Mombasa-Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway: Connecting east Africa

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Kenya's Mombasa-Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) was officially opened on Wednesday. The line was developed to transport passengers and cargo between the capital Nairobi and the country's largest port city, Mombasa.

The first passenger train of the new service left Mombasa at 11:10 a.m. local time (08:10 GMT) bound for Nairobi with President Uhuru Kenyatta on board.

Travelling at 120 kilometers per hour, the new line will shorten the journey time between the two cities from 10 hours to just over four.

Construction on the line was initiated by the China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) in December 2014. 

The new route is the first phase of a railway project that aims to connect Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and South Sudan. It's Kenya's largest infrastructure project since independence in 1963 and involves a total investment of 3.8 billion US dollars. The second phase of the railway line is expected to be completed by December this year.

The Mombasa-Nairobi SGR has created more than 46,000 jobs for local communities and provided training opportunities for over 45,000 people. As part of the project, many young people from Kenya received training in railway operations in China. 

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The Mombasa-Nairobi railway is not just a milestone for Kenyan construction, but also for gender equality. Eight Kenyan women were chosen to go to China to learn how to drive a train and four of them were at the controls on the service's inaugural journey.