TANZANIA RAILWAYS ADDS NEW PASSENGER WAGONS
(Posted 03rd April 2015)
In time for the Easter weekend travel rush did the Tanzania Railway Corporation yesterday launch 22 brand new passenger wagons, which are already enroute from Dar es Salaam to Kigoma.
The new equipment, sourced from South Korea at a cost of nearly 29 billion Tanzania Shillings, will operate as a new deluxe train unit with less stops enroute, which will cut the journey time by several hours.
The new wagons are according to a statement seen from the Managing Director of Tanzania Railways equipped with sockets to charge phones and computers and, still to be verified, apparently offers WiFi connections. All passengers will travel seated and their number is limited to the available seats or sleeper compartments on the train.
The so called ‘Central Line’ on which this train will run is also due for upgrade and modernization from narrow gauge tracks to standard gauge tracks, which when ready will connect not just domestic destinations within Tanzania at more than triple the average speed of trains now but also extend to Rwanda.
The new line, estimated to cost at present prizes just under 8 billion US Dollars, is due to link Kigali with the present railway head in Isaka but is also expected to extend, via rail ferry from Mwanza, to a new port outside Kampala. When complete will this rail line offer an alternative to the Mombasa – Nairobi – Kampala – Juba / Kigali standard gauge railway which is presently under construction in Kenya, while Uganda, South Sudan and Rwanda have yet to commence work to link up to the Uganda / Kenya border.
Additional rail projects are planned between the new port of Lamu to Addis Ababa and Juba under the LAPSSET initiative while in Tanzania a new railway from Dar es Salaam to Mtwara, the country’s gas capital, is also under consideration.
