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Imagine travelling at 160km per hour... in a train!

The prospect of this dream becoming a reality in Kenya grew on Monday when Kenya Railways Corporation advertised a tender for a standard gauge line to run from Mombasa to Malaba.

Such a line would shorten the train journey from Nairobi to Mombasa from 10 to only three hours.

Prospective transaction advisers and design consultants have until January 15, 2010, to forward their bids.

Assignment

Their proposed assignment includes project marketing, investor identification and supporting selection of consultants to monitor detailed design, building and commissioning of the railway.

“Construction is scheduled to commence in May 2011,” the corporation’s managing director, Mr Nduva Muli, said in a two-page paid up advertisement.

The railway line, which will stretch from Mombasa to Malaba on the Kenya/Uganda border with a branch to Kisumu, would see double-decker passenger trains introduced in the region.

According to the government’s timetable, the Mombasa-Nairobi section of the line will be complete by 2013, Nairobi-Kisumu by 2016, and Nairobi-Malaba by 2016.

“The government recognised the need to build the new modern railway in order to increase capacity and improve efficiency, cost-effectiveness and competitiveness of the transport sector,” the advertisement says.

The move signals the government’s admission that the 25-year concession of the current Kenya-Uganda railway to Rift Valley Railways, a consortium led by South Africa’s Sheltam Ltd, in 2006 has not lived up to its expectations.

The concession to RVR is the subject of a court case after Kenya Railways Corporation expressed a desire to terminate the contract.

In this year’s budget, Sh3 billion was allocated to initiate the revamping of the over 100-year old railway system.
http://www.nation.co.ke/News/-/1056/654576/-/umslhh/-/index.html

:cheers::banana:

Good idea but we need to get the power problems sorted first. We dont have enough power to light 10% of homes in kenya, it would be a disaster if the train got stuck enroute to mombasa because of a black out.

there are some good wind farms coming up in northern kenya and once this are done then maybe we can start thinking about such huge projects.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_uucp45o8uko/SiMRwSCy_7I/AAAAAAAAANk/DxC_hciQKu4/s320/tram.jpg

Much as I would love to see a cross country speed-train, I think its a little overtly ambitious as of now to implement this. I would rather we start with the inner city trams, and electrical Buses -similar to the ones that dot European cities to conncet our vaious residential districts before we start linking our differing cities. And of course Electricity production is the genie in the bottle.

NAIROBI, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- Kenya Railways announced Wednesday it has begun the process of building a new four-billion-U.S. dollar high capacity Standard Gauge railway line to replace the current one, laid more than a century ago by the British colonialists with the labour of Indian coolies.

Kenya Railways Managing Director Nduva Muli said the development followed a Request For Proposals (RFP) for a Transport Adviser in a paid-up international tender advertisement issued by the corporation on Tuesday in the local and international press.

Muli told journalists in Nairobi that the Mombasa-Nairobi-Kisumu-Malaba line was one of the three major railway lines in the national railway Master Plant that has been developed by the corporation.

"The other lines are Lamu-Juba and Nairobi-Addis Ababa and plans for these are at an advanced stage," Muli told a news conference in Nairobi.

He said the new railway line will meet increased transport demands that are projected to be in excess of 30 million tonnes bythe year 2030, against the current 17 million tonnes that pass through Mombasa port.

Muli said freight volumes have grown beyond previous projections and already outstrip available transport capacity -- both road and rail, causing perennial congestion at the Mombasa port.

He said the situation is bound to get worse with a projected freight growth of eight percent annually. The current 100-year old Metre Gauge railway line has limited capacity, he said.

Muli said the new railway will be a high capacity Standard Gauge railway with freight trains hauling a minimum 4,000 tonnes --on over a kilometre long trains, compared to the 800 tonnes on the Metre Gauge railway.

"Freight trains will be operating at an average speed of 120kph,and Double Decker passenger trains at an average of 160kph. Current operating speeds on the metre gauge railway are between 30and 45km/h at best," Muli said.

Transportation costs in Kenya and the East Africa region constitute 40 to 45 percent of the total cost of production, against a global average of 15 percent, which makes local products uncompetitive in the global markets.

In India and China, Muli said, railway transport accounts for 90 percent of the long distance freight movements, while in Kenya a meager five percent is transported by railway, causing pressure on the road network.

Muli said all studies are expected to be complete by March 2011and investors will be on board by July 2011, while construction is expected to start in November 2011.

The Mombasa-Nairobi section is scheduled for completion in 2013,and Nairobi-Kisumu-Malaba section will be completed by 2016.

"It is envisaged that the Ugandan government will also commence the construction of the section between Malaba and Kampala and a bilateral agreement to facilitate the same is being discussed by the two governments," Muli said.

The two governments have agreed to build a new standard-gauge railway line to replace the current one, laid more than a century ago by the British colonialists with the labour of Indian coolies.

The railway linking the two countries has previously uprooted by Kenyans protesting against the actions of Uganda such as the recent invasion of the disputed Migingo Island.

Kenya Railways plans to have in place a modern passenger train network for Nairobi by 2012, the time of the expiry of the concession to run passenger services.

The company plans to make the railway line a major artery for regional trade but has to contend with a lack of locomotives, wagons and dilapidated tracks.

Years of mismanagement in Kenya and civil strife in Uganda havemeant their respective governments have struggled to buy spare parts and maintain tracks and trains.

The 1,900-km line that helped open up the continent was laid a century ago and was dubbed the "Lunatic Express".

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-09/09/content_12023726.htm

We don't call a 160km/hour, a high speed train...it's just a speed train ^^

Great news, this could be the start of a major East African rail network. :okay:

wow this is good news for high speed train in Kenya...........:banana: