4.2 The Impact of the Railway Corridor in Ethiopia
In the beginning of 20th century modern type of railway transport was introduced in Ethiopia. The advent of these modern terrestrial railway infrastructure caused for the flourishing of the eastern economic corridor. This ester railway corridor was one of the major causes for the flourishing of urban centers that evolved on the major morphological tissues of railway line and stations.
This single gauge (950mm) railway had more than 34 stations and the number of railway stations varies from time to time depending on the advancement in the railway locomotives: steam engines, diesel engines and electric-power engines.
Initially, these stations courtyards had a few buildings that served for providing limited railway service-related functions such as ticket selling, passengers waiting, administration, residential for staff, and warehouse.
Those stations which had a residential house in the courtyard attracted different kinds of urban service providers and traders to live a sedentary life in the vicinity of stations. Then station areas gradually evolved into the urban village and urban centers. The number of urban centers reached more than 25 of which Kabaki-beseka and Melka Jebdu were engulfed by Addis Ababa and Dire Dawa respectively. All station-based urban centers were evolved organically, except Dire Dawa.
Figure 4.
Population Size of Ethio-Djibouti Railway Corridor based urban centers; Source: Computed by Authors from CSA/CSS 1984, 1994, 2007, 2011, 2015 and 2022 reports NB: C- Census and P – Projected population
Figure 4.
Population Size of Ethio-Djibouti Railway Corridor based urban centers; Source: Computed by Authors from CSA/CSS 1984, 1994, 2007, 2011, 2015 and 2022 reports NB: C- Census and P – Projected population
In this sub section, the article examines the population dynamics (population size and growth rate in a time horizon) and Morphological traits (station location and station yard function) of station based urban centers with special emphasis on station based intermediate cities.
4.2.1. Population Dynamics
A. Population Size
During the early period of modern Ethiopia, railway corridor specifically stations played a significant role in the formation of urban centers and introducing new dimensions of urbanization. The old railway corridor causes for the flourishing of more than 29 urban centers. Of these Akaki Beseka and Melka J All these railway station-based urban centers were flourished before the Italian aggression (1935-1940). Although these urban center has greater than 100 years old, only 7 station-based urban centers have greater than 20,000 inhabitants and only four reached the status of intermediate city.
To compute population dynamics of station based intermediate cities, the article used the 1984, 1994 and 2007 census results and the 2011, 2015 and 2022 Central Statistical Service (CSS) projection. As stated above the year 2007, 2011 and 2015 had some important events for the railway corridor.
As
Figure 5 indicates, during the 1984 census, with the exception of Mojo all intermediate cities had greater than 50,000 inhabitants. In the 2022 CSS projection Adama shown significant population growth, followed by Dire Dawa and Bishoftu.
B. Population Growth
With regards to the population growth rate, initially between the two census period of 1884 – 1994, Dire Dawa (2.67) and Bishoftu/Debre Zeit (1.19) had shown the largest and the least growth rates respectively. With the exception of Dire Dawa all the other intermediate cities had shown significant growth rate starting from 2007 – 2012 period. The overall growth rate (1984-2022) of railway corridor based intermediate cities indicates that only all demonstrates above the national urban average growth rate i.e., 3.7 [33]. However, the Dire Dawa growth rate is almost by half lower than the other three intermediate cities. (See
Figure 5)
Figure 5.
Population Growth Rate for Station Based Intermediate Cities. Source: Computed by Authors from CSA/CSS 1984, 1994, 2007, 2011, 2015 and 2022 reports.
Figure 5.
Population Growth Rate for Station Based Intermediate Cities. Source: Computed by Authors from CSA/CSS 1984, 1994, 2007, 2011, 2015 and 2022 reports.
4.2.2. Morphological traits of Station in the Intermediate Cities
Railway station is an area which regularly provides railway facilities or stop to load or unload passengers or freights or both. It is generally consists of at least one track side platform and a station building, which provides auxiliary services like ticket sales, waiting rooms, baggage/freight services.
