![Ethiopian Railways](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4d/Ethiopian_Railways.png)
The Awash–Weldiya Railway is a
standard gauge
A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), International gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge and European gauge in Europe, and SGR in Ea ...
railway
Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...
under construction, that will serve as a northward extension of the new
Ethiopian National Railway Network.
The railroad's primary purpose is to connect the north of Ethiopia with the
Addis Ababa–Djibouti Railway
The Addis Ababa–Djibouti Railway (; , , ) is a new standard gauge international railway that serves as the backbone of the new Ethiopian National Railway Network. The railway was inaugurated by Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn on January ...
at the
Awash junction and therefore connecting it with the
world economy
The world economy or global economy is the economy of all humans of the world, referring to the global economic system, which includes all economic activities which are conducted both within and between nations, including production, consumption, ...
through the
Port of Djibouti
The Port of Djibouti is a port in Djibouti, the capital of Djibouti. It is strategically located at the crossroads of one of the busiest shipping routes in the world, linking Europe, the Far East, the Horn of Africa and the Persian Gulf. The por ...
and also with the southern parts of Ethiopia with its capital,
Addis Ababa
Addis Ababa (; am, አዲስ አበባ, , new flower ; also known as , lit. "natural spring" in Oromo), is the capital and largest city of Ethiopia. It is also served as major administrative center of the Oromia Region. In the 2007 census, t ...
.
The 392 km Awash–Weldiya Railway clearly is of strategic significance. It connects the whole north of Ethiopia with almost one-third of the Ethiopian population with the
Addis Ababa–Djibouti Railway
The Addis Ababa–Djibouti Railway (; , , ) is a new standard gauge international railway that serves as the backbone of the new Ethiopian National Railway Network. The railway was inaugurated by Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn on January ...
and with Ethiopia's lifeline, the port of Djibouti. Also, several large cities of
Amhara Region
The Amhara Region ( am, አማራ ክልል, Åmara Kilil), officially the Amhara National Regional State (), is a regional state in northern Ethiopia and the homeland of the Amhara people. Its capital is Bahir Dar which is the seat of the Reg ...
are directly served by the Railway and the railway will connect Ethiopian industrial centers like
Kombolcha
Kombolcha () is a town and district in north-central Ethiopia. Located in the Debub Wollo Zone of the Amhara Region, it has a latitude and longitude of with an elevation between 1842 and 1915 meters above sea level. Some guide books describe Ko ...
with the world.
Route and description
The railway bypasses the up to 1200 metres deep
Blue Nile
The Blue Nile (; ) is a river originating at Lake Tana in Ethiopia. It travels for approximately through Ethiopia and Sudan. Along with the White Nile, it is one of the two major tributaries of the Nile and supplies about 85.6% of the water ...
canyon
A canyon (from ; archaic British English spelling: ''cañon''), or gorge, is a deep cleft between escarpments or cliffs resulting from weathering and the erosion, erosive activity of a river over geologic time scales. Rivers have a natural tenden ...
to the west of the railway, a canyon, which is a major blocking feature for travel between northern Ethiopia and southern Ethiopia. It also runs parallel to the densely populated eastern
escarpment
An escarpment is a steep slope or long cliff that forms as a result of faulting or erosion and separates two relatively level areas having different elevations.
The terms ''scarp'' and ''scarp face'' are often used interchangeably with ''escar ...
of the northwestern
Ethiopian Highlands
The Ethiopian Highlands is a rugged mass of mountains in Ethiopia in Northeast Africa. It forms the largest continuous area of its elevation in the continent, with little of its surface falling below , while the summits reach heights of up to . ...
