Addis Ababa–Djibouti Railway
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The Addis Ababa–Djibouti Railway (; , , ) is a new
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 ...
international
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 ...
that serves as the backbone of the new Ethiopian National Railway Network. The railway was inaugurated by Prime Minister
Hailemariam Desalegn Hailemariam Desalegn Boshe ( amh, ኃይለማሪያም ደሳለኝ ቦሼ; born 19 July 1965) is an Ethiopian politician who served as prime minister of Ethiopia from 2012 to 2018. He also previously served as deputy prime minister and Minister ...
on January 1, 2018. It provides
landlocked A landlocked country is a country that does not have territory connected to an ocean or whose coastlines lie on endorheic basins. There are currently 44 landlocked countries and 4 landlocked de facto states. Kazakhstan is the world's largest ...
Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...
with access to the sea, linking Ethiopia's
capital Capital may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** List of national capital cities * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences * Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used f ...
of
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 ...
with
Djibouti Djibouti, ar, جيبوتي ', french: link=no, Djibouti, so, Jabuuti officially the Republic of Djibouti, is a country in the Horn of Africa, bordered by Somalia to the south, Ethiopia to the southwest, Eritrea in the north, and the Red ...
and its
Port of Doraleh The Port of Doraleh is an extension of the Port of Djibouti, located 5 km west of Djibouti City. The multipurpose port has terminals for handling oil, bulk cargo, containers and livestock. It was partially owned and operated by DP World and ...
. More than 95% of Ethiopia's
trade Trade involves the transfer of goods and services from one person or entity to another, often in exchange for money. Economists refer to a system or network that allows trade as a market. An early form of trade, barter, saw the direct excha ...
passes through Djibouti, accounting for 70% of the activity at 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 ...
. The total railway capacity is 24.9 million tonnes of freight annually, with 6 million tonnes annually expected in 2023. These plans are accompanied by construction works at the Port of Doraleh to expand the annual cargo handling capacity from 6 to 14 million tonnes, with the aim of reaching 10 million tonnes of cargo by 2022. In 2019 the railway transported 84 073 passengers and generated US$1.2 million in revenue from that service, less than in 2018. In 2019 the railway generated US$40 million in both passenger and cargo revenue, far below the operating cost of US$70 million. During the first half of 2020, the railway transported 0.7 million tonnes of freight.


Railway


Operator

The railway line is jointly owned by both the Djiboutian and Ethiopian governments. In Ethiopia, the state-owned Ethiopian Railway Corporation represents the owner of the railway. The Ethio-Djibouti Standard Gauge Rail Transport S.C., a bi-national public company headquartered in Addis Ababa, was formed in 2017 to operate the railway. It is owned by the governments of Ethiopia (75% share) and Djibouti (25% share). Ethiopia holds the CEO post, represented through the Ethiopian Minister of Transport. The company currently occupies an administrative role, but it will take over railway operations at the beginning of 2024. Through 2023, all operations on the new railway will be undertaken jointly by the China Railway Group Limited (CREC) and the
China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation Ltd. (abbreviation CCECC) was established in June 1979 under the approval of the State Council of the People's Republic of China. It performs international contracting and economic cooperation, C ...
(CCECC). During this time, the companies will train local employees so that they can take over railway operations at the conclusion of the initial operation period. The Ethiopian Railway Corporation has also established the African Railway Academy in Bishoftu to graduate rail engineers.


