Kenya launches new railway
 

Kenya has formally launched a new, Chinese-financed railway which should extend across East Africa to reach South Sudan, DR Congo and Burundi.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-25134276

The first section will link the Kenyan port of Mombasa to the capital, Nairobi, reducing the journey time from 15 hours to about four.
It is said to be the country's biggest infrastructure project since independence 50 years ago.
The cost of the railway will be $5.2bn (£3.2bn) - mostly funded by China.

Sounds a fantastic project which will hopefully help to unite the countries in the region. I do hope so.

Best wishes,

John H-T.

I hope it is more successful than the Chinese built Tanzanian railway that had the same aims but started in Dar es Salaam about 40-45 years ago. I believe it is now derelict.

Which line is that?

It is a railway built by the Chinese from Dar es Salaam (the capital of Tanzania) going directly West towards the border. It didn't get beyond the border (about 400 miles) and ended in the middle of nowhere, serving no population centres on the way. It slowly deteriorated because the locals had no money for upkeep or the technical knowledge. Anything not nailed down was stolen. I saw it in 1975 when it was still new and shiny. There was a two part programme about it on TV a couple of years ago.

The Chinese built a line between Kapiri Mposhi in Zambia to Dar es Salaam in Tanzanian. This was because the only way for Zambia to get its exports of copper out was through Rhodesia. Zambia did not want to deal with, or pay Ian Smiths railways. So they let the Chinese build the line through to Dar es Salaam. Zambia had been using road transport to import and export its goods, but the roads were so bad and the number of accidents and breakdowns were very high. Also there were long distances between towns and very few garages, and even less spare parts for the trucks. The reward for the Chinese was Zambian copper and other minerals. The line worked well until the locos started to break down and derailments caused long delays. As the line was single line working, and no place to pass an accident or breakdown between crossing loops. By then the Chinese were having problems with the Zambian Government with their unsafe mine working practices. The Zambians then renationalized the mines. After that the Chinese stopped helping the railway which is now in a very poor state.