Travelers policy
Transporting people and goods safely throughout our rail network is one of the main missions conferred on us by the concession agreement signed with the State of Cameroon on January 19, 1999. MOBIRAIL is responsible for passenger transport.
The general conditions of sale (fares, timetables, etc.) are defined and adopted by the Passenger Transport Committee (PTC), which includes CAMRAIL and representatives of the State.
On January 19, 1999, as part of its policy of privatizing public and semi-public companies, the French State signed a concession agreement with CAMRAIL, granting it the right to operate Cameroon's railways. The agreements reached between the Licensor and the financial backers led to the Memorandum of Understanding signed on March 08, 2002. The parties agreed to identify all the revenues and expenses inherent in the performance of the passenger service, to individualize the accounts of the passenger transport activity within the concession company, in order to determine the real level of the deficit generated by this activity and to envisage its coverage through a balancing subsidy.
In view of this result, the State has undertaken to cover the operating deficit in the form of a subsidy, following negotiations with CAMRAIL and in agreement with all the donors. On December 03, 2003, a Passenger Transport Agreement was signed between the State and CAMRAIL. This agreement defines a passenger transport plan, sets up a balancing subsidy and creates a Passenger Transport Committee to monitor the service's activities. Two Amendments N°1 and N°2 to the Concession Agreement of January 19, 1999 were signed between the parties on September 16, 2005 and November 04, 2008, respectively, with the aim of ensuring the continuity and modernization of the railway business and redefining the terms and conditions of financing required for the implementation of the investment programs between the Grantor and the Concessionaire.
In order to move towards this objective, in March 2007 the Passenger Transport Committee entrusted an international consultant with the task of carrying out a study on the rationalization of passenger rail transport in Cameroon, which should, among other things, propose the implementation of a new passenger transport plan that reconciles the interests of the population and the various rail users, the interests of the Grantor and the Concessionaire, propose a more appropriate passenger service management scheme, propose hypotheses for new cost allocation keys based on simulated variations in the deficit, and so on.
In order to further modernize the passenger service, make it more attractive and ensure joint responsibility for the results of this activity, the Parties have decided to adopt more incentive-based contracting principles, particularly with regard to the reorganization of MOBIRAIL's status (a management unit with separate accounts, responsible for managing the passenger transport activity within CAMRAIL), in terms of service quality and the level of the balancing subsidy. As part of its commitment to ensuring the long-term viability of this service, which is acknowledged to be structurally loss-making, the Grantor is demanding, among other things, a clear improvement in the quality of service, punctuality and regularity of passenger trains.
