Chapter 452: The East African Railway Network
In the blink of an eye, the year turned to 1875. East Africa's new population policy indeed drew some public criticism, but overall, it remained acceptable.
Even with reduced government spending, East Africa still had the world's lowest childbirth costs. The state couldn't eliminate support altogether, so the current policy remained: subsidies would continue for up to three children—after that, families were expected to support themselves.
By 1875, the Central Railway section from Dar es Salaam to Mbeya was largely completed. The Northern Railway was fully operational. The Little Rhine River renovation project had reached 80% completion, and the Central Canal was entirely finished.
The Little Rhine project was no less complex than the canal—it even surpassed the canal in scale. It wasn't just about reshaping the Little Rhine itself, but involved redesigning the entire basin's hydrology and irrigation systems, which greatly affected East African farmland. Flood season posed the greatest challenge—construction was often delayed due to flash floods and storm surges.
However, after extensive modification, the lower and middle reaches of the Little Rhine finally began to resemble a true European river, breaking from its ancient, wild course.
New Hamburg Port was now complete. With both New Hamburg and Mbeya as starting points, the southern section of the Central Railway was under full-scale construction, significantly accelerating progress.
"Most major projects are now either done or nearing completion. Only the final stretch of the Central Railway remains. With the Dar es Salaam to Mbeya section complete, coastal steel can be delivered inland. The Central Railway will definitely be finished next year—except for the western segment. The southern line, from Lusaka to Bulawayo, will be fully operational this year."
Thanks to a fresh wave of immigrants, many of whom were assigned to railway construction, progress on the East African rail network rapidly advanced. Coupled with increased steel output from the Lake Malawi industrial zone and supporting factories, construction costs plummeted.
"Ernst, with many projects winding down, a lot of laborers are idle. What should we do? Keep building railways or switch to something else?" Constantino asked.
"Railways can continue—but for now, we'll slow construction. Let's use the existing railways to push immigration deeper inland first."
By modern standards, East African railways were a losing proposition. The interior wasn't completely uninhabited, but population density was pitifully low.
So now that rail lines were complete, it was time to develop the surrounding land—shifting some of the dense eastern population inland.
Ernst continued: "We can now start large-scale development of the former Kingdom of Malawi. Using the Central Railway, we'll transfer immigrants and some eastern residents into South Salzburg Province."
The territory of the former Malawi Kingdom was west of Lake Malawi. A few years back, East Africa and Mozambique divided it. Known in Ernst's previous life as Nyasaland under British rule, Malawi was rich in crops like tobacco, coffee, tea, cotton, and sugarcane, with annual rainfall between 1,000–1,500 mm.
It also held rare earths, titanium ore, bauxite, uranium sand, garnet, pyrite, limestone, coal, graphite, gemstones, gold, and diamonds.
East Africa took the lion's share of Malawi's land—mainly the northern and central regions (Malawi was divided into three regions). The northern region was mountainous; the central region was a plateau; the south mixed highlands and lowlands.
The central plateau was the development priority—meant to link with the Luangwa River Basin.
"Regarding railways, this year we'll plan a Southern Railway starting from Mtwara Port, running directly to the Lake Malawi industrial zone, to address traffic issues in New Württemberg Province."
New Württemberg Province had three main transport modes:
Maritime – via Mtwara Port,Road – the province's main intra-city route,River – reliant on the Ruvuma River.
While infrastructure was decent, one huge flaw remained—Mtwara and the Ruvuma weren't directly connected. Mtwara was a lone bay port, forcing cargo to be transferred on land.
"The Southern Railway shouldn't run parallel to the Ruvuma—it should go further north to better serve the interior. For that, Mtwara is too far south. I plan to build a new port roughly 160 kilometers northwest of Mtwara as the railway's new starting point."
The bay Ernst referred to was the future Kilwa Masoko Port in modern Tanzania—a key port in Tanzania today, though currently unnamed. Ernst casually dubbed it Soko Port.
"Let's call it Soko for now. Geographically, it's closer to Central Province, midway between the Rufiji and Ruvuma Rivers, and surrounded by undeveloped land. Building a railway from here would greatly benefit New Württemberg Province."
The province's economy had always been southern-centric, beginning with the Lower Coastal Area, then the Sea-Lake Province, all hugging the Ruvuma corridor. New Württemberg simply inherited this development pattern.
This left the area between Central Province and New Württemberg extremely empty—no major cities, decent agriculture, but terrible transport. Crop processing and export were tough.
A Southern Railway passing through here would fix this, and finally connect the Lake Malawi industrial zone to the ocean.
Currently, the zone had two hubs:
Mbeya on the north shore,Songea on the east shore.
Songea used to be the capital of the East Malawi District under colonial East Africa. Now it's the industrial heart of New Württemberg Province, and the terminal point of the Southern Railway.
In East Africa, cities were more like Chinese prefecture-level cities—regional administrative hubs, unlike European cities. Songea's jurisdiction extended to Lake Malawi, so the railway would reach the lake itself.
Ernst added: "Besides the Southern Railway, the Central Railway will have branch lines—one starting from Dodoma, passing Mbeya, and ending at Bujumbura in West Great Lakes Province. That gives us a basic East African rail network."
Though called a branch line, Ernst intended to build it to the same standards as the Central mainline.
These two new railways would add 1,000 km. East Africa's total railway length would then exceed 7,000 km.
Looking at the map, one could see how East African rail now linked Lake Malawi, Lake Solon (Tanganyika), and the Great Lake (Victoria)—three natural lakes acting like acupuncture points, opening East Africa's vital energy paths.
Building railways in East Africa was definitely more of a headache than in Austria-Hungary. Any given line could stretch over 500 km. But hey, that's a good problem—one only large countries get to enjoy.
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