In 2007, the Ethiopian Railway Corporation (ERC) was formed as a subsidiary of the country’s ministry of transport & communications, with a paid-up capital of $US750 million. Its mandate is to build a national railway as well as an urban light rail network in the capital, Addis Abeba. The main task of the national system would be to support Ethiopia’s agricultural sector, specifically the moving of export grain and livestock. However, it is also intended to provide “high-speed, high-capacity, competitive and affordable” transport for passengers. ERC director Dr Getachew Betru envisages a standard gauge network, electrified with power drawn from hydroelectric resources. (Betru also serves on the board of the Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation.)
In the meanwhile, work continues on rehabilitating the 781km metre-gauge Chemin de fer Djibouti-Ethopien (CDE – the Djibouti-Ethiopian Railway). The 18-month project is being funded by a grant of €50 million from the European Union. Train services at the western end of the line, including the approach into Addis Abeba, are currently suspended to facilitate the work, which is being undertaken by Costa of Italy and Ineco-SPT of Spain. According to CDE general manager To’om Terie, the line’s capacity is expected to rise to ten trains per day.
Work is currently concentrated around Metahara, where embankments are being strengthened and new bridges built. Approximately 25,000 concrete sleepers are being laid to replace steel, and the remaining 20kg/m rail is being replaced by 40kg/m on about a third of the route. The project is reportedly running three months behind schedule due to some track alignments were miscalculated.
India’s Overseas Investment Alliance (OIA), which has been supplying electrical transmission and distribution systems to EEPCo in terms of a 2006 contract worth $US65m, signed an agreement with the government of neighbouring Djibouti in May 2009 to undertake feasibility studies for a standard-gauge line from the harbour – which functions as the main port for Ethiopia.
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Original article [Railways Africa]

Bombela Concession Company CEO Jerome Govender confirms that completion of Gautrain’s airport line before 11 June 2010 – when the Fifa Soccer World Cup events kick off – is not a contractual requirement of Bombela and never has been. Phase one – the Sandton-airport branch – is only scheduled for completion at the end of June.
At the request of the Gauteng provincial government, however, Bombela prepared and submitted an acceleration proposal on 13 July, indicating what would be needed to speed up work for an end-of-May completion date for phase 1. Gautrain Management Agency CEO and project leader Jack van der Merwe told parliament’s portfolio committee on transport that it would not pay an “unreasonable amount” to the Bombela consortium to accelerate the project for an event lasting only four weeks. He said that a decision on the matter is to be taken in mid-October.
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Original article [Railways Africa]

Electrical engineering group Alstom South Africa has rebranded itself with a new name and corporate identity. During the course of September, the change to the name ACTOM, accompanied by a new corporate identity and logo, is being implemented and presented to the group’s customers, staff, suppliers and other stakeholders and interested parties.
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Original article [Railways Africa]

Rovos Rail has acquired three class 5E1 electric locomotives, recently retired from Transnet Freight Rail – E1114, E1123 and E1127. These 2,600hp units, running on 3kV DC, were built by UCW with AEI electrics and taken into service originally between 1963 and 1969. The three are currently being repainted. Earlier suggestions that class 5E locos were involved were incorrect.
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Original article [Railways Africa]

According to The Citizen (published in Dar-es-Salaam), 
“TRL [Tanzania Railways Limited] workers at the Morogoro workshop managed to rehabilitate two defunct engines to show the government that they can run the company without the foreign partner. They asked the government to provide them with required facilities and spare parts so that they could rehabilitate all engines and wagons that have been grounded.

“The engines had been idle since Rail India Technical and Engineering Services (Rites) partnered with the government to establish TRL after the divestiture of the former Tanzania Railways Corporation (TRC). Speaking here when unveiling the two engines, the secretary-general of the Tanzania Railway Workers Union (TRAWU), Mr Silvester Rwegasira, showered praise on workers of the Morogoro workshop who revived the locos. ‘You have shown that you care for public property as you have used your expertise and restored the locos which were regarded by the investor as obsolete,’ he said.

“He said the two engines were among five that had been revived by TRL technicians and were now in use. ‘And the good thing is that the revived engines are better and work more efficiently than those leased from Rites,’ he said. TRL technicians who had 
repaired the engines said in their speech that they started to work on them in October last year after getting spare parts. They said there were four others lying idle and they could revive them if provided with required facilities and spare parts. They chided Rites saying the two engines which it took to India for repairs failed to work when they were returned last August. ‘They were tested twice in a trip from Morogoro to Dodoma and they could not make it… they are still lying idle though their repair bill is in millions of shillings,’ said the workers.”
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Original article [Railways Africa]

