Issue 91 - HaRakevet

ut also a very large capital investment. Realistically,
this seems impossible for the near
future.
More hopeful is the plan for the
mine project at Embadorho, which only
some 25km. from Asmara. The old alignment
through the centre of Asmara has been partially
built over, and so already project planning
is under way for a new alignment - three
variants are being investigated by an Italian
Consultancy: One is the Reconstruction of the
line on the old alignment through the town; A
second involves passing round the north side
of the town; the third is a southern by-pass,
and this seems the most realistic, because
the branch southwards could be built from
the existing Asmara station and then follow
the ring road currently under construction,
until the old alignment onwards to Keren is
reached and also a branch could be built on
towards the mine. The mine at Embadorho
reckons on producing some 250,000 tons a
year, which would have to be brought to the
harbour at Massawa.
For the railway in its current format
around 500,000 tons of goods a year would
be the maximum possible. When the mine
and the cement works have their rail connections,
one would be kept pretty busy keeping
this volume of traffic moving over the
single-track mountain line.
Page 26
Potential Orders.
The mine operators have promised to pay
the transport costs for the first five years in
advance, in order to give the railway adequate
capital funds for investment. But that
does not seem likely to be enough. For full
operations it is reckoned that eight Diesel
locomotives and 180 new wagons would
be required. In addition there is a need for
sleepers, rails, points and other permanent
way material, and a signalling system - probably
based on radio despatching. Altogether
a sum of around 50 Million Dollars is calculated
as being necessary. Truly a tiny amount,
compared to the sums which various banks
suck from the taxpayer in Germany at present.
But for Eritrea this is a giant sum.
The locomotives should be diesel-hydraulic
(people have good experience
with the Krupp engines!) and have
around 1,500hp. Offers from China come
to less than a million dollars apiece, the German
offer is around 2.2M Dollars. In addition
one would like five or six new railcars, each
with 100 - 120 seats, for passenger traffic.
This latter seems to be a bit excessive or
over-ambitious - the railcars would never
pay for themselves, this would be a pure
luxury. In addition timetabled passenger services
would be hard to combine with the
planned amount of goods traffic - track capacity
would almost certainly be filled with
freight traffic alone. People still refer to the
time when the Italians were preparing their
advance against Ethiopia, and over thirty train
pairs per day were operated over the line.
But that was done under an almost military
organisation, with well-trained railwaymen.
In addition kilometres of line need
new thousands of sleepers and rails. It is
hoped to use concrete sleepers; purchase
of an entire sleeper-producing works has
failed due to price reasons, so these would
have to be imported. But all this would have
to be covered with the capital investment of
$50M. The staff costs in Eritrea are hardly important
in this calculation. There are currently
around 320 members of railway staff, most
of them track workers. There is no desire to
dismiss any of them, for when the construction
of the lines to the mine and the cement
works really gets going....
It is also intended to modernise the
Massawa - Asmara line. Planned is a reconstruction
with heavier rail and the extending
of crossing loops. The bridges will need to
be checked for their load-bearing capacity
and when necessary renewed. It is obvious
that this will adversely affect their appearance;
nowadays, all over the world, one sees
only insults to the eyesight in the form of concrete
beams - rounded arches are no longer
planned.
Not Just Money.
It is however not just Money that is necesary,
but the understanding as to how to operate
a railway. After more than three decades
without regular train traffic the knowledge
as to how to operate a railway properly has
been lost or discarded. There are no longer
any engineers who can truly recall the days
of a flourishing railway operation. In consequence
major technical mistakes are made
and seemingly there is no rule book to teach
people how to run a railway. With this context
one can only be somewhat fearful at the
thought of what might happen when the railwaymen
are suddenly confronted with eight
new powerful diesel locomotives and 180
new wagons and the expectation that they
will shift maybe 1,500 tons per day. Train
weights can hardly be expected to exceed
ca. 250 tons. In comparison, a locomotive of
Class 442 could haul 90 tons on the steepest
sections, a Krupp Diesel loco of 1957 could
manage 100 tons. 250 tons is in consequence
not a limit taken arbitrarily. A timetable of seven
train pairs per day seems relatively modest
and could surely be managed - but who will
organise it? Foreign help is urgently needed,
even when people would rather do as much
as possible themselves. Should a small, modest
railway operation could be commenced
at first, the railwaymen would be able gradually
to get used to regular operations - but
actually what is currently envisaged is a ‘big
bang’ and starting everything at once.
What the railway also needs is the
basis for its own internal accounting system.
The last accounts for the operations were distorted
due to the war. Who is there in Eritrea
,cfrv
who can calculate freight rates that would
cover costs, who can arrange a proper set of
expenses and incomes, who is in a position
to prepare a business plan? The education
that the children currently receive is certainly
good in African terms, but there is a lack of
experience. Experience also with coping
with road competition, which will certainly
re-awaken when the railway attempts to gain
for itself a potentially lucrative transport contract.
One can only hope that the Western
countries will send in some honest brokers
who are both competent and able to work
in Eritrea’s interests. There is already talk of
EU development funds which would cover
the financial requirements; in which case one
hopes that people understand that this will
mean going on a shopping tour within the EU
countries, and therefore ignoring the cheaper
offers from the Far East, including India - not
yet mentioned - which can certainly offer
competitive, robust and suitable machines.
The Future of the Charter Specials.
This fantastic mountain railway is
one of the very few in the world where one
can still run authentic historical trains in the
correct context. In fact I can only think of one
other State Railway where it is still possible to
run trains as they were forty years ago, and
this is also in Africa, in Zimbabwe. Whilst it is
hard to foresee the future there, it does seem
clear that in Eritrea there will be economic
development, however slow and gradual.
The political situation is still rather tense, due
partially to the way Eritrea handles journalists
- UN Sanction have already been applied.
Nevertheless the interests of the mining firm
will take priority over the political interests
and the railway will be rebuilt and reorganised
into a company with regular traffic. What
this means for the charter trains is pretty clear.
As soon as the first freight trains run, on the
one hand there will be nobody with any time
to organise special trains according to the
wishes of ralway enthusiasts, and in addition
there will be no time to run steam locomotives
onto the line when it is running to full capacity
- locomotives that need to stop three
times between Nefasit and Arbaroba to raise
steam, plus the endless photo run-pasts.
There would certainly be a few occasional
photo specials, but with much more limited
time and schedules, presumably with longer
waits at crossing loops for trains to pass in
both directions, and everything will be dependent
on the signalling controllers.
So - even though there are at present
few signs that all the ambitious plans will
be realised quickly, if you are thinking of a trip
to Eritrea you should think of going sooner
rather than later, if you want to experience
and enjoy this fantastic railway as it is......
Diesel Locomotives in Eritrea.
(Information via Thomas Kautzer-Schröder).
The two Krupp diesel locomotives