, as a gate to several tangential areas further west, such as
Lake Tana
Lake Tana ( am, ጣና ሐይቅ, T’ana ḥāyik’i; previously Tsana) is the largest lake in Ethiopia and the source of the Blue Nile. Located in Amhara Region in the north-western Ethiopian Highlands, the lake is approximately long and wid ...
and cities like
Gondar
Gondar, also spelled Gonder (Amharic: ጎንደር, ''Gonder'' or ''Gondär''; formerly , ''Gʷandar'' or ''Gʷender''), is a city and woreda in Ethiopia. Located in the North Gondar Zone of the Amhara Region, Gondar is north of Lake Tana on t ...
.
The single-track railway starts at Awash at the
Awash River
The Awash (sometimes spelled Awaash; Oromo: ''Awaash'', Amharic: አዋሽ, Afar: ''We'ayot'', Somali: ''Webiga Dir'') is a major river of Ethiopia. Its course is entirely contained within the boundaries of Ethiopia and empties into a chain of ...
, the main river in the
Afar Triangle
The Afar Triangle (also called the Afar Depression) is a geological depression caused by the Afar Triple Junction, which is part of the Great Rift Valley in East Africa. The region has disclosed fossil specimens of the very earliest hominins; th ...
area of the
Great Rift Valley
The Great Rift Valley is a series of contiguous geographic trenches, approximately in total length, that runs from Lebanon in Asia to Mozambique in Southeast Africa. While the name continues in some usages, it is rarely used in geology as it i ...
. The route runs in the NNW-direction. The Awash station is at the junction with the Addis Ababa–Djibouti Railway. The station is only the second in Ethiopia to have two platforms for passenger trains (the other one is the main
Furi-Labu railway station in Addis Ababa). It then runs through low-lying areas and then along irrigated plantations at the Awash River in
Amibara woreda
Districts of Ethiopia, also called woredas ( am, ወረዳ; ''woreda''), are the third level of the administrative divisions of Ethiopia – after ''zones'' and the '' regional states''.
These districts are further subdivided into a number of ...
, the lowest elevation point of the railway (700 metres) has been reached. It then runs for 80 km through semi-arid, hilly and almost unpopulated areas, no railway station is foreseen here. After arriving at the eastern escarpment of the western Ethiopian Highlands, a second major railway station along the railway is reached, also with two platforms for passenger trains. This is
Shewa Robit
Shewa Robit (Amharic: ሸዋ ሮቢት)also known as Robi, Shah Robit, Shoa Robit or Robit is a town in north-central Ethiopia. Located in the Semien Shewa Zone of the Amhara Region, this town has a longitude and latitude of with an elevation of ...
, a town at 1300 metres elevation, which is one of the gates to the Highlands. Up the road from here is the major city of
Debre Berhan
Debre Birhan () is a city in central Ethiopia. Located in the Semien Shewa Zone of Amhara Region, about 120 kilometers north east of Addis Ababa on Ethiopian highway 2, the town has an elevation of 2,840 meters, which makes it the highest to ...
at an elevation of 2800 metres, a few dozen km to the southwest. Shewa Robit serves as the entry point for Debre Berhan and other destinations to the west and the middle section of the Awash valley to its east.
After Shewa Robit, the railway runs north through the rugged landscape that makes up the eastern escarpment of the Highlands of Ethiopia. The sections between Shewa Robit and Weldiya see lots of tunnels and bridges because of that. This escarpment has mostly originated from normal faulting along a dip-slip
fault line
In geology, a fault is a planar fracture or discontinuity in a volume of rock across which there has been significant displacement as a result of rock-mass movements. Large faults within Earth's crust result from the action of plate tectonic ...
as a result of
plate tectonics
Plate tectonics (from the la, label=Late Latin, tectonicus, from the grc, τεκτονικός, lit=pertaining to building) is the generally accepted scientific theory that considers the Earth's lithosphere to comprise a number of large ...
in the
Horn of Africa
The Horn of Africa (HoA), also known as the Somali Peninsula, is a large peninsula and geopolitical region in East Africa.Robert Stock, ''Africa South of the Sahara, Second Edition: A Geographical Interpretation'', (The Guilford Press; 2004), ...
