I step very gingerly on loose railway ties when we bird along the Mississippi River close to the horrible derailment last spring, wondering why Kenya can build a modern railway and we can’t.
The quick answer is that Kenya isn’t: China is, in Kenya. The second quick answer is because Republicans think they can get along just fine without government invested infrastructure.
Kenya’s 380-mile modern, fast standard gauge railway project is “running ahead of schedule.” When fully operating in 2017 it will cut the travel time between the coastal city of Mombasa and megalopolis of Nairobi down to 4 hours.
China is paying for 90% of the $3.8 billion dollar cost with the Kenyan government paying the remainder and then of course paying for the operating costs.
Railways worldwide are usually not profitable … as in the United States. That’s because they don’t have as many derailments.
Railways are understood in the sane, modern world to be a lost leader, a necessary infrastructure that builds commerce and ultimately increases tax revenues enough to justify them while providing the population with a modern service.
Like … a sidewalk.
It’s generally an idea Republicans don’t get: providing their constituencies with infrastructure. They prefer to believe the private sector will know when to build something.
“America’s sparse rail network is so far behind [the] standards in [European] countries,” the Guardian newspaper reported after our spate of spring crashes.
A private sector that prefers to clean up toxic leaking bonfires because it’s less expensive than building something that won’t crash is how America does it, today.
Kenya’s new railway replaces the decrepit “Iron Snake” that was built more than 100 years ago and is essentially useless, constantly breaking down and often taking 19 hours to travel from Mombasa to Nairobi.
The railway was one of the first undertakings of the British colonial regime, recognizing that transportation of goods and people was essential to development. The colonial power pursued similar projects in its Indian and Asian colonies.
Pity we overthrew them too early.
China has significantly withdrawn its investment in Africa since its slowdown this year, but the project was begun early last year and it appears the Chinese will see it through.
Chinese attempts to “cut corners” with a standard Chinese-designed culvert were thwarted in March by Kenyan authorities who insisted on sticking to the original British design. Work was actually stopped for several weeks until the Chinese agreed to continue with the original design.
Remarkably the railway will cut right through Nairobi National Park and parts of the Tsavo national parks, but there has been little opposition.
“We can’t say to the Nairobi resident: ‘You have to sit in a traffic jam for the rest of your life’,” the famous conservationist and anthropologist Richard Leakey told reporters.
China isn’t just playing nice guy. China had lots of cash it needed to invest a few years ago. It knows that Africa often produces as great a return on investment as in its own society. And Africa has … oil and other natural resources.
But this mercantile motivation is what capitalism is all about, right? Then how come our own government won’t invest in its own people? Because the private sector is so greedy it holds all the cards?
Yeah, that’s it.
Really Jim, you should stick to writing travel journals and
guiding, leave off the politics. We owe China Trillions are you saying we should just turn over USA to them so we can have a new train. Kenya is not the only Africa Country they are taking over, ask Zimbabwe and RSA. Maybe Hillary will build is a new train.
But I loved the old Iron Snake back in 1986!
USA needs to modernize in many different ways, including high speed rail. 20 of 28 years prior to President Obama, which party was in the White House and/or busy blocking important, responsible and far-sighted initiatives in Congress? Who was it that defied logic in Mid-East, cherry picked “intelligence,” and put a three trillion dollar ill-advised war on US credit card, which led directly to ongoing ISIS terrorism? High speed rail system would be a big bargain for US citizens by comparison. GOP administrations create debt ( in 8-years Reagan raised national debt 18 times!!), destroys functionality of Congress, and creates distrust of US Gov’t, then whines about Gov’t not functioning. Thanks for your excellent blog, Jim. You’re always telling it like it is.
Great column. I have two kids in the northwest and they speak of rotting bridges all the time. I just hope China finishes the job, as the current downturn affects everybody. We’ve been promised a Phoenix to Tucson high speed rail for the last 35 years or so…….any day!