By Simon Alliso

A distance of more than 400 kilometers separates Harare, Zimbabwe’s capital, from Bulawayo, the country’s second-largest city and industrial center. Unless you can afford a plane ticket, and most Zimbabweans can’t, the best way to travel between the two is to drive six or seven hours on a narrow highway, often longer if you hit a pothole, a police roadblock or a traffic jam. There is also a train that links the two cities, but it is in a state of considerable disrepair, running slowly and never on time.

Nelson Chamisa wants to do the trip in just half an hour. On a bullet train.

At a rally earlier this month in Bindura, a town north of Harare, the fresh-faced, newly minted leader of the opposition promised to deliver a technological miracle to would-be voters. “We want to have the best infrastructure in the next two to three years,” he said. “We want to bring bullet trains that travel at 600 kilometers per hour, from Bulawayo to Harare in 30 to 35 minutes.”

Source: WPR