Friends of the Rail Forum

Henry wrote:“The Lunatic Line” was the title of a two part documentary on railways in Kenya recently presented on UK BBC Radio 4 by Ayisha Yahya, who herself worked for East African Railways and Harbours in the 1970s. The first half-hour programme concentrated on the building of the Uganda Railway, including the man-eating lions of Tsavo. The deputy curator of the Nairobi Railway Museum gave the historical background. In the second programme, Ayisha took the train from Nairobi to Mombasa, mixing comments from her train journey with statements from those who favour building a new “high speed” standard gauge railway, initially from Mombasa to Nairobi. A spokesman from “Vision 2030”, a development lobbying group, was very keen on the new railway as an aid to expanding the economy. Both Ayisha and a spokesman for Kenya Railways admitted that the current metre gauge system had become very much run down, starting in the 1970s. Ayisha noted the poor state of the coach in which she rode – although she did have a good night’s sleep. Another planned project was a totally new standard gauge line from a new port at Lamu, on the northern Kenya coast, to boost contact and trade with southern Ethiopia and the newly-independent state of Southern Sudan. The problems of raising funding for both new railway projects were discussed. Were these new “Lunatic Lines”? Overall it was an interesting pair of programmes, presented by someone who is a journalist rather than a railway enthusiast