Government last month announced that plans are underway to introduce a bullet train to ease congestion and to reduce transport duration on the Accra-Kumasi route.
This came up when the Minister in charge of Public Private Partnerships (PPP), Dr Rashid Pelpuo, engaged a New York investment bank, Chesterfield Faring Limited (CFL) in May.
The CEO of CFL Mr Lawrence J. Selevan visited Ghana after the engagement and met with the Departments of Transportation, Housing, and Finance to coordinate the underwriting of the project.
“I believe that Ghana is ready for a state of the art mass transit system that will speed up the commute for millions of everyday citizens in both Accra and Kumasi,” Mr Selevan said.
The plan is to build an elevated light rail mass transit commuter system linked to the Kotoka International Airport. The light rail mass transit commuter system will include trade zones, which will have shops, public and private parks and gardens, office towers, hotels and 1,000 unit residential towers.
Initial estimates for Phase 1 of the project is US$12 billion growing to US$30 billion.
“Also, the US$30 billion should have a 3.0-3.5 multiplier effect increasing immediate economic activity to almost US$100 billion before the end of the decade, as well as the aftermath of the investment; increasing GDP by almost three per cent per annum, growing to over US$2.0 billion annually,” according to the proposal.
While some have welcomed this as great news, others feel the announcement is farfetched and that government should work at upgrading the existing 947 kiliometres of rail network in the country.
Even though the immediate impact will be apparent as road congestion will reduce allowing more access and an easier flow of traffic, both for commuters and freight transportation, government could start by refurbishing old rail infrastructure some of which have not seen any renovation since pre independence.
“Government should focus on renovating existing lines and secure new trains to run on them instead of thinking of bullet trains now,” a transport expert, who preferred to remain anonymous, told Business Finder.
He said government should rather look at redeveloping the Western Railway line as well as the Eastern Railway line which government is planning to jointly develop with the private sector through PPP.
Even a country like East Africa’s, Tanzania with a current rail network of 3,689 km and a land area of 945,203 km² is treading cautiously to addressing their rail transport challenges.
With a population of about 50 million - twice Ghana’s population – Tanzania in April announced it plans to spend US$14.2 billion to construct a new rail network in the next five years financed with commercial loans as the country aims to become a regional transport hub.
The projects include constructing a 2,561 km (1,536 miles) standard gauge railway connecting the port at the commercial capital of Dar es Salaam to Tanzania's land-locked neighbours, Rwanda and Burundi at a cost of $7.6 billion, Transport Minister Samuel Sitta said.
Two additional lines, to be built at a combined cost of $6.6 billion, would connect Dar es Salaam to the coal, iron ore and soda ash mining areas in the south and northern parts of the country, he said.
The interesting bit of the Tanzanian story is, like its neighbour Kenya, Tanzania wants to capitalise on its long coastline and upgrade existing rickety railways and roads to serve growing economies in the land-locked heart of Africa.
Ghana’s railway network currently handles less than two per cent of all passenger and freight traffic. The mainland system forms a triangle between Accra, Kumasi and Takoradi, with majority of the tracks acting as key natural resource route currently used for transporting bulk minerals and not passengers.
However, the condition of the tracks has deteriorated significantly leaving freight forwarders to abandon it for road haulage, in spite of it being inexpensive than the latter.
Over the years, Ghana’s 67,448 km total road network has been under immense pressure. High traffic densities in major urban centres have also resulted in congestion and rapid deterioration leaving only 41 per cent of the 12,400 km urban road network in good condition.
Other alternatives like the air and water transport have proved to be expensive and slow respectively.
It is important though to note that despite the neglect of the rail sector for decades, Ghana situation is better than other regional economic giant Nigeria and Cote d’Ivoire.
However, a country like Malaysia that attained independence around the same time Ghana did has a total of 1,833 kilometres of rail network. Out of this total, 767 km is double track, 767 km is electrified while 57 km is high speed.
Ghana’s system, in contrast, is a sorry sight.
Ghana could derive so much from the development of the rail sector.
Accra and Kumasi are congested and almost everyday people spend hours in traffic commuting to and from work. This affects productivity. A good rail system has the potential to ease congestion like it’s done in highly populated China and India.
The nation also has to struggle month by month to get the foreign exchange to buy petroleum and its other related products for our vehicles; which we all struggle very much in traffic, day in and out and burn a lot of fuel unnecessary as a result. These, all toll heavily on the country’s import bills.
Thus, financial resources that could have been channelled into other sectors of the economy profitably, go to waste as a result of the neglect of our railway sector which could have solved all these problems.
Admittedly, railways do not encounter traffic jams in their transits. They are also faster and offer comfort as compared to travelling in buses or in cars.
Many of our factories can also rely on this railway network for the transportation of raw materials from their sources and from the ports as well. All these could reduce the cost of producing goods and services to feed the nation.
Others are using their railway as a way of conveying tourist to sites and this is fetching them the expected foreign exchange revenues for their developmental programmes.
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