Snail's pace will give way to faster rail

A 480-km line being built by a Chinese company is tipped to greatly improve Kenya's economic efficiency

If you were to stand on the Kenyan national road linking the city of Mombasa with Uganda, about 900 kilometers to the northwest, you would probably be struck by at least two things: the headlights on full beam and the endless lines of traffic moving along at a snail's pace.

Solomon Mumo, a truck driver, makes the Mombasa-Uganda trip regularly, and knows how pressing the need is to ease congestion on the road and the short tempers that go with it. His wish for something better moved closer to fruition on May 11 when a deal was signed for the financing of a new standard-gauge railway linking the two places.

China's Premier Li Keqiang and Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta officiated at the signing in Nairobi on the last stop of Li's four-nation visit to Africa.

Mombasa, the only seaport for Kenya's landlocked neighbors Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi, receives hundreds of metric tons of goods every day. The colonial-era railway line that links Mombasa and Nairobi is little better than the highway in its lack of efficiency. It takes a train 12 hours to cover about 500 kilometers, an average speed of about 40 km/h, hardly ideal for a line that carries most of the country's freight.

"The national road is also too narrow for many vehicles," Solomon says. "You won't get through if there's an accident."

After the signing, Kenyatta said his country's population, trade and integration have grown so rapidly that the old railway's inability to cope has become painfully obvious.

The new line will be built by China Road and Bridge Corp and is due to be completed by 2018. It will be the first stage of an East African railway network stretching 2,700 km to connect the capital cities of most of the region's countries.

The project will cost up to $3.8 billion and is forecast to reduce the cost of transport by 60 percent. Kenya expects huge efficiency dividends in having more goods pass through Mombasa and in hastening East African integration.

"The railway will eventually unify all of Africa, from the oceans to the mountains in the interior," Kenyatta said.

China has plans for a leading role in building a pan-Africa rail network that will link the continent's capitals and at the same time increase China's export of heavy equipment, including railway stock.

China has "relatively advanced technologies in railway construction and adequate foreign exchange reserves", putting it in a prime position to help African countries build their railways, Li said.

Earlier, he signed a $13 billion coastal railway project deal in Nigeria. That line will connect 10 coastal states of the country, says the contractor, China Civil Engineering Construction Corp.

Trains will travel at 120 km/h on the 1,300 km line. The project will result in sales of Chinese construction equipment, locomotives, steel and electromechanical products worth $3 billion, the company says.

Over the past 20 years, Chinese enterprises have built and upgraded 4,500 km of railway in Nigeria, Central China Television reported. China is also working with Nigeria on a light-rail project. 

In Ethiopia, a railway stretching 740 km to link the capital, Addis Ababa, with Djibouti's capital is being built to Chinese standards and will be completed by the end of next year and cost $4 billion, Xinhua News Agency reported.

Zhao Jian, a professor of transport economics at Beijing Jiaotong University, says railway construction benefits both China and the African countries involved.

"A comprehensive railway network could prove especially beneficial for a country like Ethiopia, which has a large land area and produces huge quantities of quality agricultural products.

"Railways are to an economy what blood vessels are to a human body. They are a prerequisite for a country's or region's economic development because a train can carry about 2,000 tons of goods or thousands of passengers in a single trip."

In addition, railways create jobs for locals and stimulate consumption, Zhao says.

Building railways in Africa is not without its problems, he says. Money is the main one, and China should concentrate on building railways where there is ample need for freight transport, such as in areas of concentrated plantations or mining sites, to ensure that they run on profits instead of subsidies.

Contact the writer at zhaoyinan@chinadaily.com.cn