Station might be existed at the ground level, underground and elevated level. All the Ethio-Djibouti railway station are located at the ground level. There are different determinant factors for the selection of convenient sites for railway location the following are the prominent ones:
Affordability: the distance between station and localities should be affordable for users;
Connectivity: the station should be linked with the nearby areas with proper road;
Safety: the existence of fairly level ground
Availability: there should be sufficient land for future expansion and development
Taking these into account in the following pages the article analyzed station location, types of station and station yards, which has a direct impact on station based urban centers morphology.
A. Station Location
In this part station location is analyzed from the railway engineering, nature of locomotives, and city perspective point of views.
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From Railway Engineering Perspective
From the engineering perspective stations location can be categorized in to three taking the position of stations in line with the railway line infrastructure. There are:
Way-side station: is located on running lines. This allows faster train to overtake a slower train. For this loop line and siding are provided.
Junction station: railway lines from three or more directions meet the junction has minimum of one main line and other branch line.
Terminal station: refers to the dead end of incoming track or the station at which railway line ends or terminate.
From these station types all the old railway stions were way-side station type. Similarly, all the stations constructed on the new standard gauge railway line way-side station types are exhibited. Therefore, all the intermediate cities that are located on the trans-regional Ethio-Djibouti have way-side station type.
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From the Nature of Locomotives
The number of railway stations varies from time to time depending on the advancement in the railway locomotives: steam engines, diesel engines and electric-power engines. At the initial stages of the railway transport service all the locomotives were steam engines; because of this majority of the stations were constructed near to water bodies (river banks or lacks), which had cooler purpose to the steam engines. With the advent of diesel engine locomotive, the number of stations decreased significantly. Based on this the old railway stations can be grouped in two: stations near to water body and stations without water body. From the four intermediate cities Bishoftu, Mojo, and Dire Dawa railway stations were constructed near to water body.
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From the City Perspective
The development of new standard gauge railway corridor reduced the number of stations 34 to 20. Among these majority of 17 (89.47%) stations exist in the Ethiopian Jurisdiction. As stated above the old railway stations served as a nucleus for the formation of urban centers. However, the new standard gauge railway stations used a peripheral approach . The functional stations of Mojo, Bishoftu, Adama, and Dire Dawa stations are located in the vicinity of intermediate cities with the ground distance from the old railway of 2.3km, 3.74km, 5.78km and 11.77km respectively. .
B. Station Yards
Station yard is a place on the track where train stops for clearing passengers and goods traffic. In general station yards can be categorized as: passenger bogie, goods/freight, locomotive and marshalling yards.
On the old trans-regional Ethio-Djibouti corridor station based intermediate cities all station were used for both passenger and freight services. The station of Dire Dawa were also served as locomotive yards in which all the facilities of cooling, watering, repairing, oiling, cleaning etc. services were provided.
There were also stations that are located between intermediate cities. These stations known as dry station or ‘derek tabiya’ in local language, which were served as mobile maintenance services center. For instance, Dalota, Lemlem, Dankaka, Tedie Mariam, Soleqie, Feto, Borchota, Haro Arba, Sabu Ber, Legebenti, Eilala Sela, Awash Eisht were dry stations located between Bishoftu and Dire Dawa.
Currently there is a functional standard gauge railway line, on this corridor there are stations constructed to provide passenger or freight or both services. From the four intermediate cities only Bishoftu station has been providing passenger services; the rest providing both passenger and freight services. .
4.2.3. Industrialization
In Ethiopia the origin of modern industrialization dated back to the early twenty-first century with the advent of the old Ethio-Djibouti railway corridor. This corridor plays an indispensable role for agglomeration of industries and trade centers such as Akaki, Dukem, Bishoftu (Debre Zeit), Adama (Nazret), Mojo, Metehara, Awash and Dire Dawa.
Recently the Ethiopia Government has been constructing industrial parks in different parts of the country. The government followed the SEZ policy approach with the intention of maximizing social and economic development through job creation, export generation, import substitution and know-how and technology transfer from investors. The rate and scale of industrial parks development by the Federal Government, regional states, and private developers has had an affirmative effect on the urbanization processes [37]. These industrial parks have, in turn, intensified the growth and development of already-existing urban centers, or have created cluster cities [37].
