Kenya HSR

This is a surprise. I was familiar with the Kenya rail services in the 1960s and I always enjoyed the trip between Nairobi and Mombasa, with an excellent dinner in the diner. As the train descended from the high plateau of central Kenya to the Indian Ocean the temperature and humidity rose.
I suppose it's a pleasure fewer people feel nowadays. But the road is certainly very dangerous.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/se ... train-line
So now we have this proposal for a standard gauge line to replace the old metre gauge line. Could it be financed?

My wife rode that train back in 1977. She was young at the time and said it was "interesting". She will be going back to Kenya next Feb with her church group- she will have to check on it while she is in Niarobi.

matthewsaggie wrote:My wife rode that train back in 1977. She was young at the time and said it was "interesting". She will be going back to Kenya next Feb with her church group- she will have to check on it while she is in Niarobi.

I believe the Mombasa trip is quite popular with tourists, but presumably locals don't use it any more. The road is horrific.

I first arrived in East Africa by sea, and numerous extra carriages were added to the train which took us (I was with a large group of students) from Mombasa to Kampala (two nights). It was a very interesting trip. Of course in those days the railways of Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania were under the same administration and everything was well maintained. The through train to Kampala doesn't run now, nor even the daily train to Kisumu.

Probably the main advantage of a standard gauge link would be to carry freight. The road really is a menace for freight as well as people. I don't believe there is the traffic for a frequent high speed train taking three hours.
I suspect this project will never happen - though Uganda has recently discovered oil, so local money might be available.

I doubt much local money would be involved , most likely it would be accepting a chinese hsr system in exchange for some of that oil or other resources .
an arrangement that has worked well in the past i believe , namely the tam-zam railway .

David Benton wrote:I doubt much local money would be involved , most likely it would be accepting a chinese hsr system in exchange for some of that oil or other resources .
an arrangement that has worked well in the past i believe , namely the tam-zam railway .

I have just noticed your comment on the TanZam.

The Chinese have recently taken control over this line again, as they wish to ship Zambia's copper out via Dar es Salaam. The previous local administration had run the line down to a poor state of track repair. The passenger service is very unreliable. A recent BBC tv programme on the line showed that the trains can be a day late. The copper trains are in danger of thieves stealing the copper, especially as the price has risen so much in recent times.

The Chinese are reported to be interested in building a new line from Uganda to a new port near Malindi. Possibly this would be standard gauge and might well extend into southern Sudan. Next year there is to be a referendum on the independence of southern Sudan. This would probably lead to Chinese control of the new state. Who knows what they would do.
However, it is unlikely that any new lines to Uganda would be High Speed.