Friends of the Rail Forum

Ismail Einashe writes about his failed attempt to catch a train in Ethiopia despite the hype around a new Chinese-built railway...

since the SGR opened it has experienced financial and operational difficulties.

In January train services were halted for a while over security concerns in the Afar region, following protests against the government and ethnic clashes between Somalis and Afars.

And last year a stoppage was caused by trains colliding with camels, leading to pastoralists demanding the government compensate them for the loss of their precious livestock...

my excitement soon turned to frustration when I realised how difficult it would be to buy a ticket - in neighbouring Kenya you go on the SGR website, buy your ticket and pay via the money mobile service, M-Pesa, but in Ethiopia things were a little more difficult.

I went on its SGR website and only found a number for a ticket office at the old French-built Addis Terminus in the heart of the city.

I kept calling, but no-one picked up. In the end, I braved the torrential rain to go to the grand old station...

Once there, however, trying to find the ticket office also proved difficult. The guards looked bemused by my inquiry.

When I did find it on the first floor, the woman behind the wooden desk seemed equally bemused by my request for a return ticket.

She told me to wait for her manager. He in turn said they did not sell the train tickets - but if I wanted bus tickets, I could buy those.

If it was the train I really wanted, he said I should go to the new Chinese-built station outside Addis Ababa and buy my ticket there...