Kama Kawa unajipata completely clueless on technical terms.
Mawaziri wenu sio wajinga wakisema 18m tones p.a.. wanajua hio axle load ni ngapi. Hizi vitu hupigwa hesabu hata kabla reli ijengwe. The only time axle load makes a difference ni kama unataka kubeba mizigo mzito zaidi kwa kila wagon... As it turns out mizigo mingi saa Haina haja ya uzito huo.. kwa mfano, tank za mafuta, simiti, hata vifaru vinaweza kubebwa na reli za kawaida, infact MGR yetu inaweza kubeba hii mizigo bila shida... Vitu vinavyohitaji bigger axle load ni kama raw unprocessed mineral deposits ambazo unatakiwa kupiga trip chache zenye mizigo mingi kwa mpigo. Lakini the rest of cargo hazihitaji axle load kubwa....
Alafu hio axle ya 35t vs 25t hii sio maximum weight on a wagon... Hii ni maximum weight per axle .. Yani wagon ikiwa na tairi nne, basi kila tairi inaweza kuhimili 25t kumaanisha total weight on the single wagon inaweza ikawa 25t * 4 = 100 tones... In order to give you a clue, the maximum weight of a 40ft container is 29tones... So if you have double stack wagon it would be 29*2= 58 tonnes of you also add the weight of the wagon inakuja kama 70tonnes total weight on the rail track ... There are no triple stacked wagons in the world... So you see, you don't need 35tonne axle load to carry double stacked containers, oil, cement, processed steel..etc kwahivyo hii reli yenu mmeifanya nzito kwa ajili ya madini ya DRC... Yani your tail's commercial viability is entirely dependent on DRC never processing it's mineral locally so that they export heavy unprocessed mineral deposits...
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Hapa kumbuka hatujagusa mambo ya train sets, au loop lines..etc things that actually affect the carrying capacity of a rail line...