This railway in Africa brings the power of win-win cooperation to the hearts of the people

Share with you a story about the joint construction of the "Belt and Road" related to Africa and railways. The author once worked as a foreign correspondent in Kenya, an East African country. During the three years of permanent residency, in the daily communication with the locals, "One Belt, One Road" is a word that appears frequently, and this has a lot to do with a railway called "Century Road". This railway is the Mombasa-Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway (hereinafter referred to as the Mombasa-Nairobi Railway), which connects Mombasa, the largest port in East Africa, and Nairobi, the capital of Kenya.

The Mombasa-Nairobi Railway has a total length of about 480 kilometers. It is a modern railway built with Chinese standards, Chinese technology and Chinese equipment. It was officially opened to traffic in May 2017. Locals speak very highly of this railway. During my stay in Kenya, the author has taken the Mombasa-Nairobi Railway many times, and almost every time the carriages are full. During holidays, tickets must be booked in advance. So what is it about this railway that makes it so popular?

Kenya's largest infrastructure project since independence

The Mombasa-Nairobi Railway is the first railway built since Kenya's independence in 1963, and it is also the country's largest infrastructure project in the past 60 years. Before the opening of the Mombasa-Nairobi Railway, Kenya actually had a railway, which was a one-meter-wide-gauge railway (hereinafter referred to as meter-gauge) built by the British colonists more than 100 years ago. But in the next 100 years, Kenya's railway map has hardly changed.

The meter-gauge speed can only run up to 40 kilometers per hour. Due to disrepair, frequent breakdowns and limited transportation capacity. The Mombasa-Nairobi Railway has a design speed of 80 kilometers per hour for freight and 120 kilometers per hour for passenger transportation, which cuts the round-trip time between the two places by half. It can be said that after the Mombasa-Nairobi Railway was put into use, it provided Kenyans with a faster, safer, more convenient and cheaper option for travel and regional logistics, and completely changed Kenya's transportation landscape.

There is a very interesting story about the name of the Mombasa-Nairobi Railway. The official name of the Mombasa-Nairobi Railway in Kenya is Madaraka Express (Madaraka Express). Madaraka means "power" in the local language Swahili. Kenya has a festival called Madaraka Day, which is June 1 Autonomy Day, to commemorate Kenya's independence from British colonial rule on June 1, 1963, and the realization of autonomy and power. From this name, it is enough to see how much the Mombasa-Nairobi Railway means to Kenya.

"Dream Back to China" Railway and a "Railway Team That Can't Be Taken Away"

The Mombasa-Nairobi Railway was constructed by China Communications Construction Co., Ltd. in the EPC general contracting mode integrating design, procurement, construction, operation and maintenance. During Christmas 2019, the author took the Mombasa-Nairobi Railway for the first time. When I saw the train station for the first time, I had the illusion of "dream back to China". The style of the railway station and many new domestic high-speed rail stations is surprisingly unified, and the ticket hall, train ticket, and security check system are almost exactly the same as those in China. As soon as you enter the train compartment, you will feel very familiar from the overall layout to the arrangement of tables and chairs, and even the small carts selling snacks.

To operate railways overseas, localized talents are definitely indispensable. In February 2022, the Mombasa-Nairobi Railway launched the first passenger train that was independently on-duty by the Kenyan locomotive crew, which marked a new step in the localization of Mombasa-Nairobi Railway employees. At present, the localization rate of most of the work on the Mombasa-Nairobi Railway Project has exceeded 80%, and local Kenyan employees have been competent for driving, operation, repair and maintenance. It can be said that China has cultivated a "railway team that cannot be taken away" for Kenya, and has greatly enhanced Kenya's soft power in the railway system.

An animal passage where giraffes don't have to bend over and elephants don't have to tuck in their bellies

Kenya is a country close to nature and animals. The construction of the Mombasa-Nairobi Railway needs to pass through two major national parks in Kenya. At the beginning of the design, considering the needs of Kenyans to respect and protect wild animals, in order not to interfere with the normal life of animals to the greatest extent, 14 large-scale wild animal passages were specially set up along the railway line, so that giraffes do not have to bow their heads and elephants do not need to retract their stomachs. Can pass easily.

Isolation fences are also set up on both sides of the line to reduce the chance of animals colliding with the train. In addition, sound barriers have been installed on the super bridge across Nairobi National Park to reduce the noise of trains passing by. These thoughtful designs have won unanimous praise from Kenyans. Kenya's mainstream media "Standard" stated that, unlike the narrow-gauge railway built by the British more than a hundred years ago, the Mombasa-Nairobi Railway pays attention to environmental protection and respects local elements.

In July 2021, when the author participated in the "1,500-day safe operation" event of the Mombasa-Nairobi Railway in Nairobi, I still remember a passage said by James Sele, the head of the Kenya Railway Administration's commercial operation expert team. He said: "The passengers and goods transported by the Mombasa-Nairobi Railway every day are equivalent to 1,600 trucks full of goods and 180 buses full of passengers traveling between the two largest cities in Kenya on the road every day. It means that since the opening of the railway, not a single truck or bus has been involved in a safety accident, which is unbelievable." It is understood that although roads are the main mode of transportation in Kenya, they are plagued by high accident rates and traffic jams.

Over the past five years, the Mombasa-Nairobi Railway has transported more than 9 million passengers and more than 23 million tons of cargo. During the severe period of the new crown epidemic, the Mombasa-Nairobi Railway has made positive contributions to the supply of materials and the fight against the epidemic in Kenya. Before being stationed abroad, the author often saw in the news the fruitful results of the joint construction of the "Belt and Road" from concept to action, from vision to reality, but it was not until the author saw the smiles recognized by the local people on the Mombasa-Nairobi Railway I really feel the great significance of the "Belt and Road" to improve the livelihood of the local people.

The Mombasa-Nairobi Railway, as the flagship project of the joint construction of the "Belt and Road", has changed Kenya's transportation landscape through the "hard connectivity" of infrastructure, and the "soft connectivity" of rules and technologies has improved the soft power of Kenya's railway system and complied with the "heart of the people". "Unicom" has enhanced the exchanges between China and Kenya, making the Mombasa-Nairobi Railway a demonstration project of China-Africa win-win cooperation that benefits people's livelihood, wins the hearts of the people, and follows the trend, and makes the power of win-win cooperation directly reach the hearts of the people.