and in the Afar Triangle. It is a seismically highly active region with
active fault
An active fault is a fault that is likely to become the source of another earthquake sometime in the future. Geologists commonly consider faults to be active if there has been movement observed or evidence of seismic activity during the last 10,0 ...
s, that can easily see
earthquake
An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from a sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from ...
s with
magnitudes >6.5. The bridges along this part of the railway look quite fragile, as they are built from
hollow structural section
A hollow structural section (HSS) is a type of metal profile with a hollow cross section. The term is used predominantly in the United States, or other countries which follow US construction or engineering terminology.
HSS members can be circu ...
s. These are considered to flex in case of a major earthquake to save the railway. More rigid structures have been avoided here to prevent failure of the bridges.
After having passed a few towns with minor railway stations, the railway reaches its third major station with two platforms,
Kombolcha
Kombolcha () is a town and district in north-central Ethiopia. Located in the Debub Wollo Zone of the Amhara Region, it has a latitude and longitude of with an elevation between 1842 and 1915 meters above sea level. Some guide books describe Ko ...
. Kombolcha is a major city, as is the nearby regional capital
Dessie
Dessiè City which is politically oppressed by the past Ethiopian government systems due to the fact that most of the population follow Islamic religion.
Dessie ( am, ደሴ, Däse; also spelled Dese or Dessye) is a town in north-central Ethiopia ...
, its twin-city a few km to the west. One is at 1800 m elevation (Kombolcha), the other at 2500 m (Dessie). Both cities serve as the second gate to the Ethiopian Highlands (after Shewa Robit), with central Ethiopian cities like
Debre Markos
Debre Markos ( am, ደብረ ማርቆስ, Däbrä Marḳos lit: ''Mount of St. Mark'') is a city, separate woreda, and administrative seat of the East Gojjam Zone in Amhara Region, Ethiopia.
Etymology
Originally named Manqwarar (lit: Cold Place ...
being in reach by road further west from here. At Kombolcha, there are major infrastructural facilities for the whole railway network of Ethiopia and also a new
airport
An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surface ...
just 2 km away from the railway station.
The railway continues northwards along the eastern escarpment of the Ethiopian Highlands. After another major railway station at
Hayk
Hayk ( hy, Հայկ, ), also known as Hayk Nahapet (, , ), is the legendary patriarch and founder of the Armenian nation. His story is told in the '' History of Armenia'' attributed to the Armenian historian Moses of Chorene (Movses Khorenatsi ...
(at
Lake Hayq
Lake Hayq ( Amharic: ሐይቅ ሐይቅ, ) is a freshwater lake of Ethiopia. It is located north of Dessie, in the Debub Wollo Zone of the Amhara Region. The town of Hayq is to the west of the lake.
Lake Hayq is 6.7 km long and 6 km w ...
) at 2050 m elevation and another small railway station, the railway reaches its final destination, Weldiya, a small town, at an elevation of 1800 m. 10 km to the west of Weldiya, another major Ethiopian city is located at an elevation of 1900 m,
Weldiya
Weldiya or Woldia () is a town, woreda, and capital of the North Wollo Zone in northern Ethiopia. Located north of Dessie and southeast of Lalibela in the Amhara Region, this town has an elevation of 2112 meters above sea level.
A notable landma ...
. Weldiya / Weldiya are another major gate (the third one) to the Ethiopian Highlands with a road to
Lake Tana
Lake Tana ( am, ጣና ሐይቅ, T’ana ḥāyik’i; previously Tsana) is the largest lake in Ethiopia and the source of the Blue Nile. Located in Amhara Region in the north-western Ethiopian Highlands, the lake is approximately long and wid ...
and the surrounding major cities like
Gondar
Gondar, also spelled Gonder (Amharic: ጎንደር, ''Gonder'' or ''Gondär''; formerly , ''Gʷandar'' or ''Gʷender''), is a city and woreda in Ethiopia. Located in the North Gondar Zone of the Amhara Region, Gondar is north of Lake Tana on t ...
and
Debre Tabor
Debre Tabor ( am, ደብረ ታቦር, lit. "Mount Tabor") is a town and woreda in north-central Ethiopia. Located in the Debub Gondar Zone of the Amhara Region, about 100 kilometers southeast of Gondar and 50 kilometers east of Lake Tana, ...
