Ethiopia's planned railway network

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-34871074

by tellarin • 11 years ago

89 18 11 years ago

bbc.com

just_sayin• 11 years ago

This is a blatant land grab

pluma• 11 years ago

What isn't?

mrdrozdov• 11 years ago

Just to verify, railroads are the most efficient mode of transportation? We wouldn't want roads with electric vehicles instead, right?

As analogy, I guess I'd compare the electrical grid to solar panels with batteries (think Tesla Power Wall).

0xexplorer• 11 years ago

When economies of scale are factored I do believe rail is highly efficient.

rayiner• 11 years ago

Freight rail is about 4x more efficient than freight trucks. Electric freight trucks are more efficient than gasoline ones, but are totally experimental.

jagger27• 11 years ago

And then you remember that electric trains have existed for a very long time. Rail wins hand over fist.

oh_sigh• 11 years ago

Did you read the article? Even if you have 100% efficient and perfectly operating trucks, they still can't deal with the sheer number of them. By 2020, 8000 trucks a day will be leaving the Djibouti port, which is just not sustainable.

donretag• 11 years ago

Road infrastructure is horrid. That said, rail infrastructure is even worse, which is why there are so few railways in Africa.

jbattle• 11 years ago

The government is investing heavily on modernizing the roads right now, but it's a little hard to imagine how bad the roads are. Here's a video that's pretty representative of roads throughout much of the country:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTC2w860HKo

Now, there are some stretches of very modern highways and the road system is improving fast, but still getting around takes a long time due to heavy traffic, animals crossing the road (or just standing in the road), large amounts of foot traffic along and across the road, etc.

I have a hunch that even the most efficient electrical engines would have a hard time maintaining efficient operation with all the starting and stopping.

erispoe• 11 years ago

Rail is vastly more efficient at transporting people and goods in large volume. This is why automated cars won't turn rail investments irrelevant.

The RER B in Paris, a two tracks north-south rail tunnel, is equivalent in capacity to a 40+ lanes highway. Even with automated vehicles, you cannot move the capacity of the Paris, New-York or Tokyo rail network to surface transportation.

Shivetya• 11 years ago

Rail is point to point efficient because of load but should always be considered just one part of the equation. Branching out from there is the real key to savings, there you get your electric trucks and such which provide the flexibility of delivery that rail cannot. Same reason I always favor buses in cities over light rail, buses can adapt to changes in population that light rail cannot

ant6n• 11 years ago

'Light Rail' is a fuzzy term; but in general any urban rail should be planned well, and should be accompanied with city planning that shouldn't allow the line to become obsolete. And that's actually not too hard - development follows rapid transit, if you let it.

jobu• 11 years ago

Waterways are the most efficient, but I don't believe Ethiopia is flat enough to make use of its rivers for transport.

Here's a comparison - http://business.tenntom.org/why-use-the-waterway/shipping-co...

CydeWeys• 11 years ago

Are waterways more efficient? Trains can be powered entirely using electricity. Ships require either burning heavily polluting fuel or using nuclear power (which is so unpopular politically that it is not in use). So I would argue that by one major measure of efficiency, environmental pollution, both of particulates and CO2, electric-powered trains win out. Of course, it's a lot easier to do electric-powered trains in built up areas that already have power grids; less so if the area you're going through is completely undeveloped.

superuser2• 11 years ago

Any time someone says the phrase "electric vehicle," substitute "coal-fired vehicle" and you'll have a much better understanding of what's going on.

EV technology is cool, but it's only "clean" or "zero emissions" if the power plant is also clean and zero emissions.

Ethiopia's planned railway network

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