African Entrepreneurship Record

”There are many components to our country’s railway system, with diverse departments and enterprises, including large state-owned railway companies, mining companies’ self-built railways, urban railways, regional railways, other types of enterprise-specific railways, dedicated agricultural railways, and more.”

”The main characteristics are the numerous small and large railways, the significant management challenge, and the difficulties in integrating these railways into a network. The national trunk railway network is relatively manageable, but the problem lies primarily in the smaller railways, direct railways, and their lack of tight connection with the trunk railways.”

”Among them, the mining railways are the most typical, with their construction restricted by resource distribution, especially severe in the southern and central regions.”

”The national trunk railway is the major artery of the East African railway network, while the branch lines and other types of railways are the capillaries. Currently, East Africa’s primary issue is the poor connection between the capillaries and the major arteries, which leads to inefficiencies in logistics and passenger flows in economic development.”

The issues reflected by the Ministry of Railways are objective facts. In reality, among the rail systems of various countries, East Africa is relatively better, with railroad management in Europe’s strong economic countries being the most meticulous and with higher density.

The worst is the United States railway. Although the U.S. has a massive number of railways, it is entirely guided by capital, with over a thousand railway companies. Without a unified, strong management body, these small and large railway companies often act independently.

Railways are related not only to economic interests but also to national defense, transportation, and social domains. Take Germany and Austria-Hungary, among European countries, for instance, they emphasize the military use of railways, stress national control, and do not solely prioritize economic interests.

Therefore, for the long-term development of the railway system, the fundamental aim is to enhance railway utilization efficiency while simultaneously meeting the needs of the economy, society, transportation, and national defense.

To improve railway utilization efficiency and avoid resource wastage requires a coordinating body to balance and coordinate the various uses of railways.

Ernst asked Andre, ”What suggestions does the Ministry of Railways have for improving our railway utilization efficiency?”

Andre presented a plan to Ernst and explained, ”Your Highness, as mentioned earlier, the interaction of information is an essential means for the railway system to further enhance its potential.”

”Although the East African railway network is relatively developed, poor communication and coordination among different nodes, or failure to reach consensus, will severely hinder improvements in railway utilization efficiency.”

”For example, suppose a steel plant in Mbeya City produces an additional 20,000 tons of steel annually due to technical reasons. However, due to delays in information recording by the original railway system, these raw materials cannot be transported, which will inevitably have a negative impact. Establishing a well-structured information exchange for the railway system can perfectly resolve this issue.”

”The current mainstream communication modes for the railway system are letters, telegraphs, wireless, and telephones. Letters are the slowest in efficiency, and telegraphs and telephones are used most frequently. However, telegraphs and telephones are also restricted by lines. For example, a flood disaster can lead to regional power outages, causing communication loss between two stations, potentially triggering a regional collapse of the railway system.”

”Thus, ensuring multiple modes of communication and establishing a unified information processing platform is our Ministry of Railways’ primary goal. This includes vigorously promoting the widespread adoption of wireless equipment, which is less affected by terrain, as a secondary means of railway communication.”

”A unified information processing platform can streamline our national railway system through this platform, reduce intermediate links, and effectively address large-scale railway system collapse events.”

In simple terms, the Ministry of Railways aims to construct a nationwide independent railway communication system. In the past, similar systems existed, primarily military railway communication systems that played a significant role during the South African war.

The importance of national defense is self-evident, but the main focus of the railway remains the economic and civilian sectors, so the new communication system’s primary service targets are also the economic and civilian sectors.

”If it’s new construction, wouldn’t it lead to a waste of resources?” Ernst inquired.

Andre explained, ”Our idea is not to build separate lines but to retrofit and upgrade the existing railway communication system. We can reuse the existing communication system, further optimizing it. New construction of lines will undoubtedly exist, but it is merely a supplement, accounting for less than 20%.”

Ernst nodded and said, ”If that’s the case, then this plan should be feasible. You should not rush for modifications; instead, conduct further research and inspection to ensure it is foolproof before proceeding with construction, as this is a major issue concerning the entire railway system. It cannot be approached recklessly, even if it cannot be completed within the First Five-Year Plan, it can be implemented in the Second Five-Year Plan.”

Andre nodded and said, ”We share the same thought, considering our current construction tasks are arduous. It’s still challenging to complete the construction of a new 50,000 km of railways within the First Five-Year Plan, so we certainly cannot allocate more energy.”

During the 1990s, East Africa’s railway construction barely reached 90,000 km over ten years, so the 50,000-km railway construction task already occupies most of the energy for the current railway system.

Of course, this goal isn’t unattainable, as compared to the 1990s, the productivity level of East African railways has certainly increased significantly.

Andre continued, ”Besides the communication system, our second plan is to build a batch of new marshaling yards in national railway hubs and important economic production areas to improve material allocation efficiency.”

”Unlike highways, railways lack flexibility, so many materials need to be uniformly redistributed, concentratedly sent to corresponding regions through marshaling yards. In this regard, we in East Africa are slightly behind Europe.”

”Europe has a high railway density, dense population and cities, high level of economic development, and large freight volume, so railway utilization efficiency is also high. In contrast, many cities in East Africa were developed even later than the railway construction, which further increases the difficulty.”

East Africa’s rapid urban development has substantially increased industrial and material demands, naturally posing higher requirements for the transportation industry. This makes existing transportation and regional economic development levels mismatched.

Such significant volatility will naturally affect the efficiency of East African railway utilization, and it cannot be completely eliminated, as urban and regional economic development is highly uncertain, especially in industrial and mining cities.

This requires the East African railway system to continually adjust based on fluctuation ranges, minimizing impact, which is, in a sense, a fortunate hassle.

After all, countries with only a few thousand kilometers of railway like Japan have no expertise in dealing with such challenges faced by East Africa.

For a railway powerhouse like East Africa, railway management challenges are also the greatest, especially since the East African railway structure has not stabilized. After all, Ernst’s medium- to long-term goal is to build approximately 300,000 km of railways, and the current railway mileage in East Africa hasn’t reached half that target.

The only certainty is the trunk railway construction. The trunk railway primarily serves national transportation, with minimal influence, whereas the branch railways are uncertain, given their construction is restricted by various factors.

”The ultimate goal of the Ministry of Railways is to achieve the networking of national railways, thereby realizing top-down unified management of the railway system. This would enable the full utilization of information and resources, ensuring the overall smooth operation of our railways, and achieve rational allocation of railway freight and passenger transport, leading to a substantial increase in the entire railway system’s utilization rate.”

”This railway network will drive the national railway towards more standardized, efficient, and rational targets, enhancing railway construction quality while ensuring the quantity of our railway construction, providing better service for national economic development.”

Ernst certainly supports this, as only by aligning with economic and other domain development needs can the potential for East African railway development be ensured, supporting the sustainable development path of East Africa’s railway industry.