The Brookings Institute notes that in the past few years, “Chinese railway construction companies have achieved great business successes in Africa.”

Those projects include China Railway 20 Bureau Group Corporation’s (CR20) $1.83 billion reconstruction of the Benguela railway connecting Angola, Zambia and southeastern Democratic Republic of Congo completed in August 2014. Chinese companies are also building the $4 billion electric railway connecting Addis Ababa and Djibouti, the $5.6 billion Chad railway network and the $13 billion coastal railway project with Nigeria.

Construction of the $3.8 billion deal — signed by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and Kenyan president Kenyatta earlier this year — for a railway linking Kenya’s port city of Mombasa with Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and South Sudan is to begin in October 2014.

Brookings Institute notes that the key to such massive procurement deals with the Chinese has been the adoption of “Chinese standards” in the railways.

“The different track gauge standards in Africa have been a significant obstacle in establishing the regional railway network. As a result, Chinese companies have managed to convince African governments of the need to accept Chinese technical standards in rail infrastructure,” notes the Brookings report.

Roads vs. Rail?

Though rail can carry a lot of freight and is critical to port activity, roads remain critical to Africa’s infrastructure development.

“As economies grow people become more wealthy and development is taking place and infrastructure is being developed, so there will be more cars on the street and that’s not good for the environment,” Alexander Ochs, director of the Climate and Energy Program at Worldwatch Institute told AFKInsider.

“So, doing that more sustainably requires solutions, and some of those solutions are there but it’s going to be a really difficult challenge to make sure that they are seen as the more attractive option in comparison to just cars that burn fossil fuel,” Ochs told AFKInsider.

But Ochs says it isn’t necessarily road versus rail.

“It’s about how you use the technology,” Ochs told AFKInsider.

The Maputo, Mozambique, Municipal Council announced on Oct. 2 that it was launching dedicated bus lanes in some major thoroughfares for a fleet of buses to begin operating in January 2017. Brazilian company Ordebrecht conducted geotechnical studies for the $225 million project, of which $180 million is coming from Brazil.

“I think buses have a role to play if you really look at the environmental footprint of buses versus trains,” says Ochs, who notes “sometimes buses are the more greener and cleaner version of trains.”

“As a general rule, you can say if buses are full, then they are usually more sustainable than trains – specifically if you have to build new tracks and so on,” Ochs told AFKInsider.

Tackling Transport Challenges  

Many believe that Africa’s growth and urbanization presents an opportunity for transportation infrastructure to “leapfrog” to more sustainable technologies.

The goal of the Oct 28-30 Conference on Sustainable Transport in Nairobi was to “integrate sustainable transport into the region’s development and planning processes and increase the amount of funding going to sustainable transport programs in Africa.”

But reaching a “green economy” with transportation is much more difficult than achieving set goals in the electric power sector – such as 20 percent renewable energy by so-and-so date.

“The transport sector remains almost entirely reliant on oil products, with few policies in place to promote the use of alternative fuels, such as biofuels” notes the International Energy Agency African Energy Outlook report.

“Generally, transportation is a big area where most of us really are worried that countries that are extremely ambitious will really reach their goals simply because it’s a lot more difficult to get cars – that are a long-term investments for individuals – off the street and replace them with more sustainable ways of transportation,” says Ochs.

A more positive dynamic is vehicle fuel efficiency. According to the International Energy Agency’s African Energy Outlook report, sub-Saharan Africa relies heavily on imports of second hand vehicles from Japan and Europe, which both have comprehensive fuel economy standards in place.

“To a degree, these standards are progressively imported helping to improve the region’s average efficiency,” notes the report, which concludes:

“Interest in building vehicle manufacturing or assembly plants in Africa is also expected to be a factor in pushing policymakers to consider fuel-economy policies more seriously or, where they exist, to impose them more stringently.”