Currently, there are a total of 25 industrial parks (IP) that are operational in Ethiopia, of which 17 are government-owned (14 by the Federal government and 3 by the regional states) and 7 are privately-owned. The Chines owned Eastern IP covering 400 hectares was inaugurated in 2010 as the first privately-developed IP. The total area allotted for IP is 20,830.47ha, form this IP located in intermediate cities covers 7,595ha or 36.46%.
Table 3.
Industrial Parks Located in the Intermediate Cities along the Railway Corridor .
Table 3.
Industrial Parks Located in the Intermediate Cities along the Railway Corridor .
Ownership |
Name of IP |
Acquired Land (in ha) |
Urban center |
Specialization |
Status |
Government |
Adama IP |
2000 |
Adama |
Assembling, food processing & Garment |
Operational |
Dire Dawa IP |
4186 |
Dire Dawa |
Assembling, food processing & Garment |
Operational |
Bishoftu IP |
189 |
Oromia |
|
Planning stage |
Mojo Leather Industry |
290 |
Oromia |
Leather |
Planning stage |
|
Sub-Total |
6,665 |
|
|
|
Private |
Eastern Industrial Zone |
500 |
Oromia |
Various |
Operational |
Mojo George Shoe |
50 |
Oromia |
Leather |
Operational |
CCECC |
380 |
Dire Dawa |
Various |
Under Construction |
|
Sub-Total |
930 |
|
|
|
|
Grand Total |
7,595 |
|
|
|
Similar to the railway line and stations, all the industrial parks have been developed on agricultural land. Which have an adverse impact on agricultural production and socio-economic impact on the agricultural communities living in the fringe areas of intermediate cities.
4.2.4. Regional Integration
There is no consensus on the exact definition of regional integration. However, there is an agreement that regional integration has cross-border and multi-dimensional nature. It promotes socio-economic development by expanding markets and trade, enhancing cooperation, spreading risks, and fostering socio-cultural cooperation and regional stability benefits.
Regional integration cannot proceed without regional transport and infrastructure. It is indispensable for factor connectivity, investment flows and value creation. Connectivity is the chain link that characterizes the economy of the 21st century, which is manifested in connecting landlocked countries to ports.
As a landlocked country the Ethio-Djibouti railway corridor plays an indispensable role creating get way to port for trade, better physical connection with neighboring country, free movement of people from area of no job to labour is in high demand etc.
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A)
Rural-Urban Continuum
In the rural-urban dichotomy, there are areas neither rural nor urban features that are located in the immediate vicinity of cities. Different scholars examine these urban fringe areas as: peri-urban, suburban, rurban, rural-urban continuum, composite settlements, gragara, and desakota settlements, depending on the region’s size, scale, and settings [40]. In the fast urbanized world, fringe development is inevitable; however, there is seldom recognition and definition for such kinds of area [40].
In the trans-regional Ethio-Djibouti railway corridor station based intermediate cities, there is urban expansion or fringe development phenomena. This fringe development phenomena have a rural-urban continuum (RUC) feature. RUC refers to the merger of rural and urban areas, thereby eradicating the assumption of a clear-cut distinction between the two dichotomy areas.
Based on the morphological settlements pattern urban fringes can be broadly categorized as: Polycentric urban centers formed by multiple monocentric cities; Ribbon Development; and Desakota Settlements [40].
In Ethiopia, ribbon development urban morphology phenomena existed on the north-west parts of Bishoftu, and Dire Dawa and Southern parts of Mojo, and Adama intermediate cities. Previous agricultural land of the fringes Bishoftu, Mojo, Adama, and Dire Dawa intermediate cities gradually converted to urban mainly due to industrial parks development.
Figure 6.
Bishoftu and Dire Dawa Railway Stations.
Figure 6.
Bishoftu and Dire Dawa Railway Stations.
Figure 7.
Mojo and Adama Railway Stations.
Figure 7.
Mojo and Adama Railway Stations.
In a few intermediate cities polycentric urban centers formed by multiple monocentric cities. For instance, in the northern part of Bishoftu there is monocentric city namely Dukem. This makes RUC morphological settlement pattern in the area. This RUC phenomena stretches to Addis Ababa. For that matter both the old and new railway stations as well as industrial parks were constructed on the agricultural land. An interview with the ERC affirmed that each station of the new standard gauge railway has approximately 300 hectares of land, principally farmland.