The National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) has introduced parking fees at Bulawayo, Harare and Mutare stations in a move to reduce congestion at stations, an official explained to the Bulawayo Chronicle. “In a statement NRZ spokesman Fanuel Masikati said the $US1 fee paid upon entering the railway stations by vehicles and pushcarts was meant to create parking space for genuine customers who would be conducting business at the stations.
‘”However, the public may wish to know that all customers who will be coming to do business with the NRZ are exempted from paying parking fees. All motorists, including truck drivers bringing goods and parcels for transportation by rail are exempted from paying parking fees,’ Masikati said. ‘It is pertinent to mention that before the introduction of parking fees, some motorists, bus and haulage truck drivers were leaving their vehicles at the NRZ station parking area, resulting in genuine customers failing to park their vehicles while conducting business with the NRZ. Furthermore, railway employees, vehicles on NRZ duty, NRZ vehicles, NRZ customers accessing the station for the purpose of collecting or consigning parcels, as well as tenants of NRZ properties located at stations are also exempted from paying parking fees.’
Masikati was quoted saying the parking fees would enable the parastatal to service the parking area and also improve facilities at the stations. “He said the roads and parking areas had been destroyed by heavy-duty vehicles, such as buses and haulage trucks that were parking overnight at the stations, especially in Harare and Bulawayo. The pushcart operators should pay the fees because they were making brisk business, dealing with NRZ passengers boarding or disembarking from the trains.”
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Original article [Railways Africa]

Johannesburg-based architectural firm Urban Edge Architects and Urban Designers, which is involved in three of Gautrain’s stations and the 2010 Soweto stadium, says it is committed to implementing environmentally sustainable practices wherever possible. The firm focuses primarily on projects that include public works, commercial buildings for the private sector, industrial buildings and a variety of community work. Urban Edge’s Juri Abbott is quoted saying: “As a company, we regard ourselves as cutting-edge when it comes to our presentations to clients. Our modus operandi is to blow our clients away from the very first presentation, and the only way to do that is by having the best technology available at our fingertips. To this end, the firm has a 3D modeller and dedicated presentation staff and all of the necessary equipment to create a fabulous presentation for our clients. The Océ ColorWave fits perfectly into this set-up, enabling us to give our clients something that our competitors can’t – and that’s our point of difference, the fact that we wow our clients with our presentations from the outset of a project.”
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Original article [Railways Africa]

Speaking at a press conference, Kenya Railway Corporation managing director Nduva Muli promised an impressive reduction in the cost of freight transport once the proposed new standard-gauge line is built from Mombasa via Nairobi (for completion by 2013), to Malaba on the border with Uganda together with a branch to Kisumu on Lake Victoria (2016). The line is to be of high capacity, with trains carrying a minimum of 4,000 tonnes travelling at an average speed of 120km/h. “This compares with 800 tonnes on the existing metre-gauge line and a maximum speed of 45km/h,” he was quoted saying. Passengers are to be conveyed in double-deck trains running at ”an average” 160km/h.
The high cost of transport in Kenya continues to render the country’s products uncompetitive in the global market, Muli pointed out. “In India and China, for example, railway transport accounts for 90% of the long distance freight movement while in Kenya a meagre 5% is what is transported by railway, causing pressure on the road network.”
The Mombasa-Malaba line is one of three routes identified in the corporation’s national railway master plan. The others are lines from a proposed new port at Lamu to Juba in the Sudan and from Nairobi to Addis Abeba in Ethiopia. Construction plans for all these are at advanced stages, Muli said.
He did not disclose how the expected price of Sh320 billion ($US4bn) is to be financed.
[ Nor whether this figure includes the cost of locomotives, double-deck passenger coaches and other rolling stock. – editor.
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Original article [Railways Africa]

At a media briefing early in September, minister of transport Alhaji Ibrahim Isa Bio said the country’s locomotive fleet has “expired”. Over 75%, he said, had outlived their 25-year lifespan , were outdated and not fit to operate. The present administration has earmarked N25 billion in this year’s budget for locomotive replacement and 25 new units have been ordered. It is hoped to have them in service by the end of 2010.

 He said the Yar’adua administration is determined to restore the railway “back to its old glory” and has embarked on a programme of rehabilitation, reactivation and modernisation. In the 2009 budget, N2 billion was allocated towards “major rehabilitation” of rail tracks and bridges, N400 million for workshop tools and re-railing equipment and N600 million for the rehabilitation of 120 coaches and wagons.

According to the minister, the government is determined to evolve a world-class transportation system in Nigeria that fully exploits its potential.
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Original article [Railways Africa]

Appointing a successor to former Transnet CEO Maria Ramos is the responsibility of Public Enterprises Minister Barbara Hogan. Neither the president of South Africa nor others should be seen to intervene. This is the substance of a statement by President Zuma on 17 September, when he deplored speculation over the issue in the press. Minister Hogan meanwhile says the matter is being handled by the Transnet Board.
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Original article [Railways Africa]