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Ethio-Djibouti Railway

The overhaul happens here now.

EDR has built complete in-house Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul capability for the Addis Ababa–Djibouti corridor. Locomotives, bogies, wagons and coaches are stripped, rebuilt, tested and returned to service by our own engineers, in our own depots.

Partner with our MRO divisionSee our capabilities

In-country overhaul. Zero foreign shipping. Fleet availability we control ourselves.

locomotives in service
35
up from 9
tonnes of annual carrying capacity
4M
up from 1.3M
of Ethiopia’s national exports
50%
up from 9%
of national imports
25%
up from 11%

EDR’s own figures, covering the two years since the company’s current leadership took office.

Built by our own hands

For most of the history of heavy rail in this region, an overhaul meant a departure. Rolling stock was loaded, shipped overseas, and waited its turn in a foreign workshop. The cost was paid in hard currency. The wait was counted in months. And the knowledge stayed where the work was done.

That era has ended.

EDR engineers and technicians now overhaul traction equipment and diesel prime movers, rebuild bogies and wheelsets, and fully restore freight wagons and passenger coaches, at our own depots, on our own corridor. Nothing leaves the country. Nothing waits for a berth on a vessel.

Every piece of maintenance and rolling stock work is now done entirely by our own hands. Not supervised locally. Not partially transferred. Done here, by our own engineers and technicians, to our own standard.

A large group of EDR workshop staff in high-visibility vests and overalls listening to a colleague inside a maintenance hall, rows of wheelsets stacked behind them
The shop floor the capability actually sits in. Wheelsets waiting their turn are stacked along the back wall.
“Our own engineers now maintain, repair and overhaul our rolling stock, and they have already returned dozens of locomotives to service. Lines that stood idle for years are running again.”
H.E. Takele Uma Banti, Chief Executive Officer

  • Sovereign capability

    The competence to overhaul a traction system or rebuild a bogie now lives inside EDR, held by engineers we employ and train. Capability retained is capability that compounds — every overhaul completed makes the next one faster.

  • Time returned to service

    Removing international shipping, customs and foreign workshop queues from the overhaul cycle takes months out of the turnaround. Rolling stock spends that time earning on the corridor instead of waiting in a port.

  • Strategic autonomy

    Fleet availability is no longer hostage to a foreign schedule, a shipping lane, or a foreign currency allocation. EDR plans its own maintenance calendar and meets it with its own resources.

Core MRO capabilities

Four disciplines, delivered end to end: heavy overhaul, running gear, vehicle restoration, and the preventive work that keeps vehicles out of the workshop in the first place.

Complete heavy overhaul of both fleets: the 25 kV electric locomotives that haul the corridor, and the diesel shunting locomotives that work the terminals.

Electric traction — main-line fleet

  • Traction motor strip-down, rewinding, rebalancing and test
  • Traction converter and inverter overhaul, power module replacement
  • Main transformer inspection, oil analysis and reconditioning
  • Pantograph and high-voltage roof equipment rebuild
  • Auxiliary converters, battery and charging systems
  • Cab electronics, train control interface and on-board signalling equipment
  • Insulation resistance and high-potential testing, load-bank commissioning

Diesel shunting fleet

  • Full prime mover strip-down and rebuild
  • Cylinder head and block reconditioning, liner and piston replacement
  • Fuel injection system overhaul and calibration
  • Turbocharger and cooling group service
  • Transmission and final drive rebuild

Outcome. A locomotive returned to full duty cycle with documented test results, a complete overhaul record, and a reset maintenance clock.

Depots built for heavy work

EDR’s maintenance infrastructure was designed for a 756 km electrified corridor carrying both passenger and freight traffic, with facilities positioned along the line so that vehicles reach a workshop without leaving the network.

A technician in orange overalls and gloves working an angle grinder against a railway wheelset, sparks arcing off the wheel
Wheelset work in the component shop. Running gear is the most precision-dependent thing the depots handle.

Facility capability

  1. 01Heavy lifting roads with synchronised jacks for full body lift
  2. 02Overhead travelling cranes rated for bogie and traction equipment handling
  3. 03Bogie drop table and dedicated strip-down bays
  4. 04Underfloor wheel lathe for re-profiling without wheelset removal
  5. 05Wheel press and axle assembly facility
  6. 06Component workshops: traction motor rewind, brake, HVAC, electrical, pneumatic
  7. 07Non-destructive testing bay with certified NDT personnel
  8. 08Blast, prime and paint booths with extraction and environmental controls
  9. 09Calibrated tooling and torque management under scheduled recalibration
  10. 10Commissioning and test road for post-overhaul running and load testing
  11. 11Controlled parts store with traceable component history

  • Traceability

    Every safety-critical component carries a recorded history: what was fitted, when, by whom, and against which test result.

  • Certified welding

    Structural welding on bogie frames, underframes and bodyshells carried out to railway welding standard by qualified welders under qualified supervision.

  • Qualified inspection

    Non-destructive testing performed and signed off by personnel certified to recognised international standard.

  • Maintenance governance

    Maintenance managed under a documented system covering planning, execution, competence and continuous improvement.

The capability is built. Now we put it to work.

EDR’s MRO division was created to keep our own corridor running. It is now capable of more than that — and we are open to conversations with operators who need heavy maintenance capacity in the region, and with manufacturers and technology partners looking for a long-term engineering base in the Horn of Africa.

Built by our own hands. Backed by our own standards. Open for partnership.