ADDIS ABABA STATION



Gallery N°18 : Addis Ababa station (C.F.E. period)

Gallery N°19 : Addis Ababa station (C.D.E. period)

Its construction having started at Djibouti harbour, the Railway Line reached Addis-Ababa on 20 May 1915 after precisely 784.768 Km. The actual operation of the line started on 7 June 1917.
Although Ras Taffari had verbally agreed to the emplacement fixed by Menelik, the exact site of the new station still had to be confirmed. In the meantime, passengers and freight arrived at a small temporary wooden structure.
On 1 February 1928, in front of the most important dignitaries of the Empire and in front of representatives of foreign powers, His Imperial Highness and Regent of the Empire, Ras Taffari, laid the foundation stone of the station building of Addis Ababa.
The construction of the building was entrusted to the "Société Technique et Industrielle d'entreprises de Paris" to the design of the architect Paul Barrias. The station was finally inaugurated on 3 December 1929.

At the Addis Ababa station were:

- The Management offices with its personnel and accounting departments.
- A terminal Branch and marshalling yards with private sidings.
- A shed accommodating the imperial trains
- Workshops for the locomotives and the rolling stock
- A warehouse
- A professional training Centre
- A bascule bridge of 80 T
- An infirmary for all the staff and their families
- A sports and art club for the use of all company staff and their families, known as the "Club des Cheminots" (The Railwaymen Club")

This monument was the pride of all Ethiopians for almost a century, to the point that the area around the Station was commonly known as the "Lagare" area. The station closed down in 2010. Trains now stop at Akaki, which will almost certainly become the new Railway Centre of the new line. The original Station will probably be kept as a historic monument, next to a small museum dedicated to the Railway...