. In addition, UNESCO
World Heritage Site
A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...
s like
Lalibela
Lalibela ( am, ላሊበላ) is a town in the Amhara Region of Ethiopia. Located in the Lasta district and North Wollo Zone, it is a tourist site for its famous rock-cut monolithic churches. The whole of Lalibela is a large and important site ...
are just around the corner from Weldiya. That makes the railway station a possible major point of interest for tourism and passenger train traffic.
Weldiya, although a small town, is considered to become a railway hub in the future. It will be the terminus of a total of four railways, if the
Railway Network of Ethiopia becomes a reality. Besides the ''Awash–Weldiya Railway'', which terminates here, another major railway will extend the railway to the north, to
Tigray. That is the
Weldiya–Mek'ele Railway. To the east is the
Weldiya–Tadjoura Railway. To the west, in extension of the Tadjoura railway, there will be the
Lake Tana–Weldiya Railway. All are planned except the railway to Mek'ele, which is under construction.
Railway characteristics
The railway was based in many aspects on the railway characteristics pre-defined by the Addis Ababa–Djibouti Railway to keep the railways interoperable. However, a few things (like the maximum slope) were adapted to the special conditions in the mountainous area.
* Gauge:
Standard gauge
A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), International gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge and European gauge in Europe, and SGR in Ea ...
* Track length: 392 km (428 km with 25 km of station lines and 11 km service lines)
* Tunnels: 12 (6 between Awash and Kombolcha, 6 between Kombolcha and Weldiya), total length 9,830 m
During the planning stage, 14 tunnels were foreseen and numbered. Two have been scrapped (tunnels 1 and 12), but the numbering scheme remained the same. Until the tunnels will get names, the original numbering will persist and will be used.
* Bridges: 65 (including overpasses, 20 with length >100 m, longest bridge with 658 m length at 57 m depth), total length 7,165 m
* Culverts: 917, total length 41 km.
* Couplers:
Janney AAR
* Brakes:
Air
The atmosphere of Earth is the layer of gases, known collectively as air, retained by Earth's gravity that surrounds the planet and forms its planetary atmosphere. The atmosphere of Earth protects life on Earth by creating pressure allowing for ...
* Electrification:
Overhead catenary
An overhead line or overhead wire is an electrical cable that is used to transmit electrical energy to electric locomotives, trolleybuses or trams. It is known variously as:
* Overhead catenary
* Overhead contact system (OCS)
* Overhead equipmen ...
25 kV AC
Railway electrification systems using alternating current (AC) at are used worldwide, especially for high-speed rail. It is usually supplied at the standard utility frequency (typically 50 or 60Hz), which simplifies traction substations. The d ...
/
50 Hz
The utility frequency, (power) line frequency (American English) or mains frequency (British English) is the nominal frequency of the oscillations of alternating current (AC) in a wide area synchronous grid transmitted from a power station to th ...
*
Train protection system
A train protection system is a railway technical installation to ensure safe operation in the event of human error.
Development
Train stops
The earliest systems were train stops, as still used by the New York City Subway, the Toronto subway, t ...
:
ETCS-2 (SIL-4) with 12 radio towers
* Maximum vehicle
loading gauge
A loading gauge is a diagram or physical structure that defines the maximum height and width dimensions in railway vehicles and their loads. Their purpose is to ensure that rail vehicles can pass safely through tunnels and under bridges, and ke ...
height : 5300 mm
* Target speed (passenger):
* Target speed (freight): , in rugged terrain
* Maximum train load (freight): gross
*
Minimum railway curve radius
The minimum railway curve radius is the shortest allowable design radius for the centerline of railway tracks under a particular set of conditions. It has an important bearing on construction costs and operating costs and, in combination with ...
