Goods Carriage (GCR):
Due to the circumstances in which Africans find themselves at this time, it is very likely that quite a few people who want to travel by train will also have some kind of goods to carry with themselves that is not just a suitcase.
A goods wagon for such cases may be a useful extension to train carriages.
Example:
If train frequencies get up to about 4/hour, there would easily be 5 minutes to load and unload cargo, using an hydraulic arm. The conductor would be the last person to walk along the train, before climbing on board at each stop. He or she then moves the switch that allows the train driver to move from a stationary position.
With this type of cargo, stacking can take place, therefore 1/4, 1/2 and 1 cubic meter space can be allocated on such goods carriages.
Subject to the real world situation, 1/4, 1/2 and multiples of 1m³ space could, for example be set equal to 1/4, 1/2 and multiples of 1 passenger seat.
In this context, the statement above refers to goods moving within the borders of a country. Goods moving across borders may use a slightly different value that include small transit charges, in order to cover the cost of checking transit documentation, not container content.
In this context, it would be the job of a receiver country to check what remains inside their borders after crossing other internal African borders.
Note: Stopping the train schedule of these kind of trains, even if they cross borders, will not be good for business and project feasibility checks.
To be clear, let other countries bypass your country with their individual requirements. That means that on African railways, a container can not contain goods for more than one country. Any such thing will have to be organized at the ports of exit.
The goods carriage service could even be run by persons who are different to those that run the persons carriages but the owner of the content in the goods carriages would be onboard the persons carriages.
The goods carriages and person carriages are coordinated by the people that provide the track and associated infrastructure activity.
Goods carriages could have an hydraulic arm built in so that a one man operation per carriage or carriage pair would keep operating costs low and bring goods deep into remote areas. Especially where, for the time being, finding an exact address could be a problem.
Proper temporary storage space will be useful at train stops.