Route

The Addis Ababa–Djibouti Railway runs roughly parallel to the old
metre-gauge Metre-gauge railways are narrow-gauge railways with track gauge of or 1 metre. The metre gauge is used in around of tracks around the world. It was used by European colonial powers, such as the French, British and German Empires. In Europe, la ...
Ethio–Djibouti Railway for most of its length. However, the standard-gauge railway is built on a new, straighter
right-of-way Right of way is the legal right, established by grant from a landowner or long usage (i.e. by prescription), to pass along a specific route through property belonging to another. A similar ''right of access'' also exists on land held by a gov ...
that allows for much higher speeds. New stations have been built outside city centres, and most of the old railway stations have been decommissioned. There are 68 viaducts and bridges, comprising 3% of the railway's total length. There are no tunnels. The total length of the railway line is 759 km, of which 754 km run between the two terminal stations at Sebeta and the Port of Doraleh. The remaining five kilometers are for shunting operations. A total of 666 km of the railway line is in Ethiopia, while a total of 93 km is in Djibouti. The 115 km section from
Sebeta Sabata ( Oromo: ''Sabbataa'') is a town in the Oromia Special Zone Surrounding Addis Ababa of the Oromia Region in Ethiopia. The Sabataa School for the Blind is located in Sabata. It became part of the Haile Selassie I Foundation in 1959, and ...
to
Adama Adama ( Oromo: ' or ', Amharic: አዳማ), formerly Nazreth ( am, ናዝሬት), is a city in the central Oromia Region of Ethiopia. Located in the East Shewa Zone southeast of the capital, Addis Ababa, the city sits between the base of an e ...
is the only double-track section of the line, and it also has the highest
grades Grade most commonly refers to: * Grade (education), a measurement of a student's performance * Grade, the number of the year a student has reached in a given educational stage * Grade (slope), the steepness of a slope Grade or grading may also r ...
with a net elevation loss of 650 meters. It features several viaducts with lengths of up to 800 meters. The remainder of the railway is single-track, with
passing loop A passing loop (UK usage) or passing siding (North America) (also called a crossing loop, crossing place, refuge loop or, colloquially, a hole) is a place on a single line railway or tramway, often located at or near a station, where trains or ...
s distributed evenly along its length. The railway begins at Sebeta, just outside of Ethiopia's capital of
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 city is served by two stations in its southern outskirts, at and Indode. The line then runs southeast to
Modjo Modjo were a French house musical duo formed in Paris in 1999. The duo was made up of producer Romain Tranchart (born 9 June 1976) and vocalist Yann Destagnol (Yann Destal; born 14 July 1978). They had major success in 2000 with their hit single ...
and Adama, both towns located in the Ethiopian Great Rift Valley. At Modjo, a railway junction exists for the planned Modjo–Hawassa Railway. In addition, at Modjo the railway is connected to the
Modjo Dry Port Modjo were a French house musical duo formed in Paris in 1999. The duo was made up of producer Romain Tranchart (born 9 June 1976) and vocalist Yann Destagnol (Yann Destal; born 14 July 1978). They had major success in 2000 with their hit single ...
, Ethiopia's most important inland
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 ...
and also Ethiopia's main hub for domestic and international freight services. At Adama, the railway turns northeast towards Dire Dawa. At Awash, there is a junction with the Awash–Hara Gebeya Railway, which is under construction as of 2018. Directly after Awash station, the line crosses 60 meters above 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 ...
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 ...
over a 155 meter long bridge, the main bridge of the railway. The railway then proceeds to
Dire Dawa Dire Dawa ( am, ድሬዳዋ, om, Dirree Dhawaa, 3=Place of Remedy; so, Diridhaba, meaning "where Dir hit his spear into the ground" or "The true Dir", ar, ديري داوا,) is a city in eastern Ethiopia near the Oromia and Somali Re ...
, where it turns and heads directly for Djibouti. Crossing the Ethiopia-Djibouti border between Dewale and
Ali Sabieh Ali Sabieh ( so, Cali Sabiix, ar, علي صبيح) is the second largest city in Djibouti. It is situated about Southwest of Djibouti City and north of the border with Ethiopia. It sprawls on a wide basin surrounded by granitic mountains on all ...
, the line reaches the
Djibouti Djibouti, ar, جيبوتي ', french: link=no, Djibouti, so, Jabuuti officially the Republic of Djibouti, is a country in the Horn of Africa, bordered by Somalia to the south, Ethiopia to the southwest, Eritrea in the north, and the Red ...
passenger terminal at
Nagad railway station Nagad Railway Station is the new and only passenger rail station of Djibouti City, the capital of Djibouti. Overview Located in the south of the city near Djibouti–Ambouli International Airport, it serves as the terminus for passenger rail se ...
, near
Djibouti–Ambouli International Airport Djibouti–Ambouli International Airport ( ar, مطار جيبوتي الدولي, french: link=no, Aéroport international Ambouli) is a joint civilian/military-use airport situated in the town of Ambouli, Djibouti. It serves the national capi ...
. Freight trains continue the last 12 km to the Port of Doraleh on diesel power.


