One massive landlocked country hopes to build a colossal train line through its neighbour to the sea. Addis Ababa is the capital and largest city of Ethiopia.
Ethiopia is home to more than 101 million people and is the world’s largest landlocked country by population.
The sprawling city of Addis Ababa borders the Great Rift Valley and hopes to finally be the home of a fully completed railway line. Work on the Addis Ababa and Massawa railway is already underway.
Once completed, this momentous line will connect the world’s biggest landlocked country to the sea, further boosting Ethiopia’s passenger and trade routes.
The line will significantly cut transportation time for freight goods from more than three days to less than 20 hours.
The standard gauge railway line will connect landlocked Ethiopia with Red Sea ports in neighbouring Djibouti. It will further reduce costs by at least one-third, boosting Ethiopia’s access to maritime trade ports.
Two Chinese companies funded the railway line, but the Ethio-Djibouti Standard Gauge Railway Share Company has now taken over full operation of it.
The previously China-funded infrastructure project had been plagued with problems including frequent breakdowns, inadequate maintenance funding and operational constraints.
The project saw barely one-third of its 41 trains being operational, a fraction of initial projections.
Landlocked Ethiopia is one of the fastest growing African economies with 90% of its imports and exports being transported by road with countless journeys back and forth from Djibouti across the Red Sea.
The 460-mile railway link will help improve the current journey which includes a trek across pot-holed roads for an excruciating 10 hours.
The integrated high-speed train network will also help connect African capital and commercial centres, improving the transport of people and goods and further reducing congestion and transport costs.
It’s also been found that rail transport is far more energy efficient, burning less fuel per ton kilometre than road trucks, reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
The train line was further looking to connect the train to Mekele [north], to Moyale [south], near Kenya, and to Gambella (west), near South Sudan.
The construction of this colossal project has already seen positive impacts on the capital city.
Addis Ababa University runs postgraduate programmes that work closely with the Ethiopian Railways Corporation.
Together, they enrol over 300 master’s students into their programmes to help boost employment in Ethiopia in careers including engineering and project management.