V. P. NEMCHENKO

Our sobkor in Ethiopia

Keywords: tram, Addis Ababa, environment

In sub-Saharan Africa, a tram has appeared. Two lines of this type of transport-the light rail system, as the Ethiopians call it-were launched in Addis Ababa recently. The first line in the capital of Ethiopia was officially opened for operation on September 20, 2015, the second-a month later.

For the first time in the tram's working days, the cars were crowded. It was interesting to see how the passengers-especially children and young people-simply rode and rejoiced, as they enthusiastically welcomed the sights of the capital that suddenly opened up before them.

One tram route runs from south to north, and the other from east to west: they connected the outskirts and the central part of the four-million-strong city. Each branch got its own name: the first route became "blue", the second - "green". It is this color that elegant Chinese-made trams run silently, carrying up to 280 passengers in two comfortable cars.

The launch of the tram service in the Ethiopian capital was preceded by almost four years of hard work. $475 million was spent on the construction of 32 km of tracks, which began in January 2012: 85% of the funds were allocated by China

Export-Import Bank, the rest is the Government of Ethiopia. The construction was carried out by the Ethiopian Railway Corporation together with the China Railway Group of Companies. Specialists from China continue to train Ethiopian train drivers to manage light rail transport.

Addis Ababa has never seen such a large-scale construction project. Its squares and streets were filled daily - even on weekends - with workers in overalls, excavators, bulldozers, and dump trucks. Because of this, traffic jams often occurred.

But residents stoically endured the inconvenience, understanding the need and importance of a new and unusual mode of transport for them.

Tram tickets can be purchased at each of the 39 stops. The fare depends on the distance and ranges from 10 to 50 cents, which is slightly lower than the price of bus and minibus tickets and much cheaper than a taxi ride. In addition, the usual transport provides passengers with only a minimum of amenities, and waiting at bus stops is quite a long time. Yes, and a significant share of the taxi fleet is quite exotic subcompacts: at least half of them are Russian "Zhiguli", including "kopecks". But they easily and even with a full cabin of passengers, albeit slowly, overcome the capital's often very steep climbs.

The tracks are laid on numerous high viaducts-from them you can see the picturesque scenery of Addis Ababa, surrounded by mountains covered with evergreen forests. Even above the capital's central Meskel Square (its name means Orthodox Ethiopian Cross), tram lines run at the height of a five-story building. One of the sites in the central part of the city was specially hidden in an underground tunnel so that historically valuable buildings and monuments would not have to be demolished - for example, the statue of Melik II: the emperor on a war horse.

From an engineering point of view, the project turned out to be quite complex: there are a lot of overpasses, dedicated sections, road junctions, road crossings with traffic lights and barriers. But undoubtedly, it has significantly improved the transport situation and helped to solve the problem of traffic jams, because of which the multi-million-strong city was often paralyzed.

According to statistics, now 60 thousand people use the tram every hour. The cars are always full - I've never even seen half-empty ones. It is also important for citizens that taxi drivers can no longer unreasonably inflate prices for their services. Unlike motor transport, trams do not have a negative impact on the environment.

The Ethiopian authorities hope to continue developing the tram network in the capital and other major cities of the country over time.

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