Figure 8.
Rural-Urban continuum on the south eastern direction of Addis Ababa.
Figure 8.
Rural-Urban continuum on the south eastern direction of Addis Ababa.
The other example exhibited in Dire Dawa, as the figure depict there was a monocentric station based urban center i.e., Melka Jebdu located in the north-western direction of Dire Dawa. This nearby station town become part of Dire Dawa city administration. This makes the intermediate city to have more than one development hubs and become polycentric city.
Figure 9.
a & b: Google Image of 1985 and 2021 of Melka Jebdu and Dire Dawa Urban Growth.
Figure 9.
a & b: Google Image of 1985 and 2021 of Melka Jebdu and Dire Dawa Urban Growth.
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B)
Economic/Trade Integration
Regional integration is linked to competitiveness and innovation through knowledge sharing and network connections. The existing functional standard gauge railway corridor has a trans regional nature that connect land locked Ethiopia to the international trade through the port of Djibouti. This corridor has the highest share (90%) of the international trade.
As table 8 indicates the performance of Ethio-Djibouti railway company decreased from time to time. Specifically, after 2011 with the government policy direction of modernizing the railway transport system, its performance become ceased.
Table 4.
The Ethio-Djibouti Old Railway Performance.
Table 4.
The Ethio-Djibouti Old Railway Performance.
Revenue and Transport Service |
Year |
2000 |
2002 |
2004 |
2006 |
2008 |
2010 |
2012 |
2014 |
Revenue ('000) |
Passenger |
13,010 |
18,400 |
5,218 |
6,000 |
2,450 |
2,300 |
NA |
5,500 |
Frights |
50,250 |
37,800 |
37,042 |
27,400 |
7,050 |
5,700 |
NA |
NA |
Total |
63,260 |
56,200 |
42,260 |
33,400 |
9,500 |
8,000 |
|
|
|
Transportation Service |
Passengers Travel in Km (Million) |
145 |
254 |
40 |
24 |
26 |
5 |
|
15 |
Freight carried ('000 Tons) |
285.3 |
95 |
204.3 |
123 |
76 |
2 |
|
|
The new standard gauge trans-regional Ethio-Djibouti railway corridor served for more than 500,000 metric tons cargo and generating ETB 2.5 billion revenue in the past five years. According to the Ethiopia-Djibouti Railway Company, the railway corridor has 11.2% to 15% contribution to the East African country’s overall export and import trade.
Figure 10 depicts that the new standard gauge railway corridor starts operation in 205/16. However, the corridor officially started commercial service in January 2018. The Corridor is jointly owned by the two sovereign states of Ethiopia and Djibouti. The railway company assign a Chinese Consortium to manage the corridor through a management contract.
Figure 10.
Revenue performance of the New Standard Gauge Ethio-Djibouti Railway Corridor.
Figure 10.
Revenue performance of the New Standard Gauge Ethio-Djibouti Railway Corridor.
As the ERC official indicates, initially the new standard gauge railway corridor was designed to operate with an average speed of 80km/hr with a freight tariff of 0.046 per ton/km and 0.023 per ton/km for import and export respectively. Compared to the road corridor, trucks usually cover 903Km length road that stretches from Addis Ababa to the port of Djibouti with the average speed of 60km/hr with a tariff of 0.047USD/ton/km. Due to transportation speed/time, safety, and price the modal share of the railway transport shows 80% to 85% coverage than the truck transport system. (See
Figure 11)
Figure 11.
Modal Share of Truck and Train On the Eastern Economic Corridor.
Figure 11.
Modal Share of Truck and Train On the Eastern Economic Corridor.
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C)
Inter-Regional Integration
Taking the current state structure, both the old and new standard gauge railway lines pass through four regional states and two city administrations. Namely: Oromia, Amhara, Afar and Somali regional States, and Addis Ababa and Dire Dawa City Administrations. (See
Figure 12)
From the intermediate cities’ perspective, all except Dire Dawa are located in Oromia regional state and they are located within 100km radius from the metropolitan city of Addis Ababa.
Figure 12.
The Eastern Trans-Regional Railway Corridor.
Figure 12.
The Eastern Trans-Regional Railway Corridor.