Railway Corp Plans to Double Train Services
ADDIS ABEBA – The Ethio-Djibouti Railway Corporation says it is planning to double freight and passenger service trips as demand for both services grows.
Its two freight train transports 212 containers on a trip only within 11 hours. The same amount was being transported using about 100 trucks and arriving in three days.
Ethio-Djibouti Railway is now targeting to cover Ethiopia’s 85 percent freighter facility, Tilahun Sarka, EDR Director-General, told state-run news agency ENA.
“We are working to transport 40 to 50 percent of what is now being transported by trucks,” he said. “That means we will have four freight train trips daily from Addis Ababa to Djibouti instead of two trips under current practice.”
Statistics show that Ethiopia imports about 13 million tons of commodities through Djibouti. Tilahun stressed, “this is of paramount importance and huge capacity building to the nation.”
Meanwhile, EDR has also transported about 150,000 commuters in 2018 and attained 700mln birr in revenue.
Tilahun said the plan is to double both.
“We never consider it as another country when the train travels to Djibouti. Therefore, this can be taken as exemplary for the socio-economic and political relationships of both countries,” Tilahun noted.
Djiboutian commuters appreciated the services rendered by Ethio-Djibouti Railway Corporation that commenced its standard gauge electrified railway operation back on January 1, 2018.
The Ethio-Djibouti Railway, which reduces traveling time between Addis Ababa and the capital Djibouti from three days to 12 hours, was built with an outlay of 4.2 billion USD.
