Blue Train
Topic: World Transport and Communication · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 7 "Transport and Communication"
Meaning
The Blue Train is a luxury passenger train in South Africa. It runs between Cape Town and Pretoria. Africa has only about 40,000 km of railways, and about 18,000 km of them are in South Africa. Railways grew there to serve gold, diamond and copper mining.
Example
The Blue Train carries passengers between Cape Town on the south-west coast and Pretoria in the north-east. It shows that South Africa has the best-developed rail network in Africa.
Don't confuse with
- Benguela Railway: a freight line from Lobito (Angola) to the Katanga-Zambia copper belt. It carries minerals, not luxury passengers.
- TAZARA (Tanzania-Zambia Railway): a line of about 1,860 km from Kapiri Mposhi (Zambia) to Dar es Salaam (Tanzania). China helped build it in 1970-75.
Related concepts
- Stockton and Darlington Railway
- Commuter trains
- Underground railway
- Rail network of Europe
- Channel Tunnel
- Rail network of North America
- Trans-Andean Railway
- Uspallata Pass
- Benguela Railway
- Tanzania-Zambia Railway