Rail Co-Development ~ Collier on African Infra...

Thanks to my MIT colleague Ethan Zuckerman for spotting this fascinating piece by Oxford's Paul Collier in IMF Finance & Development on Building an African Infrastructure about orchestrated co-development of railways cutting across industries and polities...

"Key political decisions are needed to build critical rail networks for a continent well suited to them. [Alas] during the past half-century Africa’s rail network, never very extensive, has shrunk. [But] by radically reducing transportation costs, railways could open up vast tracts of Africa to economic opportunities, especially in agriculture and mining, which many countries are relying on for future growth. The continent needs a decade of massive investment in rail networks.

What might accelerate such investment?

The core economic challenge is to organize the rail network in a way that meets the needs both of the extraction industries and of agriculture. Mining operations require railways and ports. Were there no agricultural users, the mining companies themselves could finance the rail network from some of the high profits generated by extraction. As long as these rail links serve agriculture and resource-extraction users, agriculture need pay only the marginal cost of operation. In effect, the differential profitability of mines and agriculture creates the potential for price discrimination between them. Mining companies, eager to open up resource-laden lands, have offered to set up such railways, even though these companies are not likely to welcome or desire multifunctional use of the rail network. [...] It would be beyond the core competence and natural interest of a mining company to run a railway that prices its service for farms at their marginal cost. As a result, even if a mining company were to provide such rail service, farms would likely mistrust it because of its peripheral nature for the mining company. [...] A third-party commercial operator with core competence in infrastructure but without mining interests appears to be the most credible option."

Collier goes on to point out things are equally complicated when crossing political borders. But that ultimately...

"African governments risk missing a historic opportunity to transform the transportation arteries of the continent. [...] risks can be addressed by subregional rail authorities with decision-making power. Africa’s current generation of political leaders has the opportunity to open the physical geography of the region. The decisions they must make are complicated, and much is at stake for the economic well-being of the continent."

African Infrastructure ~ Visualizing Improvements

Excellent to see infrastructure blossoming in and around the African continent. Rapidly changing is broadband internet access... Existing and planned power pool connections... And planned power plants... Plus, see my earlier Maximizing Progress posts here with maps of African Seaports, Bollore's ports, rail and waterlinks, the planned roadway and current rails, and proposed African Rail Corridors, including special focus on Rail West Africa.

African Rail ~ Present & Planned Trans-Corridors

UN Economic Commission for Africa and African Union Commission offer this map of African Rail Corridors, both present and proposed...

African Trains ~ Exploring Continental Rails...

I'm very interested in the prospects for both revitalizing and dramatically extending the railway networks throughout the African continent as noted in previous posts on African Rails like this exploration of ECOWAS West African Rail systems. Here's a few samplers spotlighting the existing and emerging state of such rail systems... And John Edwards shares his Trains of Africa playlist!

African Rail ~ Ethiopia Invests in Resurgent Ways

Excellent to read Elizabeth Blunt's piece in the BBC that Ethiopia looks to revive past railway glories. Ethiopia is one of the couple dozen African countries that had rail infrastructure originally built by Europeans back in the day. After decades of war, turmoil, distraction, and neglect, these countries are investing in a railway resurgence. The Ethiopian case is especially interesting -- it being a nascent hydro- and agri-superpower -- and so their plans are suitably ambitious...

"The government is starting to plan a completely new rail system, with a further 5,000 km (3,100 miles) of lines. It is early days yet [but] this would be a standard gauge railway, electrified to take advantage of the abundant, cheap electricity expected to be produced by ambitious new hydro-electric schemes soon to come into operation. It would be primarily designed to carry freight, and although the proposed routes are still confidential, it might -- for instance -- serve the coffee-producing areas of western Ethiopia, the light industries of the north, the commercial food producing areas south of Addis Ababa, and the fertile, but as yet undeveloped farmlands near the Sudan border."

Africa Translogistics ~ Vital Networks & Nodes!

Very interesting to read in the Economist this week about Network effects: Connectivity and commitment pay dividends in African transport. Current road and rail networks are ill-maintained, incomplete, and beset with roadblocks, bribe-barriers, and worse. Ports and freight-handling are similarly undercapitalized and constrained. But, as the Economist spotlights, bold businesses are dialing things up in Africa, including especially Bolloré, the French conglomerate...

As a port operator, stevedore, warehouser and freight forwarder, Bolloré handles 80% of west Africa’s exports (excluding oil) and 25% of east Africa’s—in short, nearly all of Africa’s cotton and cocoa, as well as much of its coffee, rubber, and timber. With offices in 42 African countries and 20,000 of his 31,000 employees based in Africa, Mr Bolloré is bullish on the continent’s prospects. Bolloré Africa Logistics accounts for $2 billion of the group’s $10 billion annual revenues. Its head, Dominique Lafont, predicts 12-17% annual growth for the division for the next five years. He believes better logistics are vital to reduce poverty in Africa. A new warehouse for perishable goods, or a new garage for repairing overland lorries, he reckons, create more lasting benefits to Africans than most aid projects do. Bolloré’s aim is to exploit the massive unrealised potential for trade between African countries by being the first to link the economies of the Francophone and English-speaking parts of Africa. It wants to do this by establishing a 26,000km (16,000 mile) pan-African network of “vital corridors”, making use of whatever infrastructure is available, with long sections of transit by barge down the Niger, Congo, and Nile rivers deep into the interior.

