Backgrounder: Eight facts on Ethiopia-Djibouti railway

Chinese-built Ethiopia-Djibouti railway will officially open service on Wednesday to become Africa's first electric railway. Here are eight facts about this historic project.

1. The 752-km railway links the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa and the port of Djibouti in the Gulf of Aden country Djibouti. It offers both passenger and freight services.

2. The majority of the railway is located in the Horn of Africa country Ethiopia. The rail line runs from plateau as high as 2,400 meters in the west to flat deserts in the east. The big altitude difference was a major technological challenge in its construction.

3. The railway is the continent's first electric railway, which powers the trains through overhead wires. Compared with locomotives that burns diesel, the electric trains boast powerful traction and are more environmentally friendly.

4. The railway has a designed speed of 120 km per hour, which may not be impressive to countries that have high-speed rails. But with faster trains come higher costs, both in construction and operation, so experts say the current speed design proves more cost-effective for Ethiopia and Djibouti given their industrial levels and freight volumes.

5. With a total investment of 4 billion U.S. dollars, the line is constructed by China Railway Group and China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation, two state-owned companies of China. It is the first railway built using complete sets of Chinese equipment and standards outside China.

6. The railway is also the second trans-national railway built by Chinese firms in Africa, following the Tazara railway, which links Tanzania's Dar es Salaam with Zambia's Kapiri Mposhi. During a visit to Ethiopia in May 2013, Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang hailed the Ethiopia-Djibouti railway as the "Tazara railway in a new era."

Yet unlike the Tazara railway, which was built in the 1970s as a foreign aid project by the Chinese government, the Ethiopia-Djibouti railway is a commercial act by Chinese firms.

7. Prior to the project, there was no modern railway in Ethiopia or Djibouti. The railway is capable of slashing travel time between Addis Ababa and Djibouti from 7 days on roads to about 10 hours. It also provides landlocked Ethiopia with a faster access to the port in Djibouti. There have been expectations for the railway to boost industrialization along its route.

8. The railway will be managed by a consortium of Chinese companies for about six years given the lack of railway-related personnel in the two countries. The Chinese management is also commissioned to train local stewards, drivers and technicians, creating thousands of new jobs and nurturing railway expertise for the two African countries. Enditem