Restoration of Railway Transport in Ghana's Industrial Expansion

The restoration of railway transport: a prompt intervention for Ghana’s industrial expansion

1.0 Introduction

The titled research will analyse and elaborate the importance of rail transport to the industrial growth and identify key benefits to the mining and cocoa industries.

Road transport has been the most foremost system of transportation for both freight and commuters in Ghana. This is owed to an emerging domestic air transport industry and a railway industry virtually non-operational. The concentration on road transport has not been bereft of glitches.

Motorists who use the routes of the major cities of Ghana for instance Accra, Kumasi and Takoradi are faced with restrictions such as sectors of damaged roads, heavy traffic bottlenecks, danger of night travel due to unlit roads.

Commuting periods for these trips are, consequently and expressively increased owing to the abovementioned issues, which are additionally made difficult with the increasing fees on fuel.

Rail transport will offer an exceptional tactic to motivating economic growth in communities in disadvantaged regions of the country. According to GRDA, (2018) the Ghana Railways Master Plan summaries the stages of development of new rail lines.

This would may guide in citing the factories in the “One District One Factory” Programme (Ghana.gov.gh, 2018) by transporting in raw materials and conveying end produce from these plants to diverse locations of Ghana and beyond which will necessitate a resourceful rail system as acknowledged that it is a cost-effective choice for freight transport.

1.1 Research Aims and Objectives

The aim of the research is to examine the role of rail transportation service in the development of industrial expansion. Precisely, the research seeks to attain the following objectives:

      To identify and examine the transportation service in the cocoa and mining industry

      To examine the boost of rail transportation on cocoa and mining production areas

      To examine the contribution of the rail transportation in the growth and development of the Ghanaian industry

2.0 Literature Review

The literature about logistic systems, the activities and fundamental literature on rail transportation deliver resources in response to the above research questions. According to Dincer, Hogerwaard and Zamfirescu (2016) rail transport main objective  is to transport passengers and freight. Furthermore Olievschi (2013) agrees that most of the African countries’ railways in the past, played vital part in the economic growth; for a long period of time, railways played a positive role in moving freight and commuters at little fees and empowered the growth of mining and agriculture industries.

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Rail freight an accomplishment story. It has taken lorries off the roads and radically reduced congestion through carrying goods and services that are consumed every day. Network Rail (2017) found that Britain depends on rail freight to deliver a faster, greener, safer and more effective means of conveying goods than roads. In contributing to the growth of the economy, Network Rail (2017) claimed that the rail freight industry contributed over £1.7bn of economic assistances for Britain. Similarly, the rail association and freight transport operators have seen the effort of its contribution to economies and attempts made to expand rail freight transport services by branding its adaptable services to the call of the supply chain clients (llie, 2018).

Support for rail freight transportation has increased according to NewsBank, inc., (2017) claimed that Ghana Manganese company plans to increase production but was not able to do so due to transportation challenges in Ghana and thus signed an agreement with the Ghana rail company limited to rehabilitate the rail line to help with freight transportation. Reasons are this will help eliminate some of the bottlenecks encountered through transportation and aid production increase.

3.0 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1 Introduction

The dialogue offered in the methodology discusses the methods through which data for the research were gained and analysed. Although the investigation makes use of secondary data, the methodology focusses on ways of procuring secondary data from the study areas. It expands on the design framework, research scope, data type, sources, and data collection methods, data analyses and presentation. The approach used will facilitate to test the research questions that are the driving force for the focus of the study.

3.2 Design Framework

The research design assumed is the case study approach. The reason being the study tried to appreciate the undercurrents and connection between transportation services and industrial expansion for growths which is a major factor of the case study approach to research. The subject deliberated are linked to further geographical areas consequently the conclusion of this investigation can be replicated in any planetary to improve the positive process of industrial expansion.

3.3 Scope of the Study

Industries in Ghana have declared their support for the revamping of the rail service to ease freight transportation. According to NewsBank, inc. (2017) the Ghana Manganese Company, via its parent company, the Consolidated Minerals Limited, has contracted an arrangement with the Ghana Railway Company Limited (GRCL), to repair part of the western rail lines from Kojokrom to Tarkwa. The selection of the said agreement had been dictated by a drop in the volume of manganese that the GRCL was able to transport for the Manganese Company Limited during the showery season. Industries in these areas were inclined by their achievement and wealth in the past, and the unfortunate present deterioration in their role towards the expansion programme of Ghana.

3.4 Data Collection Methods

Applicable material for this study was obtained from secondary sources. The methodology used for this thesis comprises of a literature review and case studies research ensuing the fundamental principles of a methodical search. Diverse websites including electronic databases such as Discover, IEEE Xplore, Digital Library were used to find material about the proposed topic.  Entirely the investigated topics linking to the importance and cost effectiveness of rail transportation and freight through the research approach produced journal articles of high effect.

3.5 Data Analysis and Findings

The analysis of the research suggests a return to a dynamic rail sector is urgently desired and the formation of the Ministry of Railway Development has come at an appropriate period. The rail sector will not only ease road traffic congestion but also takeaway the weight off the road network in Ghana and safeguard extensive lifecycles of newly built roads (Keddey, 2017)

4.0 Planned activities

References

• Dincer, I., Hogerwaard, J. and Zamfirescu, C. (2016) Clean Rail Transportation Options. Springer International Publishing (Green Energy and Technology). Available at: http://www.springer.com/gb/book/9783319217253 (Accessed: 13 December 2018).
• Ghana.gov.gh (2018) One District, One Factory officially takes off – Government of Ghana. Available at: http://www.ghana.gov.gh/index.php/news/3939-one-district-one-factory-officially-takes-off (Accessed: 11 December 2018).
• GRDA (2018) ‘Master Plan – Ghana Railway Development Authority’. Available at: http://www.grda.gov.gh/index.php/masterplan/ (Accessed: 11 December 2018).
• Keddey, K. (2017) The revival of rail transport – a timely intervention for Ghana’s industrial growth, Graphic Online. Available at: https://www.graphic.com.gh/features/opinion/the-revival-of-rail-transport-a-timely-intervention-for-ghana-s-industrial-growth.html (Accessed: 11 December 2018).
• llie, E. (2018) Role of freight transport in the logistics chain, Railway PRO Communication Platform. Available at: https://www.railwaypro.com/wp/role-of-freight-transport-in-the-logistics-chain/ (Accessed: 13 December 2018).
• Network Rail (2017) Rail freight, Network Rail. Available at: https://www.networkrail.co.uk/industry-commercial-partners/rail-freight/ (Accessed: 13 December 2018).
• NewsBank, inc. (2017) Document View | Access World News | NewsBank. Available at: https://infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/news/document-view?p=AWNB&docref=news%2F1669CACB91E3B640 (Accessed: 11 December 2018).
• Olievschi. (2013) Framework for improving railway sector performance in Sub-Saharan Africa. Available at: https://www.ssatp.org/sites/ssatp/files/publications/SSATPWP94-Railway-Performance.pdf/ (Accessed: 13 December 2018).

Bibliography

• Dionori, F. et al. (2015) ‘FREIGHT ON ROAD: WHY EU SHIPPERS PREFER TRUCK TO TRAIN’, p. 78.
• Tseng, Y. Y., Yue, W. and Taylor, M. (2005) ‘The role of transportation in logistics chain’, Proceedings of the Eastern Asia Society for Transportation Studies, 5, pp. 1657–1672.
• Trid (2018) Home – Transport Research International Documentation – TRID. Available at: https://trid.trb.org/ (Accessed: 24 November 2018).