Kenya's $4 Billion Chinese Built Railway Inaugurated

[jis]

http://www.newsweek.com/kenya-railway-china-madaraka-express-618357

Kenya has just opened its largest infrastructure project in over 50 years—with a little help from some Chinese friends.

Uhuru Kenyatta, the Kenyan president, announced Wednesday the completion of the first stage of a major railway connecting the capital Nairobi and the Indian Ocean port city of Mombasa.

The line marks Kenya’s largest infrastructure project since independence from British colonialists in 1964. It is also part of a wider project that shows the depth of Chinese investment and influence in Africa, at a time when the United States appears to be losing its sway on the continent.

 

[caravanman]

No doubt, this railway will benefit China more than Kenya. The former colonial powers, such as the UK, built railways mostly to exploit raw materials and to move troops around quickly.

It seems that in Africa, modern exploiters can get the raw materials by "gifts and loans" rather than through military might.

In other parts of the world, access to their raw materials, oil, etc is still achieved by coercion, sometimes passed off as "ousting regimes"...

Ed.

 

[railiner]

See? Maybe having the Chinese invest in Amtrak is not such a bad idea....

 

[seat38a]

See? Maybe having the Chinese invest in Amtrak is not such a bad idea....

That would be funny watching the LSA's, SCA's and dining car crew have to wear the god awful looking uniforms with hats and then have to bow to everyone how boards.

 

[gswager]

If Amtrak is owned by Japanese investors, engineers will have to point at signals. It might be a good thing for safety and excellent on time (probably not on freight owned track)!

 

[jis]

If Amtrak is owned by Japanese investors, engineers will have to point at signals. It might be a good thing for safety and excellent on time (probably not on freight owned track)!

Brightline engineers are not pointing at signals. They are now 100% owned by a Japanese investment house. [emoji57] And they run substantially on tracks owned by a Mexican owned freight railroad. They have excellent OTP. Go figure [emoji51] All a bit tongue in the cheek of course.