: ( at difficult locations)
* Designed
transport capacity
Route capacity is the maximum number of vehicles, people, or amount of freight than can travel a given route in a given amount of time, usually an hour. It may be limited by the worst bottleneck in the system, such as a stretch of road with fewe ...
: 10 million tonnes annually (target is 8.5 million tonnes of freight plus passenger traffic)
* Maximum gradient: 2.65
% ( 1 in 38)
*
Level crossing
A level crossing is an intersection where a railway line crosses a road, Trail, path, or (in rare situations) airport runway, at the same level, as opposed to the railway line crossing over or under using an Overpass#Railway, overpass ...
s: permitted (no full
grade separation
In civil engineering (more specifically highway engineering), grade separation is a method of aligning a junction of two or more surface transport axes at different heights (grades) so that they will not disrupt the traffic flow on other tran ...
)
The single-track section is equipped with passing loops with three lines. Often, the passing loops are present at the location of train stations. The total length of passing loops is designed to be 1100 m. The railway line is almost fully electrified. Power is transmitted to eight substations at 230 kV (3 substations) and 130 kV (5 substations). Traction power is supplied at 48 km intervals.
Directly north of Kombolcha, the railway will have a few major infrastructure elements, in particular an operations centre. There is the ERC main depot for rolling stock, the main maintenance workshops and also the main logistics center of the whole
Railway Network of Ethiopa. The ERC bought a rescue train for emergency operations (e.g. a heavy rail crane for emergency operations), that will be stationed at the Kombolcha workshops. The facilities will include eight rail tracks within the operations centre which will have a size of 15.000 m
2.
Directly opposite to the operations centre across the railway, there is a
freight yard
A rail yard, railway yard, railroad yard (US) or simply yard, is a series of tracks in a rail network for storing, sorting, or loading and unloading rail vehicles and locomotives. Yards have many tracks in parallel for keeping rolling stock or u ...
with
dry port
A dry port (sometimes referred to as an inland port) is an inland intermodal terminal directly connected by road or rail to a seaport, operating as a centre for the transshipment of sea cargo to inland destinations.
In addition to their role in ...
close to an industrial park and also the
Kombolcha Airport. Everything is in reach within minutes, from the Kombolcha railway station to the dry port, the operations centre and the airport.
History
After the new
National Railway Network of Ethiopia
Rail transport in Ethiopia is done within the National Railway Network of Ethiopia, which currently consists of three electrified standard gauge railway lines: the Addis Ababa–Djibouti Railway, the Awash–Weldiya Railway and the Weldiya–Mekel ...
was considered to be constructed from 2010 on, the Awash–Weldiya Railway was second to be constructed after the
Addis Ababa–Djibouti Railway
The Addis Ababa–Djibouti Railway (; , , ) is a new standard gauge international railway that serves as the backbone of the new Ethiopian National Railway Network. The railway was inaugurated by Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn on January ...
. The railway was awarded to constructors in 2012. It then took more than two years, until 2014, before financing was secured so that construction of both railways could start in February 2015.
For this railway, the ERC was able to secure loans of US $1.165b at total costs of US $1.7b. This was facilitated through
Credit Suisse
Credit Suisse Group AG is a global investment bank and financial services firm founded and based in Switzerland. Headquartered in Zürich, it maintains offices in all major financial centers around the world and is one of the nine global " ...
. Funding was provided by a consortium of lenders, including
Türk Eximbank, the
Swedish National Export Credits Guarantee Board,
Denmark's Export Credit Board, and
Swiss Export Risk Insurance.
