History

A railroad we do not need
That parts of our beautiful country are already being divided by railroads is enough is part of the reason why we should get worried. Listening to arguments advanced for the construction of railroads to criss-cross the entire country prompted me think of the sort of problems that we must start preparing for before it is too late.

Woe unto those whose land, farms, homesteads, factories and pastures the railroad is mapped to cross. I understand that sharp turns must not by part of the railroad, meaning that the engineers will not make the least effort to make the rail pass just outside peoples property (Denault  Landis). Instead, the railway will cross farms, pastures, plantations with little regard for the value of investment thereof. Though those affected can be assured of compensation, it will be years, or decades, before they can develop their property to the current levels.

The construction will be particularly harsh to those whose homesteads occupy the land strips earmarked for the construction of the railroad (Denault  Landis). Relocating from one place to another can be a most devastating undertaking on any day. It is even worse when one is not only forced to move, but also given a time limit within which she must have moved from her home to another place. Victims who will be allocated land in new neighbourhoods have little alternative but to go through the entire process of settling anew, transfering children to new schools and moving their property.

Here comes the elephant in the room, and about which the government would like to play innocent. Locomotives engines spew out copious amounts of poisonous smoke, not to meantion the deafening noise and the earth-shaking which those living along the railroads have to live with from now henceforth. Respiratory diseases, hearing problems, and panic attacks among very young children are just a few of the conditions which will define life for the people living near the railroad. The value of property along the railway lines is bound to fall sharply as a result of the pollution and the fear of evictions. The destruction of scenic land features to create way for the railroad will not have the best effect on property value along the lines (Ruskin  Clavigera, 1886).

Worse to contemplate is the number of lives which will be lost as a result of this network of railroads. We have witnessed accidents on our streets before. People have fallen off horses and horse carts, ending up in graves. The construction of the railroad and the introduction of locomotives will make us revise everything we know about accidents. We are headed for an age of mass deaths occasioned by train derailments and train crashes (Marx, 1889). The long working hours and poor working conditions which have come to characterize todays workplace will precipitate human errors which, when coupled with the speed and height of the new rail-roads, could cost hundreds of lives and massive losses.

With every train expected to carry hundreds of people, at a speed much higher than a horses and crossing towns, roads and the country, we can expect that thousands of pedestrians, riders and livestock will be hit by the locomotives. But most horrendous will be the impacts of train crashes and derailments which may cause deaths running into thousands. Provision of security inside the train compartments will not be very easy either. Unless the authorities are ready to provide tight security inside the carriages, Im afraid the level of security in those trains will not be world-class (Landow, n.d Kalla-Bishop, 1977).

Rail Transport The way to go
There has been no official day of celebration yet but unknown to many, the world of transport has just been revolutionised. On the way out are the days when walking and riding animals defined the transport system of this country, and in comes the faster and more reliable rail-cars.

Railway transport is a dream come true for industrialists who for decades have relied on rudimentary means of transport which carry only small weights and are slow and largely unreliable, particularly in times of bad weather. Industrialists have had a most difficult time transporting bulky raw materials, finished products, as well as workers over long distances. With the new railroad system, industrialists will find it easier and cheaper to transport goods and people over long distances with the least concern over weather conditions (Denault  Landis, 1999 The Peel Web, n.d). Gone will be the days when workers had to live very near their workplaces in order to make it to work on time. Gone too will be the days when industrialists had to establish their factories very near their raw materials because of the difficulty of transporting bulky raw materials. The railroad era ushers in an age in which industrialists can locate factories whenever they want, as long as a rail-line passes close by. Factory workers too will be able to escape the filth of inner-city life as they will find it possible to commute to and from work every morning.

While there has been concern that the construction of rail-roads all over the country would bring down the value of all property located near the rail-lines due to the smoke and noise emanating from the locomotives as well as the destruction of scenic features which is expected to accompany the construction, the opposite is in fact true. People will realize that they will need the railcars to transport their products. As their transport problems ease, they will begin to appreciate the value of being closer to the rail-lines. Those who live far from the rail-roads will still have to haul their luggages to the rail-lines from where they can be loaded on the trains. Obviously, those neighbouring the rail-line will find the process easier. Demand for and the value of property near the rail-roads should therefore predictably rise, and not fall as the critics have suggested (Smiles, 1879). It is true the locomotives do emit generous amounts of smoke and noise, but from what we have seen before, we can hope for improvements in the not-too-far future and the smoke and noise will decline significantly.

Life in towns and cities is also looking at major changes. Initially, dependence on animal transport has not made it easy for people to travel from one point to a distant next. In effect, city residents have been restricted to the cities while rural residents have remained in the rural areas. The rail-road is about to change this situation completely, making it possible for workers to commute between rural and urban stations with relative ease. Reliable supply of fresh food products from the rural areas with make the products available and cheap in the cities, and will thus improve city life significantly (Smiles, 1879).

The amount of labour required for the construction of rail-roads is immense. Thousands upons thousands of able-bodied people will be employed to construct the rail-lines, bridges, tunnels and fly-overs needed to complete the system. Unemployment has been a major concern in our times, and the levels of poverty in our cities and country-sides are evidence to the worrying levels on unemployment. Railway construction is labour intensive and will therefore provide employment for many thousands of unemployed people. In rail-road construction companies, we are seeing some of the biggest employers of our times. In all, the costs associated with the introduction of rail transport are far outweighed by the benefits expected from this form of transport.