the neighboring colonies - received low wages. Generally, indigenous workers received a daily wage of 50 Pfennig for the railway construction, with an additional 25 Pfennig as subsistence allowance. In the neighboring Gold Coast colony, daily wages of the equivalent of two Mark were common. Many workers were only active in the railway construction until they had earned their annual tax sum of six Mark. Therefore, the colonial leadership increasingly resorted to the means of forced labor to ensure sufficient workers for the railway construction. (compulsory workers) received the same wages as voluntary workers, but were forcefully conscripted for half a year. Illnesses and deaths were particularly high among the compulsory labor force. Reasons were the unusual climate, food and workload for compulsory workers from other parts of the country. Operation Traffic The coast railway was opened on 18 July 1905. On the same say, the roadstead in Aného was closed for merchant shipping. Railway operation was initially taken over by from Berlin. On 1 April 1908, operation was leased to the from Berlin for twelve years. In the palm groves of the coast and the fertile hinterland of Anecho, copra, corn and palm kernels were the main freight goods. Despite the railway line being built primarily for goods transport, there was soon a surge of African passengers, which already traveled on work trains. However, a timetable for public passenger transport was only introduced from 15 May 1906. A pair of trains ran every working day and covered the route in one hour and 50 minutes. Until 1914, about 38,000 to 40,000 people per year travelled on the coastal railway between Lomé and its eastern catchment area. The average distance travelled by one person was 33.2 kilometers. The boarding at the rural stops was considerable. Operational buildings and fleet Noteworthy operational buildings existed almost only at Lomé station, from which the two other railway lines built later also started, the Lomé–Kpalimé railway and the Lomé–Blitta railway. Warehouses and locomotive sheds located in Lomé are still used today. There were also a turntable, water towers and workshops. The station building in Lomé had two storeys. The stations on the line, like at Porto Seguro (today Agbodrafo), were mostly simple, single-storey waiting rooms. Initially, two type Bn2T tank locomotives were used, which were delivered from Henschel in 1904 (). The freight cars and third class cars were mostly delivered from . First