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This New York Times article regarding a ride on the new Chinese built and operated railroad, is short on "technical" information, and long on "cultural".
However, for every two steps forward there has been one back. With the economic miracle stalled by drought in 2016, and anti-government riots tearing through the Oromia heartlands the same year, Ethiopia remained transitional, ill at ease with the pace of change. Last month’s horrifying crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, which killed 157 people from 35 countries, couldn’t help but recall the trauma of the late twentieth century, when Ethiopia was a place all too synonymous with tragedy.
Still, the thing that had brought me back here seemed like a concrete embodiment of progress: Ethiopia now had a state-of-the-art train. In 2011, the government announced that a new electrified railway would be built between Addis Ababa and the tiny neighboring country of Djibouti, aided by Chinese loans and expertise. Five years and $3.4 billion later, the first freight train made the 470-mile journey, revolutionizing landlocked Ethiopia’s access to the Red Sea, where Djibouti’s Doraleh Port processes 95 percent of its international trade.
After several postponements, a passenger service went online in January 2018, and quickly became a symbol of Ethiopian ambition — the first stage of a planned network which, if realized, will span 3,000 miles. For tourists, it promised cheap, air-conditioned travel far from the Rift Valley scarps and rock-hewn churches of Ethiopia’s Northern Circuit, in a region that nonetheless incorporated some of the most remarkable sights in the African Horn.
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