Stations

There are 21 dedicated railway stations along the railway; all of them can serve as
passing loop A passing loop (UK usage) or passing siding (North America) (also called a crossing loop, crossing place, refuge loop or, colloquially, a hole) is a place on a single line railway or tramway, often located at or near a station, where trains or ...
stations, as they have three tracks or more (except the Adigala station which has only two tracks). Four of the 21 railway stations are designed as passing loops only, so there is no freight loading / unloading or passenger service. Two of the remaining 17 stations are
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 ...
s only and two others will be for passengers only. The remaining 13 stations can handle both passenger services as well as freight loading / unloading. The 15 passenger stations usually have a single boarding platform, with a station building attached to it. The platforms are about 200, 300, or 400 meters long. The Awash station, the only one with three platforms, is also located along the railway but also at the junction point with the Awash–Hara Gebeya Railway. The Furi-Labu and Dewale stations have two platforms. All station buildings along the line contain facilities for ticketing and refreshment, and they even have prayer rooms. The architecture of the station buildings (except that of Awash station) is
eclectic Eclectic may refer to: Music * ''Eclectic'' (Eric Johnson and Mike Stern album), 2014 * ''Eclectic'' (Big Country album), 1996 * Eclectic Method, name of an audio-visual remix act * Eclecticism in music, the conscious use of styles alien to th ...
, featuring traditional Ethiopian elements with some Chinese interpretation.


Specifications

The Addis Ababa–Djibouti Railway was based on the Chinese National Railway Class 2 Standard. However, some changes were made at the request of the Ethiopian Railway Corporation. Ethiopia is not a member of the Northern Corridor Integration Project, which has selected the Chinese Class 1 standard for all of its railways. * 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 ...
* 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 f ...
* 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 ...
* Target speed (passenger): * Target speed (freight): * Maximum train load (freight): gross * 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 ...
: 20 million tonnes annually * Gross
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 ...
: 24.9 million tonnes annually (taking double-track sections into account) *
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) * Maximum (ruling) gradient:1.85 % (1 in 54) * Length of arrival & departure track at passing loops: 850 m (dual locomotive: 880 m) esulting max. train length ~800 mref name="ShimelisAtile" /> * 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 ** width: 3400 mm * Trains run on the:
Left Left may refer to: Music * ''Left'' (Hope of the States album), 2006 * ''Left'' (Monkey House album), 2016 * "Left", a song by Nickelback from the album ''Curb'', 1996 Direction * Left (direction), the relative direction opposite of right * L ...
*
Railway signalling Railway signalling (), also called railroad signaling (), is a system used to control the movement of railway traffic. Trains move on fixed rails, making them uniquely susceptible to collision. This susceptibility is exacerbated by the enormou ...
&
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 ...
:
automatic block signaling Automatic block signaling (ABS), spelled automatic block signalling or called track circuit block (TCB ) in the UK, is a railroad communications system that consists of a series of signals that divide a railway line into a series of sections, ...
& ETCS-2 SIL4 *
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 ...
) * Double-stack
ISO containers ISO 668 - Series 1 freight containers — Classification, dimensions and ratings is an ISO international standard which classifies intermodal freight shipping containers ''nominally'', and standardizes their sizes, measurements and weight spec ...
= 2 x 2.4m or 2 x 2.9m (unknown). The operators of the railway consider an annual freight tonnage that is far below the railway limits. As a rule of thumb, the operators foresee an annual freight tonnage increase of about one million tonne per year, starting at 1–2 million tonnes in the first year of operations. Although road traffic in Ethiopia drives on the right, trains drive on the left in the double-track sections. This is consistent with Chinese railway practice. The single-track sections are equipped with passing loops, each of which is triple-track so that two trains can wait for the main line to clear. Each station also serves as a passing loop. The railway line is almost fully electrified. Power is transmitted at 230 kV and 130 kV to eight substations. Traction power is supplied at 35.8 km intervals, with 18+1 stations in Ethiopia and three in Djibouti. General electrification ends after the
Djibouti Djibouti, ar, جيبوتي ', french: link=no, Djibouti, so, Jabuuti officially the Republic of Djibouti, is a country in the Horn of Africa, bordered by Somalia to the south, Ethiopia to the southwest, Eritrea in the north, and the Red ...
–Nagad passenger station. Trains are pulled by diesel locomotives to reach the Port of Doraleh and cargo terminals at inland dry ports. This is necessary to avoid interference between the overhead catenary and loading cranes.


