The
railway in Kenya was built by the British Empire. The railway was
formally called the Uganda railway or Lunatic express. The construction
started at Mombasa in the year 1896. And reached Kisumu in the year 1901
(The British took6 years to build the Kenyan railway). The rail is
1000mm gauge and all single track. The railway was later run by east
Africa Railway Company after 1stworld war and upon the
dissolution of EAR Corporation in 1977 the Kenya railway corporation
took over the management of all the railway branches in Kenya.
Since
the independent Kenya took the management of the railway, there had
been virtually new development in this infrastructure. The already
outdated infrastructure(well over a century old) continues to age
without any major upgrade or expansion.
The
rift valley railways consortium led by South African companies took
over the management of Kenyan railway in 2006 as a part of contract
which is to last for 25 years.
There
was hope that the consortium would bring life to the dying
infrastructure. It is now 6 years down the line, not much to be desired.
One of the expectations was the change of gauge from 1000mm to the
world standard of1435mm. The master plan remains on writing and is yet
to be implemented.
Railway
transport presents several advantages and opportunities. This transport
system generally has lower frictional resistance when compared with
road transport and several carriages can be coupled into long trains.
Railways are a safe land transport system when compared to other forms
of transport.Railway transport is capable of high levels of passenger
and cargo utilization and energy efficiency especially when high traffic
levels are considered. Studies have shown that development of railway
in a region has direct positive impact on the region economy.
This
mode of transport started with man-hauled railway that date to 6
century B.C. With the British development of the steam engine, it was
possible to construct mainline railways, which were a key component of
the industrial revolution. Electrified trains were introduced in 1880s.
By 1940 most of steam locomotives had been replaced by diesel-electric
locomotives. During the 1960s,electrified high-speed railway systems
were introduced in Japan and a few other countries. Recently monorail
and maglev are gaining popularity especially in urban areas.
Whereas
there are plans to modernize Kenya railways, there is no mention of
electric trains. To me it doesn’t matter whatever type of railway system
they will build, as long as it is not an electric train system then
they have no business talking about modernization.
RVR
consortium is talking of expanding the railway network in Nairobi as
part of solution to the traffic problem in the city, no one mentions
about building of trams, monorails or maglev. Apart from having targets
of freight volumes, there is no definite development plan to make the
railway more modern,attractive, competitive or exciting. By now we would
have seen the introduction of modern couches that are passenger
friendly; it seems we have to wait even longer. As much as it is
understood that the capital investment on railway infrastructure is
intensive, at least we should see some little progress.
The
use of Kenyan road for transportation of heavy stuffs, destined inside
the country and in transit is a major reason why roads in Kenya wears
off very fast. Lorries are also a major contribution to traffic
congestion and several road accidents.
Had
the country given the development of railway infrastructure a higher
priority, there would have been plenty economic benefits to harvest.
