Museum dedicates space for SGR trains as Kenyans embrace sea change

NAIROBI, Aug. 28 — After a ride on Kenya’s newly-launched
Standard Gauge Railway (SGR), Nairobi Railway Museum guide Daniel Shikoli
felt an urge to tell visitors what it meant for the country to run a new,
modern rail link after a century-long hiatus in rail projects.

Like Shikoli, Kenyans have good reason — and ample opportunities — to be
excited. A trip by the Chinese-built SGR linking the port city of Mombasa
and the capital Nairobi takes less than five hours for an otherwise tedious
journey either by road or by a colonial-era railway. Kenya Railways
currently operates one daily service from Nairobi to Mombasa and another
from Mombasa to Nairobi and is looking into the possibility of increasing
the frequency of trains. “It’s so nice. The trip took only more than four
hours,” said Shikoli, who was among the first Kenyans to ride on the modern
train. Shikoli’s one-off experience with the SGR came about thanks to a
reward ticket from Kenya Railways which runs the Nairobi Railway Museum.
But soon, his encounter with the new railway will become long running —
the museum has dedicated a room to the SGR and is in preparations to put
the SGR section on show. He said many newly-weds in Nairobi would visit the
museum to avail themselves of the ages-old locomotives on display as a
setting for their pre-wedding photograph. And a large number of school
children patronize the museum for extended learning of history. “They’ll
have more to see and learn how this railway changed our life,” he said.

The SGR runs largely parallel to the meter-gauge railway that was
originally built by British colonialists in the 19th century. The Nairobi
Terminus is not only the end point of the SGR — it is where it meets the
old railway to facilitate onward journeys. Mostly bankrolled by China and
built by a Chinese company, the 480-km railway is Kenya’s biggest
infrastructure project since independence and is expected to help boost the
East African nation’s GDP by 1.5 percent annually. The Kenyan government
estimated that the new railway would cut the costs of freight service in
East Africa by 79 percent and the time for delivery by half. The cost of
doing business, as a result, would drop as much as 40 percent.For many
Kenyans, the SGR is tantamount to comfort and speed, and as such, the
tourism industry stands to benefit from it.

Mombasa, a seaside resort town, traditionally sees a low season in tourist
arrivals in June, but after the SGR had been in place, holidaymakers were
flocking to the city. Kenyan officials said in late July that the new
railway had transported over 150,000 passengers between Mombasa and Nairobi
in nearly two months since it was commissioned on May 31. “The SGR project
will open up the African hinterland and transform the life of ordinary
citizens,” Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta highlighted in May. Ephantus
Kennedy, who joined the SGR as a train conductor after quitting his job as
a flight attendant, told Xinhua he was lured by “opportunities in career
growth” at the SGR.

A 2016 report on the social responsibilities of the Mombasa-Nairobi SGR
said the project created 46,000 jobs in Kenya. And for Kenya and the
region, the Mombasa-Nairobi SGR is a starting point. Under the East African
Railway Master Plan, the Mombasa-Nairobi SGR will eventually link up with
other standard gauge railways being built across the region. – XINHUA