Riding the train from Khartoum to Sudan’s north-eastern city of Atbara brings back a flood of bittersweet memories for Abdelhalim Tayeb of what Sudan’s railway once represented.

“When it came to trains, Sudan used to be a role model for other countries,” said the 59-year-old businessman. “Now all we have is this train from Khartoum to Atbara.”

Sudan’s railway network, built in the late 19th century under what was effectively British colonial rule, used to be the backbone of the country’s economy and symbol for national unity and pride. But US sanctions – first imposed in 1997 in reaction to President Omar al-Bashir’s propensity to harbour extremists, and then tightened in 2006 for human rights violations in Darfur – have contributed to the demise of Africa’s second largest railway.

The impact has sent ripples through Sudan’s economy, driving up the cost of the movement of goods and passengers and eroding the competitiveness of Sudan’s export commodities.

“The sanctions are directly affecting the people – they don’t affect the government,” said Mohammed Taha, the general manager of Sudan Railway Corporation (SRC), one of 170 government entities banned by the US Treasury.

Sudanese officials hope they can convince the Obama administration to ease sanctions on much-needed spare parts during its final weeks in office.

Despite President Obama’s recent decision to renew the trade embargo for another year, the State Department described the extension as a technical formality that didn’t preclude sanctions relief should the government of Sudan make steps to resolve internal conflicts. Negotiations to legalise the importation of spare parts for trains and planes have been ongoing for months.

Taha claims that a partial lifting of the sanctions would allow the SRC to accelerate plans to revive strategic sections of its 5,000km long but out-dated network, which once ran from the Red Sea all the way to Wau in what is South Sudan today.

As part of the plan, the Khartoum–Atbara passenger service was the first to re-open in 2014 after China, one of few countries that still deals with Sudan in spite of the sanctions, supplied new trains and railway sleepers to upgrade the track.

The “Nile train” has proven popular among Sudanese for cultural reasons, but even more so financially. The relatively affordable train offers some relief to an increasingly impoverished population reeling from Sudan’s crippling economy and rising fuel prices. A one-way ticket along the 330km route costs £3.50, a third less than the public bus.

Abdelhalim Tayeb (right) riding the train from Khartoum to Atbara. Photograph: Simona Foltyn

“The train is cheaper, more comfortable and safer than the bus,” said businessman Tayeb.

“I wish they could connect all of Sudan’s cities,” said Zakia Ali, another passenger on the train. “They should also build a train within Khartoum, where we suffer most from rising transport costs.”

While Sudan’s pivot to China has offered some respite from the US’s stifling sanction regime, it has its limitations. Sudanese railway officials lament that many Chinese firms have yielded to US pressure and stopped dealing with the SRC, forcing it to procure equipment through shady agents at higher cost and questionable quality.

“Chinese production doesn’t last very long,” said conductor Mudassir Rabi’ Hassan, his seat bouncing up and down as the train crept over the rickety track. “The Chinese renovated this track only a few years back. But it’s very bad.”

Although the Nile train is only a couple of years old, the poor condition of the track doesn’t allow it to exceed a speed of 60 kmph.

Rabi’ Hassan hopes that the partial lifting of US sanctions on spare parts could restore Sudan’s railways to the popularity it enjoyed in its glory days of the 1970s, when state-of-the-art US- and German-made trains transported 2 million passengers and 3.5m tonnes of commodities destined for export via Port Sudan.

“The American locomotives were very powerful. They lasted a long time and were well suited for Sudan’s environment,” Rabi’ Hassan said.

Today, after almost two decades of sanctions, only 18 of the SRC’s 106 US-made locomotives remain in service. The SRC’s sprawling workshop in Atbara resembles a graveyard, dotted with numerous train carcasses, which have been cannibalised down to the last screw to keep the remaining locomotives on life support.

Nowhere has the socioeconomic impact of the railway’s demise been as far reaching as in Atbara, where everyone’s existence was somehow tied to what was once Sudan’s largest employer.

“The railway is finished,” said Kaltoom Ilias, a tea lady who was serving up deliciously spiced Sudanese coffee to a handful of railway workers gathered beside one of the dilapidated SRC buildings. “I raised five children on this tea stall. Now I can barely feed myself.”

Kaltoom Ilias’ tea stall near the workshops of the Sudan Railway Corporation in Atbara. Photograph: Simona Foltyn

While the impact of the sanctions on the railway is clear in its physical deterioration, the misguided domestic policies that led to its institutional demise are something SRC officials tend to omit.

But speak to almost anyone in Atbara, once the bastion of Sudan’s trade unions, and a different story emerges. The railway had passed its heyday long before the onset of the sanctions regime.

Hassan Ahmed El Sheikh, a former secretary of the railway union, believes the main reason for the railway’s decline was the late President Jafaar Nimeiri’s restructuring programme. Launched in 1975, the programme aimed to weaken the power of the syndicates, which organised frequent strikes that paralysed the railway-dependent economy.

“Nimeiri started transferring the troublemakers to small towns,” said El Sheikh, who worked as the railway’s accountant for 30 years. “And the highly qualified workforce ended up leaving their jobs for other industries.”

When Omar al-Bashir took power in 1989, mass dismissals of railway employees continued as part of the regime’s attempts to consolidate power over the civil service in what Sudanese refer to as “tamkeen”.

“They started to recruit politicians who lacked the relevant experience,” El Sheikh recalled. He was one of thousands of technocrats forced into early retirement in 1991. More than 20,000 employees were fired between 1975 and 1991.

Although dissidents like El Sheikh blame the government for destroying the Sudan’s railway, they agree with the state on one thing.

“The sanctions aren’t justified. And they haven’t affected those in power.”