Madagascar has four railway tracks, but the most known is undoubtedly, the FCE.
The railway Fianarantsoa-East Coast (FCE) is a colonial building railway in the southeast of Madagascar which connects the city of the high plateau of Fianarantsoa in the port city of Manakara. With lengh of 163 kilometers, it was built by the French between 1926 and 1936 through the forced labor program SMOTIG. The French have used rails and sleepers taken from Germany as reparations for the First World War to build the line. Many of the railways still carry the date of manufacture dating back to 1893.
With periodic cyclones that sweep the island every year, the layout is undermined more 200 landslide points in 2000. The train could not move and has threatened more 28000 People lives depending on this train. A study after the closing of this track, it turns out that the population would have to categorically change of lifestyle that destroy the soil as they should cut all living shrubs and leaves room for ricefields.
The FCE was back in service, but its aging infrastructure makes it vulnerable to outages caused by broken rails, the ancient rolling stock and landslides caused by the annual hurricanes. An improvement of the situation would very expensive because it would replace the entire infrastructure. The track gauge admits of no possibility of recovery reformed materials coming from’ abroad. The spacing is not on norm.
The railway crosses the track Manakara Airport, one of only three places in the world where a railway crosses a sloping track.
Touristically, this is one of the 'must' of this region of Fianarantsoa and the south-east coast. On the few 170 kilometers of track, we cross more than 17 stations and a multitude of small stops during the harvesting campaign products, bananas, letchis, cinnamon-apple and other exotic fruits that could come out that in this way oh so vital to this mainly rural population.
The frequency is three departures every week, in one direction or the other. To say that the departures are scheduled would be an understatement, if the train starts at 07.00 the morning to reach the other end after 170 kilometers, it will take more than 10 hours doing all the way. When all goes well. If not, you will sleep in his seat and wait for it to reboot. The entire infrastructure is old nearly a century and nature does not help the situation with the slope failures that occur even in dry weather.
Apart from this, this line is very popular with travelers because it can cross the entire eastern side of the island while taking the time to see and enjoy the scenery, meeting with local people on board and at stops. Usually, the first class is assigned for foreign travelers but at the end of the journey, many finished in the second class, where there is more to see and experience for one who can contact local, which are also very welcoming.
The only downside FCE would be its randomness, you never know if the train is leaving, it will happen in the station but somewhere it's his little longer, not for the development of tourism but to keep her quiet and picturesque soul as the Malagasy way : "Mora Mora".
