The railroad's primary purpose is to connect the north of Ethiopia with the Addis Ababa–Djibouti Railway at the Awash junction and therefore connecting it with the world economy through the Port of Djibouti and also with the southern parts of Ethiopia with its capital, Addis Ababa.

It also runs parallel to the densely populated eastern escarpment of the northwestern Ethiopian Highlands, as a gate to several tangential areas further west, such as Lake Tana and cities like Gondar.

It then runs through low-lying areas and then along irrigated plantations at the Awash River in Amibara woreda, the lowest elevation point of the railway (700 metres) has been reached.

It then runs for 80 km through semi-arid, hilly and almost unpopulated areas, no railway station is foreseen here.

Up the road from here is the major city of Debre Berhan at an elevation of 2800 metres, a few dozen km to the southwest.

Shewa Robit serves as the entry point for Debre Berhan and other destinations to the west and the middle section of the Awash valley to its east.

After Shewa Robit, the railway runs north through the rugged landscape that makes up the eastern escarpment of the Highlands of Ethiopia.

Kombolcha is a major city, as is the nearby regional capital Dessie, its twin-city a few km to the west.

That makes the railway station a possible major point of interest for tourism and passenger train traffic.

The total length of passing loops is designed to be 1100 m. The railway line is almost fully electrified.

[1] Directly north of Kombolcha, the railway will have a few major infrastructure elements, in particular an operations centre.

Directly opposite to the operations centre across the railway, there is a freight yard with dry port close to an industrial park and also the Kombolcha Airport.

Everything is in reach within minutes, from the Kombolcha railway station to the dry port, the operations centre and the airport.

For the 1st section between Awash and Kombolcha it was expected to have all 270 km of rails laid in August 2017 so that first test runs on the railway were announced.

[10] This gives rise to the speculation, that either another (and indirect) European funding plays a role or that only the first phase of the railway between Awash and Kombolcha was covered by the US $1.7b contract.

As of July 2022[update] the construction site in Kombolcha was used as a camp for internally displaced persons.