New Rail Lines in Africa

[Adlington]

Kenya’s first high-speed railway line is being built through a national park in the capital Nairobi. Predictably, environmentalists and railway folks are at loggerheads.
BBC report

 

[dutchflyer]

just read that the Addis-Abeba Skytrain/cityrail is nearly broken down after just 3 yrs-one reason apparently that they do not know how to properly issue/sell and check for tickets/fares so losses are far too high. Or maybe they just thought it was a full present of those Chinese?

 

[LeeLivery]

Kenya’s first high-speed railway line is being built through a national park in the capital Nairobi. Predictably, environmentalists and railway folks are at loggerheads.
BBC report

The great thing about nature is that it can adapt quickly to some infrastructure change. One elevated railway line will hardly make a difference, in fact the animals will probably use it to get shade as they do under bridges and viaducts here.

 

[LeeLivery]

just read that the Addis-Abeba Skytrain/cityrail is nearly broken down after just 3 yrs-one reason apparently that they do not know how to properly issue/sell and check for tickets/fares so losses are far too high. Or maybe they just thought it was a full present of those Chinese?

According to a feature piece by the Spiegel, the system is struggling with repairs because the usage is incredibly high - overloaded trams, thus increased wear on wheels, track and the tram interior themselves. This is made worse by the fact that the wheels can't be fixed at a local depot, but must be sent all the way to China, taking weeks to sort one tram. It may have been better for it to be built as a metro, though of course would've cost a fortune. The Chinese also doubled up on a lot of jobs for 3 years to "share knowledge" with Ethiopians, costing an extra $300m in total (money poorly spent). The tickets are cheap, but they have to be to avoid pricing people off/being accused of infra for the rich/reduce fare evasion risks.

http://www.spiegel.de/international...-has-changed-ethiopian-capital-a-1206837.html

 

[Baxenden Bank]

According to a feature piece by the Spiegel, the system is struggling with repairs because the usage is incredibly high - overloaded trams, thus increased wear on wheels, track and the tram interior themselves. This is made worse by the fact that the wheels can't be fixed at a local depot, but must be sent all the way to China, taking weeks to sort one tram. It may have been better for it to be built as a metro, though of course would've cost a fortune. The Chinese also doubled up on a lot of jobs for 3 years to "share knowledge" with Ethiopians, costing an extra $300m in total (money poorly spent). The tickets are cheap, but they have to be to avoid pricing people off/being accused of infra for the rich/reduce fare evasion risks.

http://www.spiegel.de/international...-has-changed-ethiopian-capital-a-1206837.html

Perhaps they should have some spare wheelsets in stock!

Looks like a poorly planned and implemented scheme, due to a total lack of experience on the part of one of the contracting partners.

Whether it runs or not, it still has to be paid for. The same goes for the standard gauge railway (SGR) - built with no sidings or freight terminals, these to be added later.

The second SGR line is apparently well underway (part Turkish contractor, part Chinese), but the cap has been passed around to find money for electrification of the route. This second line links with the first at Awash. Awash to Woldiya 289km (Turkish), Woldiya to Mekele 210km (Chinese).

Well one assumes a link to the first line has been built into the contract, who actually knows, it might be a rather expensive 'contract variation'!

 

[Baxenden Bank]

Kenya’s first high-speed railway line is being built through a national park in the capital Nairobi. Predictably, environmentalists and railway folks are at loggerheads.
BBC report

Technically not a high-speed line, just a normal standard gauge line built to Chinese Class One standards - as per the section already built Mombasa to Nairobi. High speed compared to the previous narrow gauge route though!

Technically not through the national park - rather over it on a long viaduct! Take a look at the fifth column in from the right on the photo - the chasm is a fault line, part of the Great Rift. Photo lifted from a Skyscrapercity thread.

The Mombasa line has been extended into the general freight area of Mombasa harbour from it's present terminus at the container terminal, allowing greater use by general traffic.

