At present, the United States has more than 200,000 kilometers of railways, which means that East Africa will build at least 200,000 kilometers of railways in the future to meet the needs of the whole country, but it is impossible for American railways not to grow, and it will be at least 400,000 kilometers at the peak in the future.

East Africa is nearly twice as large as the United States (at the same time the United States does not have Alaska), so it is said that the railway doubled in the past, but according to the path of railway development in Europe and the United States in the previous life, Ernst still needs to pay attention.

Of course, such an exaggerated development of railways in the United States is closely related to the current era, first of all, Americans can't imagine that the scale of automobiles in the future is very exaggerated, and it has almost become a necessary means of transportation for American families.

The second is that the Panama Canal has not yet been completed, so the main mode of transportation on the east and west coasts of the United States must rely on railroads to complete, if you take the sea route to go around the entire South America, it is like the Suez Canal before the opening of the Asia-Europe trade detour to the African coast is a reason.

Speaking of the Suez Canal, Ernst has mixed feelings, without the Suez Canal, the economy of East Africa would definitely be able to rise to the next level, but without the Suez Canal, the expansion of East Africa in southern Africa in the first two decades would definitely not be so smooth.

The opening of the Suez Canal reduced the importance of the great powers to Africa, and secondly, the main route for European migration and import and export trade in East Africa was also more convenient through the Suez Canal.

Now that the East African state has been consolidated after the South African War, the great powers cannot change the pattern of southern Africa, so there is no Suez Canal......

Dispelling these complex ideas, Ernst said to Andre: "Railways are an important mode of transportation related to national defense, economy, and people's livelihood, and cannot be completely profit-oriented, for example, some railways may be opened, which may lose money, but the local economic pull is also unimaginable. ”

Ernst still put national defense first, in fact, the construction of the East African railway was the first to put national defense and security in the first place.

At that time, the primary purpose of the construction of the Central Railway was to control the southern African region, and the central and southern parts of East Africa were surrounded by hostile forces on three sides, and the Central Railway was like an outstretched arm in the east to firmly control the territory of the central and southern parts of the country under the rule of East Africa.

As soon as the conversation changed, Ernst said to Liu Yideweil: "The Ministry of Communications should also actively cooperate with the railway department, especially the construction of highways, railways cannot reach every place, railways are the main arteries, the same is true of highways, and even the role of highways is more important, he also plays the role of capillaries, can connect cities, villages, railway hubs and so on." ”

In East Africa, there is a strong push to upgrade roads, especially in some important urban areas, where asphalt roads have been paved.

At the end of the 18th century, during the Industrial Revolution, the Englishman John Macadan devised a new method of road construction, paving the road with gravel, which was high in the middle to facilitate drainage, and the road surface was flat and wide. Later, this kind of road took the surname of its designer and named it "Makadan Road", which is also the origin of "Road".

As for the development of asphalt roads for a short time, around the 50s of the 19th century, France first used rock asphalt for road pavement, and in 1854, a thin asphalt pavement close to the present was built in Paris, which can be called the beginning of hot asphalt pavement.

There are very few roads with asphalt pavement in East Africa, only some cities in the eastern coastal areas have construction, after all, the distribution of natural asphalt in the world is extremely uneven, and East Africa has a very poor natural endowment in this regard, of course, as a big country is certainly not completely absent, as far as Ernst himself knows, there are a lot of asphalt sand resources in the Congo, that is, the location of the Congo estuary, which basically overlaps with the distribution of oil and gas resources in East Africa.

However, this is all the work of the mining department, and Ernst only knows the general area, and development is also a matter of the future, and with the current industrial level, the world is still mainly based on natural asphalt, so East Africa also needs to import from Europe.

And asphalt this kind of thing, the price will not be high, even if the experience is better than the cement road, but the cement road also has its advantages, and anything with a flat product, the price is not good to rise too high.

"As of last year, we have completed 20,000 kilometers of road hardening in Hesse alone, which has greatly improved the traffic situation in Hesse, and the rest of the region, although the pace of progress is relatively slow, is also a great improvement compared to before," said Liu. ”

Hesse was the first province to promote road hardening, because the local road conditions are at the downstream level in East Africa, and East Africa is focused on improving road conditions in rainy areas, such as Hesse and the Great Lakes provinces.

It is also easy to understand that the economic conditions of the two places in East Africa are not all different, they can be ranked in the middle and upper reaches, and the demand is also relatively strong, so the speed of progress is fast.

Roads in other parts of the central and eastern regions can be maintained for a period of time because they are located in grassland or plateau areas, and because the roads were built earlier.

"As of last year, the total mileage of hardened roads in the country has exceeded 200,000 kilometers, which is also a relatively fast progress in the world." He didn't say it again.

Ensté nodded: "Highway development is the more the merrier, the current highway situation in East Africa, is far from enough, there is a huge gap between us and Europe and the United States, so the road construction is also accelerating." ”

"And with the development of the automobile industry in the future, the demand for highways is also increasing, and even replace the function of some railways, which is one of the important indicators of China's industrial innovation and regional development."

In the final analysis, it is to promote the development of the automotive industry in East Africa, as the world's leading "big country" in the automotive industry, the driving experience on most roads in East Africa is not good.

Of course, unlike a train, which is fixed to the tracks, as long as it is flat, it can basically pass, but there are a lot of bumps.

For example, military vehicles, off-road performance is a very important indicator, at this time the vast grasslands of East Africa are all "roads", that is, some waste people.

In addition to railways and roads, water transport is also an important part of East Africa's transportation, but East Africa's water transport conditions are poor, so there is nothing to say, and it is still mainly based on land transportation construction.

Of course, the water transport conditions are poor in the whole country, not in terms of regions, especially in East Africa, where six of the world's largest lakes are distributed in East Africa, and three of them are in the top 10 in the world, and the Great Lakes (Lake Victoria) are ranked third in the world, second only to the Caspian Sea and Lake Superior.

Moreover, the three major lakes of East Africa are also concentrated in the eastern region, which makes the lake transportation industry in East Africa relatively developed and growing very fast.

These lakes are also important sources of fisheries in East Africa, making freshwater fisheries as good as coastal areas, even in the interior of East Africa.

The only drawback is that these lakes are relatively independent and not as interconnected as the Great Lakes, but this also facilitates the dispersion of water resources.

In addition, the highland lakes mainly form certain restrictions on the territory of East Africa, such as the existence of Malawi and Tanganyika lakes, making the middle Mbeya the only passage.

The same is true in the future, Malawi Hu and Tanganyika Lake are often hundreds of meters deep, and the area is also large, and there are no conditions for bridge construction, and the traffic on the east and west banks will definitely be dominated by ferries in the future.

(End of chapter)

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