Most excellent!

Foster's New World ~ Architecting Slum Solutions

The latest Economist Intelligent Life issue includes a piece by J.M. Ledgard on architect Norman Foster's New World which includes interesting prospective slum solutions...

"In particular, the challenge for Foster is Africa. [...] Africa's population will double to 2 billion before 2050. Its urban population will more than quadruple. [...] I pressed him on the question of a new model of city for Africa, necessarily poor, without an industrial base, but youthful, vital, playful and verdant. "It is absolutely essential", he said, "to get that balance of greenery, vegetation, animals, space, silence, light and dark. We only appreciate urbanity when we have the opportunity to experience the opposite. Of course, if one thinks of wilderness, nature, safaris and biodiversity one thinks of Africa." He remains a firm believer in the transformative and lasting power of huge projects. [...] He is adamant that cities dependent on the car will fail. Rising fuel prices make this inevitable, he argues, as does the sprawl of the car-driven city. [...] What is needed in African slums", Foster ventures, "is the industrialisation of units that provide the sanitation, kitchens, energy-harvesting, run-off of rainwater, and a proper infrastructure of drains and sewers. That would be transformational, but that's a very different approach to the design-profession response to wipe it clean and superimpose another order, which completely disregards the fact that, notwithstanding the horrific deprivation, there is an underlying social order and an organic response to needs." [...] the cause of African future cities need not be philanthropy. There is plenty of money to be made from squatters. Most of the economic growth in the world in the coming years will be from the poorest bits of cities in the poorest countries. [...] instead of thinking as in the past that you have one authority talking about pylons, another rail, another roads, why not bring those together with tremendous economy and elegance? In a way, the Victorian tradition had the courage to imagine that. High-speed rail is still operating on the track Stephenson created for the Rocket. Olmsted laid out Central Park at the time when people were herding sheep, horses and carts. Now, bringing back a pedestrian-friendly experience, taking away the dependence on gasoline, why drive when you could walk, design with an understanding that these are very scarce commodities -- Africa has that opportunity."

Bold, but let's see if and how his Masdar City lives up to grandiose promises first.

Rail West Africa ~ Present & Future Ports & Ways

I'm quite interested in rail infrastructure generally and as applied to the West African ECOWAS region specifically. The situation today is very fragmented, with differing gauges, aging ways, and shorthaul lines mostly from resource extraction points to coast, as you can see from the Atlas on Regional Integration West Africa...
But there's growing support for further interconnections...

South Sudan ~ "Justice, Liberty, Prosperity" Now!

It's most excellent to see South Sudan emerge as a newly independent nation! Freed from the shackles of the islamofascist north, the free peoples of the south now have a shot at a different and better tomorrow. More than three-quarters of the oil production is in their zone and other natural resources await proper attention. National motto? "Justice, Liberty, Prosperity" Capital city? Juba. Today tiny at 150Kpeople, but my bet is that within a decade this will be a new African megacity. Rail, roads, pipelines, and other translogistics are in the making, connecting SoSu with Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia, and more. It's an epic thing, the birth of a nation! A place with beauty contests and everything!

Moving Lagos ~ Essential African Railway Action

David Smith writes in the Guardian about How Lagos hopes a railway will end daily endurance test and change lives...

"Danladi Verheijen has to attend an important meeting, he doesn't know whether getting there will take 10 minutes or three hours. [He] works in Lagos, one of the world's fastest growing megacities -- and one of the most congested. The simplest journey here can be a trial of will. [...] But Verheijen believes he can do something to break the deadlock. The 34-year-old venture capitalist is leading a group of investors in Lagos's first city railway. He believes the multibillion-dollar project could transform daily life for millions of people in this uniquely challenging metropolis, and potentially expand west from Nigeria to Ghana. [...] "It's cheaper than the alternative, it's faster, it's safer, it's more reliable, it's more environmentally friendly. So it's very exciting." Many railways laid during Africa's colonial era have decayed due to neglect [...] Urban expansion is one of the biggest challenges facing Africa as people migrate from rural areas in search of a better life. With its cities set to triple in size over the next 40 years, overcrowded slums, choked roads and pollution are already big problems. It is hoped that a rail renaissance can be part of the solution. [...] Reflecting a growing trend in Africa, the project's infrastructure is being built by a Chinese contractor. Verheijen said: "They're much more competitive and aggressive about doing business. They're working Saturdays, they're working Sundays, they're working at nights. They come here and have big housing estates for their staff and just seem to work like armies. It's very focused and things go up very quickly."

Invigorating stuff. And one more essential element for tomorrow's vital cities.