In the planned Cape to Cairo Railway a major part is missing between northern Sudan and Uganda. Are there any plans to build this line?

Trooper2196

The concept of the Cape to Cairo Railway is not dead. While the current turmoil in Sudan is an obstacle to its completion, tangible concepts have been forwarded to complete the link between Sudan and East Africa for economic reasons.[1] This would complete a somewhat awkward Cape to Cairo line with three gauges (1067 mm twice) and three breaks of gauge. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_to_Cairo_Railway Mar 03 12, 2:10 PM

sportsherald

"The concept of the Cape to Cairo Railway is not dead. While the current turmoil in Sudan is an obstacle to its completion, tangible concepts have been forwarded to complete the link between Sudan and East Africa for economic reasons.[1] This would complete a somewhat awkward Cape to Cairo line with three gauges (1067 mm twice) and three breaks of gauge." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_to_Cairo_Railway To locate any specifics on any modern concepts for completion, one has to sort through an array of alternate history/alternate future websites, and overly optimistic articles and speeches from 90 years ago. One link that is somewhat helpful is http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa5327/is_n234/ai_n28708611/, but it was written in 1998, also with too much optimism. A more recent article is at http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/InsidePage.php?id=2000031799&cid=464&story=Cape-to-Cairo%20rail%20dream%20struggles%20to%20stay%20awake, but it really only focuses on South Africa's Gautrain and how an underground urban railway is needed in Kenya. Finally, this site http://www.warandgame.info/2012/02/military-railway-in-egypt-sudan.html provides these details on the gaps, and how a traveller overcomes them: "Had the line been finished, it would not, in any case, have been a complete railway like the other transcontinentals. It was never envisaged that a traveller would have been able to undertake the whole journey in a single train because of the difference in gauges and the various sections covered by boat. The river journey on the Nile extended more than 850 miles and there were no plans to build a parallel railway. Nevertheless, by 1928, with the construction of a section of line in Uganda, the whole journey became possible by public transport - buses, trains and steamers - and entirely on British territory as Mombasa, on the Kenyan coast, could be reached by a combination of boat and train from Khartoum. The building of the Sudan Military Railway had stimulated further development of the iron road in Sudan to serve local interests rather than as part of the grand design of a transcontinental railway. The railway reached Kosti, 240 miles south of Khartoum in 1911, from where a ship could be taken up the Nile to Juba. There followed a 100-mile journey in a bus over the frontier into Uganda where, at Nimule, a steamer and a further bus reached another railhead at Namagasali from where, after two separate lines had been linked in 1928, a direct train went to Mombasa. It was not a trip for the casual traveller!" Somewhat related (a different route than Rhodes') is this recent agreement to link Kenya and Ethiopia by rail: http://allafrica.com/stories/201203020316.html This is consistent with this 2008 agreement in East Africa: http://www.afrika.no/Detailed/16610.html, and this overall idea: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_African_Railway_Master_Plan. Proposed network map: http://www.eac.int/infrastructure/index.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_download&gid=15&Itemid=70 Mar 03 12, 2:30 PM