Rolling stock

The rolling stock is allocated from the National Railway Network of Ethiopia. All the
rolling stock The term rolling stock in the rail transport industry refers to railway vehicles, including both powered and unpowered vehicles: for example, locomotives, freight and passenger cars (or coaches), and non-revenue cars. Passenger vehicles can b ...
had been purchased by Ethiopian Railways Corporation (ERC). All the rolling stock has been transferred to the Ethio-Djibouti Standard Gauge Railway Share Company (EDR) which operates the railway as a share kind contribution by ERC. EDR owns these rolling stocks. EDR is also expected to procure additional rolling stocks to expand its operations. Djibouti did not buy any rolling stock, and even shunting operations at Djibouti's Port of Doraleh will be performed by EDR rolling stock and EDR personnel. Djibouti chose to pay its share on railway construction instead of buying vehicles.


History

Construction began in 2011 and was largely complete in 2016, but final testing continued through 2017. The line was formally opened for commercial operations on 1 January 2018.


Decline of the metre-gauge railway

The Addis Ababa–Djibouti railway supersedes the Ethio-Djibouti Railway, a metre-gauge railway that was originally built by the French from 1894 to 1917, which for some time in the 20th century was the only way to reach Ethiopia from the outside world. As the railway deteriorated in the 1980s due to a lack of spare parts and maintenance, Addis Ababa lost railroad access to the sea by 2004. Rail service ran between
Dire Dawa Dire Dawa ( am, ድሬዳዋ, om, Dirree Dhawaa, 3=Place of Remedy; so, Diridhaba, meaning "where Dir hit his spear into the ground" or "The true Dir", ar, ديري داوا,) is a city in eastern Ethiopia near the Oromia and Somali Re ...
and
Djibouti City Djibouti (also called Djibouti City and in many early English texts and on many early maps, Jibuti; so, Magaalada Jabuuti, french: link=no, Ville de Djibouti, ar, مدينة جيبوتي, aa, Gabuutî Magaala) is the eponymous capital of Dji ...
until 2010 and then again from 2013 to 2014. Since 2014, operation has only been possible on 213 km of rehabilitated tracks in Ethiopia between Dire Dawa and the border with Djibouti at Guelile. The connection between the commercial centres of Ethiopia (e.g. Addis Ababa) and the sea ports in Djibouti had been broken.


Construction (2011–2016)

