Driving alongside the Kenyan SGR...

[John Ashworth]

Last week we drove to Mombasa and back in the trusty old Land Rover. For much of the journey the main road is close to both the new standard gauge line and the old metre gauge "Lunatic Line". I'm please to say that we saw trains on both, albeit not too many.

On the SGR we saw both passenger and freight trains. The former are smart looking in their bright livery. They run with a matching caboose. They definitely were not travelling at anything like the line speed of 120 km/h, but maybe they had slowed for a station or a crossing. The freight trains we saw moving were carrying shipping containers, but in one of the stations we saw a long rake of box vans. The stations are very modernistic and impressive. Some of the viaducts are also pretty impressive.

From Nairobi you can also see the new Phase 2 standard gauge line progressing on stilts across the national park, and with binoculars the big yellow machine which lays the concrete bridges from pillar to pillar can be seen at work.

The metre gauge is looking fairly sorry for itself. We did see one freight train moving, but I didn't get a good look at the loco.

I think it is near to Emali that a new road bridge across both the old and new railways gives you a good view of both of them side by side.