 

[LeeLivery]

Perhaps they should have some spare wheelsets in stock!

Indeed, but fragmentation = someone, "somewhere" making a tidy sum.

 

[Groningen]

Many railwaylines and airports are built with Chinese power/labor. Not for free of course the invested money has to be returned. For example Sri Lanka: Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport has a 3.500 meters runway, 2 gates and 12 checkincounters. The only thing it does not have is passengers. South of it is the town of Hambantota. For a debt relief of 1 billion euro the harbour becomes property of the Chinese for the next 99 years since 2015. 90 % of the "income" of Sri Lanka goes to payment of debt every year.

 

[Baxenden Bank]

KENYA
Phase 2A of the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) in Kenya formally opened last week.

The line extends from the existing Nairobi SGR station (south of the city centre) to Suswa with three intermediate stops. Distance given as 120km.

Perhaps the most impressive element is the long viaduct over the national park immediately west of Nairobi SGR station.

In simple terms there are 3 trains per day (Mon-Fri) Nairobi - Rongai - Ngong and 4 trains in the opposite direction.
On Fridays one of the journeys extends to / from Maai Mahui and Suswa. On Sundays there is a single return working Nairobi - Suswa. No service on Saturday!

The line is shown on Open Street Map if you zoom in. Google Satellite shows most of the route but at various states of completion - cleared scrub through to finished line. Both sources show the line extending to nowhere in particular beyond Suswa.

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DJIBOUTI / ETHIOPIA
On the new line serving Ethiopia / Djibouti, freight terminals are completed / under construction at Djibouti Port and at a number of locations inland. Visible on Google satellite imagery.

On the second new line, the Turkish built element (by Yapi Merkezi) from Awash (junction with line 1) to Woldiya is substantially complete but suffering from a lack of electricity for traction supply.

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TANZANIA
The Standard Gauge Railway in Tanzania proceeds well with the Turkish Contractor (Yapi Merkezi) posting monthly videos on Youtube of Phase One and less frequently on Phase Two.

Phase One runs from Dar es Salaam to Morogoro (183km) and Phase Two continues from Morogoro to Makutupora (424km from Dar es Salaam). All paralleling the current narrow gauge line (metre gauge).

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NIGERIA
The long under-construction standard gauge line from Aladji (Warri Port/Steelworks) inland to Ajaokuta (steelworks) and Itakpe (iron-ore mine) has finally been completed and opened to traffic. Work commenced in 1987! Visible throughout on Google.

Claims are made on the construction of new standard gauge lines and refurbishment of the existing metre gauge network. News reports are however, unreliable.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Not exactly new, but this is an item about an African railway which actually works: the 861km Sishen-Saldanha ore line in South Africa.
It has carried what is allegedly the longest revenue train in the world at 375 wagons (4km in length), carrying 23 000 tones of manganese ore for export.
All on the 1067mm gauge single track electrified line (it uses mixed electric/diesel traction).
There's an interesting video linked within the article.
https://www.railwaygazette.com/freight/transnet-launches-record-375-wagon-train/54906.article

The railway is of the one-enormous-train-a-day type, and runs through some exceptionally remote country in the Northern/Western Cape.
I passed alongside the southern end of the track some 4 years ago, but there was no sign of any train workings.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sishen–Saldanha_railway_line

Initial train lengths consisted of three class 9E electric locomotives, hauling 210 type CR ore wagons with a payload of 80 tons.
Upgraded wagons now carry 100 tons. Train lengths were increased in 2007 to 342 wagons, employing Radio Distributed Power (RDP) technology.
These trains (initially with 10 locomotives, a mix of electric and diesel-electric) and 342 wagons have a total mass of 41,400 tonnes and are 3,780 metres (12,400 ft) long, the longest production trains in the world.
The same 342-wagon trains are now powered by just five 15Es, crewed by one driver and one assistant.