African Entrepreneurship Record

Chapter 1353: Chapter 358: Railroad Powerhouse

Compared to population data, East Africa’s railway traffic data is released faster, and after entering the fourth and fifth planning phases, the momentum of East African railway construction has completely slowed down, except for the rapid increase in railway mileage in the Northwest Region.

In the field of railway construction, over the past two decades, East Africa has fully realized the advantages of a planned economic system, achieving remarkable accomplishments.

East Africa’s Minister of Railways, Wells, reported the relevant situation: ”By 1918, the total completed and operational railway mileage nationwide had reached more than 302,700 kilometers, ranking second in the world.”

”From the 1990s of the last century to the first two decades of this century, these years marked the explosion period for our railway growth. Most of the national railways were constructed during this phase.”

”Consequently, this completed the world’s third most developed regional railway network, second only to North America and Europe, bolstering our nation’s strong economic rise.”

North America is undoubtedly the region with the most railway construction globally. The United States alone constructed nearly 400,000 square kilometers of railway, surpassing the railway mileage of all other continents globally.

Europe’s railway was barely increased due to the impact of war, but by the end of World War I, European railway mileage had already approached 350,000 kilometers. Thus, even during wartime when Europe’s railway didn’t grow, it remained solidly in the second position worldwide, especially the railway density in Western Europe, comparable to the eastern United States.

However, North America is not only made up of the United States, but also Canada and Mexico, whose railway construction achievements are quite commendable. Before World War I, Canadian railway had reached more than 50,000 kilometers, and by now may have exceeded 60,000 kilometers, while Mexican railway was over 20,000 kilometers.

Adding in the other countries in North America, the railway mileage of the entire continent is around 500,000 kilometers, firmly occupying the world’s number one spot.

Wells said, ”Using nations as statistical units, our country is the world’s second largest railway country after the United States. Among our railways, nearly 4,000 kilometers have been converted to electric railways, putting us at the world’s top level.”

Railway electrification refitting is now a major research and promotion project by the East African railway department, especially since at the beginning of this century, Ernst had already emphasized that maintaining East Africa’s total railway mileage around 300,000 kilometers would suffice.

This implies that after the fourth and fifth planning phases, the railway department’s desire to accumulate political capital simply by increasing railway mileage was stifled at the budding stage.

Moreover, the speed of railway electrification refit is far slower than past ordinary railway construction, mainly due to two reasons: firstly, the increased standards for railway construction and the more stringent inspections; secondly, the complete abolition of East Africa’s slavery system.

During the planned economic era, East Africa’s railway construction speed could be said to be unparalleled globally, with peak annual construction reaching nearly 14,000 kilometers, averaging over 10,000 kilometers annually.

This is equivalent to constructing one-third of the entire national railway of France each year, with France’s total railway mileage before World War I being just over 30,000 kilometers.

In the era of fully planned economy, East Africa’s railway construction speed even surpassed that of the railway construction giant - the United States.

There is no doubt about calling the United States a world railway construction giant because since the 1930s of the last century, after U.S. railway mileage surpassed that of the British mainland, the U.S. had always held the position of the world’s top railway country, meaning it had occupied this throne for nearly a century now.

Moreover, according to the current trend of U.S. railway construction, the U.S. is likely to maintain this position for a long time, and may even keep it indefinitely, considering the predestined time dimension that the U.S. railway mileage maintained the world’s top spot into the 21st century.

In this timeline, the country most likely to threaten the U.S.’s world-leading railway mileage position is East Africa, but unfortunately, Ernst’s plans never intended to surpass the United States.

The reason East African railway construction speed nearly doubled that of the United States over the past two decades is due to East Africa’s extreme exploitation of the slave economy. Railway construction difficulty mainly lies in three areas: labor force, technology, and land.

The latter two factors had little impact on East Africa. Technologically, since the 1970s of the last century, East Africa accumulated experience in railway construction and established a relatively complete talent training mechanism. As for land, the nationalization of land in East Africa made land acquisition work very convenient, combined with the colonial benefits of East African countries, making land issues rather easy to solve.

Conversely, in other countries, land is a major challenging issue, such as in predestined time India, which was gravely plagued by private land ownership, severely hampering India’s economic development.

Having resolved technological and land difficulties, East African railway construction only faced limitations in materials and labor force, and by the 1990s of the last century, East Africa already had a certain industrial foundation and rich resources, making railway construction materials sufficient.

The last factor, labor force, was the fundamental reason driving East Africa’s railway construction to achieve a sensational success from the late 19th century to the early 20th century.

During this period, East African railway construction focused on achieving miracles through sheer force, no matter the high mountains and steep peaks, rivers and lakes, or deserts and rainforests. In the eyes of the East African Government and Ministry of Railways, the magnitude of difficulty never depended on geographical limitations, but on how many ”lives” were invested.