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Ethiopian Railways: Facing financial
and technical Headwinds |
The
four-year-old Addis- Djibouti Standard Gauge Railway line suffers a myriad of
operational and financial difficulties that hamper its efficiency and reliability, a recent study says. Other
sources complain of frequent stoppages, some taking as long as two weeks to
solve.
Power outages, the study shows, is a major
problem affecting not only its reliability but also its safety. The study,
“Sino-Ethiopia evolving partnership along Addis Ababa-Djibouti, railway
economic belt” identified power outages, poor maintenance, thefts, lack of
funds, and accidents as the leading problems.
Frequent power cuts disrupted operations
including rescue, slope stopping, regression, and are a very serious risk to
the train’s safety. The study found out that train lost 48,000 hours of
operation arising from more than 8000 power outages since its inception in
2016.
Sixty
percent of these interruptions lasted up to three hours to rectify; three
percent lasted more than a day than, while1.3 percent lasted longer. This puts the $5 billion investment at stake.
On safety
of the train and its cargo, the study, quoted by a local newspaper, The
Ethiopian Reporter established that there were 573 incidents recorded up to
October 31, 2019. These include; theft of basic equipment such as rail
fastenings, poor maintenance and lack of funds. These, says the study, pose a
serious risk of derailment and accidents.
It refers to April 2019 for instance, when a
53-wagon train to Djibouti derailed on a flooded and muddy line in East Shewa
Zone in the Oromia. This incident cost an estimated 200 million to 300 million
birr(US$6.22 to 9.33 Million) due to the suspension of its operations for several
days.
Other accident-related risks include collision
with livestock and theft of critical spare parts on the railway line such as
fasteners. In addition to delays, they pose a major derailment risk. These
risks combined have forced the operators to reduce its travel speed from the
projected 120 Kilometres per hour to 50 kilometers.
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Compounding the problems, the study found, is
poor maintenance of rolling stock. It found that owing to Lack of maintenance
facilities, including spare parts, a significant number of locomotives are
defective. For instance eight of the 35 electric engines and two of the Six
diesel engines, have serious faults. The 502 freight wagons, the study found,
are operating with serious defects such as bearing oil seepage and, air leakage in the braking system, that
jeopardize the trains’ safety.
The
challenges facing the Addis - Djibouti line is a wake-up call for African
governments that are currently, considering electric trains. They must avoid placing the "Cart before the Horse" i.e they should not invest in the electric train if they do not have sufficient idle power generating capacity. Experts say that an electric train requires 1000MW to run efficiently. Ethiopia’s known power generating capacity is
4500MW. This does not leave it with sufficient idle capacity to run an electric
train.
Further, high-speed Railway lines need to be
separated from other forms of users, such as animals, and motor vehicles. This is
why they are elevated. In the Case of the Addis Ababa- Djibouti Line, there are
no such protections for it has level crossing rather than bridges. That is why
thieves and other malicious characters can steal the Line Fastenings.
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