At that time, Ethiopia initiated an ambitious Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP) to develop the country's economy through infrastructure investment. A new electrified
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 was expected to reduce cargo transit times from three days by road to twelve hours by train, and cargo transport costs to one-third of the cost of road transport. In 2011, the
Ethiopian Railway Corporation Ethiopian Railway, commonly known as ER, full name Ethiopian Railway Corporation, is the national railway operator of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, under the regulation of the Ministry of Transport. ERC operates passenger and freight ...
(ERC) awarded contracts for railway construction from Addis Ababa to the Djibouti border to two Chinese state-owned companies, the
China Railway Group China Railway Group Limited known as CREC (the acronym of its predecessor and parent company China Railway Engineering Corporation) is a Chinese construction company which floats in Shanghai and Hong Kong stock exchanges. The major shareholder o ...
(CREC) and the
China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation Ltd. (abbreviation CCECC) was established in June 1979 under the approval of the State Council of the People's Republic of China. It performs international contracting and economic cooperation, C ...
(CCECC). The stretch from
Sebeta Sabata ( Oromo: ''Sabbataa'') is a town in the Oromia Special Zone Surrounding Addis Ababa of the Oromia Region in Ethiopia. The Sabataa School for the Blind is located in Sabata. It became part of the Haile Selassie I Foundation in 1959, and ...
to
Mieso Mieso ( om, Mi'eesso) is a town in eastern Ethiopia. Located in the West Hararghe Zone of the Oromia Region, it has a latitude and longitude of with an elevation of 1394 meters above sea level. Overview A road was constructed connecting the t ...
was awarded to CREC, and the section from Mieso to the Djibouti border was awarded to CRCC. In 2012, Djibouti selected CRCC to complete the final 100 km to the port of Djibouti. The total costs of the railway amounted to US$1.873 billion for the Sebeta-Mieso section, US$1.12 billion for the Mieso–
Dewele Dewele (French ''Douanlé'' or ''Daouenlé'') is a town in Ethiopia, near to the Ethiopia and Djibouti border. Located in the Shinile Zone in the Somali Region the town has a longitude and latitude of with an elevation of 898 meters above sea le ...
section and US$525 million for the Dewele–Port of Doraleh section. In 2013, loans totalling US$3 billion were secured from the
Exim Bank of China The Export–Import Bank of China (Chexim - China Exim Bank) () is one of two institutional banks in China chartered to implement the state policies in industry, foreign trade, economy, and foreign aid to other developing countries, and prov ...
, with US$2.4 billion going to the Ethiopian section of the railway and the balance to be spent in Djibouti. Additional funding was secured from the
China Development Bank The China Development Bank (CDB) () is a development bank in the People's Republic of China (PRC), led by a cabinet minister at the Governor level, under the direct jurisdiction of the State Council. As one of three policy banks in China, it ...
and the
Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Limited (ICBC; ) is a Chinese multinational bank. Founded as a limited company on 1 January 1984, ICBC is a state-owned commercial bank. With capital provided by the Ministry of Finance of China, the ...
. 20,000 Ethiopians and 5,000 Djiboutians were hired for construction work. Track-laying was completed on the Mieso–Djibouti segment of the project in June 2015. In 2015, farmers in Ethiopia had suffered crop failures of between 50% and 90% due to a catastrophic drought, and the port of Djibouti was backed up with ships waiting to unload grain for hungry Ethiopians. Although construction was still in progress on some sections, the completed portion of the railway was put into emergency operation in November 2015 to carry grain to drought-stricken Ethiopia. The officially completed Ethiopian section was formally inaugurated on 5 October 2016 in the new Furi-Labu railway station in Addis Ababa, by the presidents of Ethiopia and Djibouti. On 10 January 2017, the 100 km section of Djibouti side was inaugurated in a ceremony held in the new
Nagad railway station Nagad Railway Station is the new and only passenger rail station of Djibouti City, the capital of Djibouti. Overview Located in the south of the city near Djibouti–Ambouli International Airport, it serves as the terminus for passenger rail se ...
of Djibouti City by Djibouti's President
Ismail Omar Guelleh Ishmael ''Ismaḗl''; Classical/Qur'anic Arabic: إِسْمَٰعِيْل; Modern Standard Arabic: إِسْمَاعِيْل ''ʾIsmāʿīl''; la, Ismael was the first son of Abraham, the common patriarch of the Abrahamic religions; and is cons ...
and Ethiopia's prime minister
Hailemariam Dessalegn Hailemariam Desalegn Boshe ( amh, ኃይለማሪያም ደሳለኝ ቦሼ; born 19 July 1965) is an Ethiopian politician who served as Prime Minister of Ethiopia, prime minister of Ethiopia from 2012 to 2018. He also previously served as deputy ...
, and the director general of the
International Union of Railways The International Union of Railways (UIC, french: Union internationale des wikt:chemin de fer, chemins de fer) is an international rail transport industry body. History The railways of Europe originated as many separate concerns, and there wer ...
(UIC), Jean-Pierre Loubinoux. A survey of
East Africa East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territories make up Eastern Africa: Due to the historical ...
n railway projects by the Ugandan government in early 2017 revealed that the actual costs of the Addis Ababa–Djibouti Railway were around US $5.2m per km, resulting in total costs of around US $4.5b. This is approximately 30% more than originally planned.


Trial service (2016–2017)

The two prime contractors, CREC and CCECC, formed a consortium to operate the entire railway for the first 3–5 years, while local personnel are trained. Despite being inaugurated in October 2016 and January 2017, Djiboutian authorities still considered the railway to be under construction and expected it to become operational not before the end of 2017. An official trial service began on the railway after inauguration in October 2016. On 9 May 2017, the first thorough stress test was conducted, with more than 30 trains on the line at the same time. Passenger trains ran between Furi-Labu and
Dire Dawa Dire Dawa ( am, ድሬዳዋ, om, Dirree Dhawaa, 3=Place of Remedy; so, Diridhaba, meaning "where Dir hit his spear into the ground" or "The true Dir", ar, ديري داوا,) is a city in eastern Ethiopia near the Oromia and Somali Re ...
, while freight services ran between the Port of Doraleh and the
Modjo Dry Port Modjo were a French house musical duo formed in Paris in 1999. The duo was made up of producer Romain Tranchart (born 9 June 1976) and vocalist Yann Destagnol (Yann Destal; born 14 July 1978). They had major success in 2000 with their hit single ...
near
Mojo Mojo may refer to: * Mojo (African-American culture), a magical charm bag used in voodoo Arts, entertainment and media Film and television * MOJO HD, an American television network * ''Mojo'' (play), by Jez Butterworth, made into a 1997 film * ' ...
railway station. Shortage of electrical power has been blamed for test failures. The railway finally began commercial operations on 1 January 2018.