The
Turkish
Turkish may refer to:
*a Turkic language spoken by the Turks
* of or about Turkey
** Turkish language
*** Turkish alphabet
** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation
*** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey
*** Turkish communities and mi ...
company
Yapı Merkezi
Yapı Merkezi Holding A.Ş. is a group company whose field of activity is primarily in the construction industry. It was founded in 1965 by Ersin Arioglu and Koksal Anadol in Istanbul. As the first and largest company of the Yapı Merkezi Group, ...
and its European subcontractors were chosen to do the work.
The railway, internally dubbed AKH Railway, was to be constructed in two phases. The section from Awash to Kombolcha, 270 km long, represented the 1st section of the railway, while the remaining 122 km to Weldiya represented the second section. A first wave of construction started on this 2nd section in 2017. For the 1st section between Awash and Kombolcha it was expected to have all 270 km of rails laid in August 2017 so that first test runs on the railway were announced. A first test run reached a speed of 100 km/h on the railway.
However, the track laying required more work, the final track pads for the first phase of the main railway line (without counting in station and service lines) were laid in January 2018 at Awash at the junction to the Addis Ababa–Djibouti railway. In January 2019 the construction of the Awash-Kombolcha Railway Line has reached 97 percent.
The construction contract assumes costs per km of railway to be US $3.8m, which is surprisingly low for a challenging terrain with 12 tunnels; theoretical calculations led to US $7m per km in 2015. This gives rise to the speculation, that either another (and indirect) European funding plays a role or that only the first phase of the railway between Awash and Kombolcha was covered by the US $1.7b contract. In the latter case, the costs per km would rise to about US $6.3m per km, which sounds reasonable. Also, according to Yapı Merkezi, the main construction firm, the financing of the second phase between Kombolcha and Weldiya hasn't been fully secured by August 2017 and construction works there are uncertain to some extent.
Tigray War
In October 2021 it was reported that during the
Tigray War
The Tigray War; ; . was an armed conflict that lasted from 3 November 2020 to 3 November 2022. The war was primarily fought in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia between the Ethiopian federal government and Eritrea on one side, and the Tigray Peop ...
armed forces of the
Tigray People's Liberation Front
The Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF; ti, ህዝባዊ ወያነ ሓርነት ትግራይ, lit=Popular Struggle for the Freedom of Tigray), also called the Tigrayan People's Liberation Front, is a left-wing ethnic nationalist paramilitar ...
had looted or destroyed most of the construction equipment in Kombolcha. They also damaged part of the almost-finished railway infrastructure, such as tunnels and bridges. The disruption has thrown several thousand railway workers out of work. the construction site in Kombolcha was used as a camp for
internally displaced person
An internally displaced person (IDP) is someone who is forced to leave their home but who remains within their country's borders. They are often referred to as refugees, although they do not fall within the legal definitions of a refugee.
A ...
s. Nevertheless, the Ethiopian government still sees the project as a priority and intends to resume construction.
See also
*
Rail transport in Ethiopia
Rail transport in Ethiopia is done within the National Railway Network of Ethiopia, which currently consists of three electrified standard gauge railway lines: the Addis Ababa–Djibouti Railway, the Awash–Weldiya Railway and the Weldiya–Mek ...
*
East African Railway Master Plan
The East African Railway Master Plan is a proposal for rejuvenating the railways serving Tanzania, Kenya, and Uganda and adding railways to serve Rwanda and Burundi. The objective is to further the economic development of eastern Africa by increa ...
, railway network planned to be linked with this line.
*
Railway stations in Ethiopia
Current railway stations in Ethiopia are served by standard gauge railways of the National Railway Network of Ethiopia which is mostly under construction, except the Addis Ababa–Djibouti Railway. Other stations were built for the in 2018 stil ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Awash-Hara Gebeya Railway
Rail transport in Ethiopia
Railway lines in Ethiopia
Standard gauge railways in Africa