War.
Original Line
The Adunis to Sainte-Germaine Railway, as it was originally known, originates from the Trans-Coian Imperial Railway plan concieved of and championed by Grégoire Cuvillier, the Gaullican colonial governor of Atudée in the late 19th century. Cuvillier proposed a railway from Adunis in the then-Gaullican colony of Atudée in Rahelia to Sainte-Germaine in Baséland in Bahia, crossing the Ténéré Desert and modern Behera into the the Gaullican colony of Haute-Gond (modern Yemet), before following the rough course of the Gonda River to the coast at Sainte-Germaine in Baséland. Although initial survey work was conducted in Atudée and the neighbouring colony of Ténéré in the 1870s and early 1880s, the project was reduced to the Ténéré Railway as Cuvillier's influence did not extend to the Bahian colonies and the Gaullican metropole viewed the project as too expensive.
The outbreak of the Sougoulie across Bahia in the late 1880s and the War of the Desert in Behera in the late 1880s changed the situation. The lack of infrastructure in the inland areas of Haute-Gond made the country difficult to bring back fully under Gaullican control, while the Ténéré Railway played a key role in the ability of the Gaullican military to depose Qamar VI and expeditions from Gaullica's Bahian colonies in the conflict were limited due to the extreme difficulty of supplying large forces so far from infrastructure.
Cuvillier presented the plan for the Trans-Coian Imperial Railway again in March 1890, and with the experiences of Gaullica in wars in the 1880s fresh in the minds of many, was able to successfully argue for the commencement of construction of the Adunis to Mambiza Railway. Survey work would begin in December 1890. Survey and construction work would last over three decades until 1922. Although the Hamadan and Beheran portions of the railway were finished relatively quickly by 1900 under the guidance of Cuvillier and his experienced engineers who had worked previously on the Ténéré Railway, work on the Bahian stretches of the railway were far slower.
Nicaise Carrel, governors of Baséland from 1881 to 1906, saw the completion of Baséland's section of the railway by 1905, having needed to wait for survey work in the neighbouring colony of Haute-Gond to conclude before they were able to begin construction in 1899. By comparison, the Haute-Gond section of the line, which was the longest, took until 1922 to complete, taking over a decade longer than originally planned. The Haute-Gond section of the line was plagued by difficulties, from the Butchers of the Boual, a pair of man-eating lions that supposedly killed at least thirty black workers in four months from March to July 1911 to flesh-eating maggots, dysentry, smallpox and exaustion causing an average death rate of 150 workers per month. Around 40,000 workers are alledged to have died in the line's construction or have fled into the jungle to escape the harsh conditions over the 22 years it was under construction.