Soon after Antananarivo was taken by the colonial forces in 1886, the french authorities began dreaming of a transport artery between Fianarantsoa and the coast. The first plan called for a toll road, but it was soon decided to invest in a more ambitious railroad link between the coffee producing highlands and a port to be built at the mouth of the Faraony River.

Construction of the FCE was nothing less than a full fledged battle against nature and geography : huge tracts of forest had to be cleared and mountains pierced with picks and axes.

For weeks, months, and years on end teams of hundreds of men hauled machinery and materials by hand to remote sites. The line snaked across the edges of precipitous cliffs that had to be reinforced with rock walls and through unyielding granite mountains. Thousands died from disease and construction accidents.

Begun in 1926, the first (lower) half of the line opened on July 24, 1934 when the stretch between Manakara and Manampatrana was completed. Later in the same year, the longest tunnel in Madagascar (just over a kilometer) was finished and on April 1, 1936 the first train arrived in Fianarantsoa.
(building of Viaduc's Madiorano)

For more than 45 years, the FCE offered reliable rail service to populations up and down the line who had no other means of transport in a region largely devoid of roads. The train assured the social and economic needs of these remote populations who depended on its arrival to get their products to market, to supply basic needs to the village shops, and to transport people to schools, medical services and family gatherings.

In the 1980s and 90s, however, the FCE became the victim of national and donor policies that failed to invest in even such vital infrastructures. With virtually no capital investment or maintenance, both freight and passenger service deteriorated significantly. As the century ended, the train just barely limped to its destination on a schedule that was at best erratic.

In early 2000, the Fianarantsoa region was hit by two cyclones in less than a month. Already weakened by a lack of investment and the failure to maintain drainage systems, the FCE succumbed to 280 landslides (150,000 m3 of dirt) and 8 major washouts that brought traffic to a halt. Most observers thought that the FCE had received its final death blow.

Fortunately, there were some people who were unwilling to accept this fate for the once proud FCE. Instead, they saw the crisis as an opportunity not only to reopen the line to its previous fragile condition, but to invest in its complete rehabilitation. A Master Plan was drawn up to make improvements to the track bed, to repair vital infrastructures, and to rehabilitate the aging rolling stock.

Thanks to major contributions from international donors (including the Americans, the World Bank, the private Swiss railways) and the determination of local communities to save their train service, the FCE is now getting a new lease on life. The multi-year (2000-2005) rehabilitation effort will include the transfer of railway operations to a private company in 2003.