82 [No. 98 ECONOMIC CONDITIONS runs to Kereima ( 145 miles ), in connection with a service of river steamers from Kerma and Dongola. An older military branch line , completed in 1897 , from Halfa to Kerma, along theright bank of the Nile, no longer exists . From what is known as No. 6 Station in the desert , about half-way between Halfa and Abu Hamed, another short branch line, 28 miles in length , runs to Um Nabardi gold mine in the Atbai district.

( ii ) The Atbara - Port Sudan Railway, completed in 1905, has a length of 305 miles . At Sallom Junction 22 miles from Port Sudan, a modern harbour equipped with all the latest appliances which was opened for shipping in 1909 , the railway is joined by a short line of 25 miles from Suakin , 30 miles south of Port Sudan .

The · first ninety miles of the journey from Port Sudan is through the hills, and atSummit Station an altitude of 3,000 ft . is reached ; thereafter the run is on a gradual down -hill grade to the Nile . The line has no gradient steeper than 1 in 100, and no curve sharper than 17! chains radius. The journey from Port Sudan to Khartum occupies about twenty hours .

The building of a railway linking the Nile valley with the Red Sea has proved to be of enormous impor tance to the development of the Sudan , since it obviates a journey by rail and steamer of nearly 1,500 miles , from Khartum to the Mediterranean, involving no less than four trans -shipments of goods and passengers .

( iii ) The Khartum -Sennar - El Obeid Railway runs along the left bank of the Blue Nile to Wad Medani ( 109 miles ) , where it connects with the Blue Nile steamer service , and thence to Sennar (59 miles) . Before this section of the line was finished it was estimated that the traffic would justify the running of two , or at the most three, trains a week . This estimate , however, proved to be very much lower than the number actually required .

At Sennar the line leaves the Blue Nile and crosses the Gezira, the plain between the two Niles . At Rabak,