Ethiopia and Morocco are two countries which have taken the continent by storm, they trains are not only super-fast, but also first class. Kenya was almost there but it seems the citizens were not impressed when the locomotives finally arrived in Mombasa. We take a keen look at the differences between the railway and trains which were recently acquired in Ethiopia against SGR trains imported from China.
The Standard Gauge Railway was built at a cost of Ksh 327 billion while Ethiopian government sunk Ksh 340 billion into their railway project, but the Ethiopian rail covers 100 kilometers more than ours.
The second and major difference between the Kenya and Ethiopian railways is that though both were constructed by Chinese companies, the Ethiopian one uses electricity while the Kenyan train uses diesel. Which means that Kenya’s train was built more than 30 years ago while the Ethiopian one can be compared to the railway systems in the first world countries.
In terms of design, the Ethiopian trains are more beautiful, classy and modern while locomotives recently imported to Kenya bear the same shape as those currently existing in the country…you will see photos below.
One important thing to note is that the reason why the SGR is more expensive than the Ethiopian rail is because it (SGR) passes through Travo and Nairobi National Parks, which require engineers to raise it so that it can allow herbivores to pass underneath.
Another reason is that the SGR has 33 stations while the Ethiopian rail has 18 stations, meaning that more resources were used to build the 15 more stations.
In terms of speed, a multiple unit passenger SGR trains having a capacity of 960 passengers will travel at an average speed of 120km/h on the line.
Freight trains will have a capacity of 216 TEUs and travel at an average speed of 80km/h. A typical freight train on the line will consist of 54 double stack flat wagons and measure 880m-long.
The Ethiopian trains travel at 40km/h faster than the Kenyan line.
Above are Ethiopian trains,which look modern and classic.Below we show photos of planes which will be using the SGR railway built at Ksh 327 billion.