Railway integration

The construction of the railway line was an EPC/Turnkey project. However, the accompanying infrastructure was neglected, and the railway was not ready to go into commercial operation at its commissioning.


Main issues

The railway line was built without access roads, trunk lines, spur lines, branch lines, storage facilities, goods handling facilities or dry ports. It was official policy to build a "cheap railway line first", as the integration work was considered to be "easy and quick". Another official said that railway integration was too complex to consider at the planning stage, as many local authorities would have to coordinate their efforts. As one of the many consequences, most railway stations are far outside the city centers and even outside the towns and cities they are intended to serve. For example, the Dire Dawa train station is located 10 km away from Dire Dawa. Due to a lack of inter-country coordination, the Port of Doraleh in Djibouti, despite being the main cargo terminus for the railway, was not linked to the railway. No spur lines were built to the three different terminals in question, and the infrastructure for handling bulk goods and fuels was totally missing. After the inauguration of the Addis Ababa–Djibouti Railway at the end of 2016, the Ethiopian Railway Corporation (ERC) in Ethiopia found itself with debt equal to one-third of Ethiopia's annual state budget. As a result, there was no additional funding available to complete the surrounding infrastructure necessary to place the railway into commercial operation.


Measures to overcome the issues

State-owned companies other than the ERC stepped in to build and construct the needed infrastructure. Active in particular was the ''Ethiopian Shipping and Logistics Enterprise'' (ESL) to build spurs to facilities like dry ports and the dry ports as such. Construction of the
Dire Dawa Dry Port Dire may refer to: Places *Diré, a town located in the Tombouctou Region of Mali *Diré Cercle, an administrative subdivision of the Tombouctou Region of Mali, whose administrative center (in French, ''chef-lieu'') is the mentioned town of Diré ...
with a spur line commenced in late 2017. However, it took 12 months just to negotiate the contract for the dry port construction and the construction works turned out to be much more expensive than originally expected. The construction of a spur line to
Modjo Dry Port Modjo were a French house musical duo formed in Paris in 1999. The duo was made up of producer Romain Tranchart (born 9 June 1976) and vocalist Yann Destagnol (Yann Destal; born 14 July 1978). They had major success in 2000 with their hit single ...
started in 2017 and was well underway in May 2017. The Modjo Dry Port railway loading and unloading facilities became partially operational at the end of 2017, but are (2018) still not completed. The three missing railway facilities at the Port of Doraleh, connections and railway terminals (Djibouti Container Terminal (DCT), Doraleh Multipurpose Port (DMP) and the Horizon Oil Terminal (HDTL)) will "soon" be built through a combined effort of the two governments of Djibouti and Ethiopia. In the second half of 2017, construction works started at the Port of Doraleh near the DCT to link this container terminal with the railway. The Addis Ababa–Djibouti Railway project provided lessons for other railway projects in Ethiopia. The Awash–Hara Gebeya Railway and the Hara Gebeya–Mek'ele Railway construction projects were expanded to include supporting infrastructure. To make up for the current lack of railway revenues, new and existing railways could be partially outsourced or sold to private investors. To increase utilisation of the railways, any interested railway transportation service provider will be allowed to earn a license to use the existing railway infrastructure.


See also

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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 ...
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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 still ...


Further reading

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Addis Ababa-Djibouti Railway Djibouti–Ethiopia relations Rail transport in Djibouti Rail transport in Ethiopia Railway lines in Djibouti Railway lines in Ethiopia Standard gauge railways in Africa Transport in Addis Ababa Transport in the Arab League Railway lines opened in 2017 2017 establishments in Africa International railway lines