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Railways ‘at centre’ of Algeria’s evolution, says UK ambassador

By Alicia Buller
Algiers railways Parts of Algeria cannot be developed without new railways, its ambassador to the UK says railway Reuters/Louafi Larbi
Parts of Algeria cannot be developed without new railways, its ambassador to the UK says
  • 5,000km of railway lines begun
  • Another 2,800km starting this year
  • Rail essential for agriculture

Algeria is putting its railways at the centre of national infrastructure plans in part because roads are expensive and difficult to maintain, according to the country’s ambassador to the UK.

A significant expansion of the country’s railway network is scheduled to start this year, with the construction of 2,773km of railway lines – the equivalent of a route from Qatar to Istanbul  – according to Anserif, the country’s state-owned railway investment agency.

Projects covering almost 5,000km are already under construction, including lines between Tlemcen in the west of Algeria and Sidi Bel Abbès, Guelma and Tiaret, Frenda and Tiaret, in the centre of the country, and Ain El Beida and Oum El Bouaghi in the east.

Anesrif is also seeking companies to build a 575km section of line to a remote iron ore mine at Gâra Djebilet. The Algiers metro is also being developed.

Parts of Algeria, the largest country by area in Africa, cannot be developed without new railways – particularly in the south – for agriculture and access to oil fields, Nourredine Yazid, the ambassador, said at a roundtable discussion in London last week organised by the Arab British Chamber of Commerce.

Yazid said: “We are using Chinese and American rail companies. They have experience of the desert environment. For terrain like Algeria, building roads and maintaining them is very costly, so we are focused on rail.”

The International Monetary Fund said Algeria’s economy grew by 4.2 percent to $245 billion in 2023, as a result of a rebound in hydrocarbons, which make up 93 percent of its exports, according to the World Bank. 

The IMF expects growth to remain strong at 4 percent in 2024, supported in part by large fiscal spending.

In July the World Bank announced that Algeria was one of only four countries in the world that changed classifications from lower-middle income to upper-middle income.


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