Compagnia Carbones Del Cesar S.A., Colombia

Railway Capacity Analysis

Compagnia Carbones del Cesar S.A. (Carbones), operates a coal mine, but must ship all of its production by truck to ports located 250 km away from the mine. A narrow gauge railway runs parallel to the mine, but it's operating to full capacity; its access is controlled by the region's major producer which ships approximately 25 million tons per year. Carbones called upon CANARAIL to evaluate various solutions to increase the line's capacity: increase of axle load, reconstruction of track to run on standard gauge, addition of a spur line, and double-tracking. The infrastructure costs were evaluated for each option; requirements associated to rolling stock based on annual tonnage and cycle times were also estimated. CANARAIL also represented Carbones during discussions with the current railway user about the specifications of rolling stock to be bought.