So it was at the opening of the world’s first steam passenger railway in 1830, when a dignitary in Liverpool was crushed by a train. So too in Saudi Arabia today, where construction of a high-speed railway was almost derailed by advancing sand dunes. And also in Ethiopia, where Africa’s newest major railroad has been frustrated by one of civilisation’s earliest forms of transport, the camel. Camel herders in the arid scrubland east of Addis Ababa report many more such incidents over the previous year of trial operations. Mr Tilahun hopes all Ethiopians will eventually view the railway as a “national resource”.

Source: Ethiopian News February 08, 2018 15:45 UTC