International Railroad Discussion > Ethiopia Railroad

Today's Los Angeles Times 8/6/2017 has a front page article about the new railroad in Ethiopia. Mostly covers how China built the new line and how the country will repay china and the better economy that will result. This is a series about Africa and may or may not talk further about more new rail lines in future articles.

A quick online search found China involved in railway building projects in thirteen African countries; Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Sudan, South Sudan, Angola, Nigeria, Chad, Congo, and Djibouti.

The TANZARA Railway in Tanzania and Zambia was also built by the Chinese and completed in 1975. It is traversed by Rovos Rail on their trips to Dar es Salam. One can tell from the back open observation car it was built to a very high standard. However now after years of use, it has gone to crap like most things in Africa. Signals don't work. Track in poor condition (but far better than Zambian Railways). Large stations built for traffic that never happened and in disrepair. Wrecked cars along the lineside. Freight traffic declined significantly in the 1990's due to the end of apartheid in South Africa and Namibia independence which opened new routes to Zambia. Today, there are a grand total of 2 passenger trains per week serving large stations like the one in Kasama...image below. Interesting that along the line there is still evidence of the Chinese culture including lots of brooms on the platforms and people on bicycles...something not common in southern Africa. Maybe the Chinese investment will fare better in Ethiopia.

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andersonb109 Wrote:
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> The TANZARA Railway in Tanzania and Zambia was
> also built by the Chinese and completed in 1975.
> It is traversed by Rovos Rail on their trips to
> Dar es Salam.
I believe it's TAZARA - the Tanzania Zambia Rail Authority - and it was constructed long before China became the global superpower it now is. It was built solely for political reasons, both Julius Nyerere of Tanzania and Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia allied themselves to China in solidarity against South Africa. Today's Chinese sponsored railways are being built for more hard headed reasons, both political and economic, China wants to exploit raw materials in the countries concerned.

China's gonna own Africa and all its riches. Meanwhile Great America turns inward, this ain't going to end well.

Chinese Railroad Diplomacy, we will design, then build, then buy our products (Trains, Steel, Supplies and operating systems) and we will even finance it for you. We will send our engineers to design it and manage the construction of the line. Then we leave and you are beholding to us for 50 or more years.

If the traffic doesn't support the line, that's your problem. However they will get the raw product they need. Chinese equipment seems to have a reputation of it looks good right out of the box, then after hitting the road starts to decline. New Zealand had a bad experience with Chinese replacement 42 inch gauge diesels that were special order to replace older models. I think they canceled the second order.

Dale Brown

DWBrown Wrote:
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> Chinese Railroad Diplomacy, we will design, then
> build, then buy our products (Trains, Steel,
> Supplies and operating systems) and we will even
> finance it for you. We will send our engineers to
> design it and manage the construction of the line.
> Then we leave and you are beholding to us for 50
> or more years.

Sounds a bit like the British Empire :-)

I believe that they tend to want to build standard gauge railroads, since they can use off the shelf equipment manufactured in China. Usually will kill the meter or narrow gauge systems in many of these countries.

DWBrown Wrote:
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> I think they canceled the second order.
>
> Dale Brown

Unfortunately no, 48 in use, another 15 on order

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand_DL_class_locomotive

One thing that is a bit different about the Ethiopian Railroad is that whatever China's intent, the railroad does have public utility. It connects cities for passenger service, it links areas that could have freight traffic. In a continent with so many mine to port railways, that is a bit notable.

PERichardson Wrote:
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> China's gonna own Africa and all its riches.
> Meanwhile Great America turns inward, this ain't
> going to end well.

I don't see it that way at all. The western powers failed in their attempts to "own" Africa, and the Chinese aren't going to do any better than that. Besides, the Chinese are not trying to actually take over, run the countries, convert the locals to a new religion. They just want rocks and trees to take home to China.