![\"Map](\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/624\/cpsprodpb\/EB43\/production\/_96272206_african_railway_624map.jpg\")
<\/p>\nKenya has opened a major new railway between the port city of Mombasa and the capital, Nairobi, 18 months early.<\/p>\n
The $3.2bn (\u00a32.5bn) Chinese-funded line is the country’s biggest infrastructure project since independence.<\/p>\n
It took three-and-a-half years to build, using Chinese track-laying technology.<\/p>\n
The line is supposed to eventually connect South Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo and Burundi with Mombasa.<\/p>\n
It is the country’s first new major railway in more than a century.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The journey from Mombasa to Nairobi by train will now take four-and-a-half hours, compared to nine hours by bus or 12 hours on the previous railway.<\/p>\n
The tickets work out cheaper than buses.<\/p>\n
An economy class ticket will cost 900 Kenyan shillings ($9; \u00a37), while a business class ticket will be 3,000 Kenyan shillings. The nearest equivalent bus is ticket is an extra 400 shillings.<\/p>\n
President Uhuru Kenyatta said at the launch of the railway line that it signalled a new chapter in Kenya’s history:<\/p>\n
“A history that was first started 122 years ago when the British, who had colonised this nation, kicked off the train to nowhere… it was then dubbed the ‘Lunatic Express’.”<\/p>\n
“Today… despite again a lot of criticism we now celebrate not the ‘Lunatic Express’ but the Madaraka [named after the day Kenya’s attained internal self-rule) Express that would begin to reshape the story of Kenya for the next 100 years.”<\/p>\n
The cost of the project has been criticised by opposition parties, who say it is too expensive and the economic returns exaggerated.<\/p>\n
They have also accused President Kenyatta’s administration of unchecked borrowing from China.<\/p>\n
The government says that it needs to invest in infrastructure to attract foreign investment.<\/p>\n
–<\/p>\n
Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Kenya has opened a major new railway between the port city of Mombasa and the capital, Nairobi, 18 months early. The $3.2bn (\u00a32.5bn) Chinese-funded line is the country’s biggest infrastructure project since independence. It took three-and-a-half years to build, using Chinese track-laying technology. The line is supposed to eventually connect South Sudan, Democratic Republic of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[107],"tags":[7618,7619,766],"yoast_head":"\n