Posted on 20 August 2010 by Railways Africa Editor
East African Community (EAC) secretary-general Juma Mwapachu says a new railway is being planned to link the port of Tanga in Tanzania with Musoma on Lake Victoria, with onward connection to Kampala in Uganda, “to boost the economy and facilitate smooth implementation of the bloc’s “common market protocol.” It is by no means a new [...] [...more]
Posted on 10 August 2010 by Railways Africa Editor
In an effort to improve its carrying and operational capacity and profitability, the jointly owned Tanzania-Zambia Railway Authority (Tazara) is to repair all 865 defective wagons this year. The newly appointed Tazara managing director Akashambatwa Mbikusita-Lewanika told the East African Business Week that “the company would undergo massive transformation to improve its operational efficiency” in [...] [...more]
Posted on 01 July 2010 by Railways Africa Editor
In December 2009, according to East African Business Week (published in Kampala), employees of Tanzania Railways Limited (TRL) were placed on paid leave following serious washaways during the El Nino rains in the Morogoro region west of Dar-es-Salaam. Repairs to the most badly damaged bridge were completed recently and train services on the Central Line [...] [...more]
Posted on 24 May 2010 by Railways Africa Editor
Tanzania’s 2,706km Central Line has resumed operations, after completion of emergency repairs following damage caused by the El Nino rains that fell towards the end of 2009. Minister for infrastructure Dr Shukuru Kawambwa was quoted by East African Business Week saying said that repairs cost Tshs15 billion ($US11 million). The re-opening of the line comes [...] [...more]
Posted on 07 May 2010 by Railways Africa Editor
The government of Belgium has provided five reach-stackers to the Reli Asset Holdings Company (Rahaco) in Tanzania, aimed at enhancing rail capacity on the central corridor to transport containerised domestic and transit freight. The facility will enable turnaround time of container wagons to be reduced. At a function to launch a reach-stacker at the Ilala [...] [...more]
Posted on 03 May 2010 by Railways Africa Editor
The rehabilitation of damaged portions of Tanzania’s Central Line is expected to be completed by mid-May, minister for infrastructure development Dr Shukuru Kawambwa has told parliament. Twenty locations are complete, but work is still in progress at six of the remaining twelve, which suffered major damage. Severe flood damage was caused to the line between [...] [...more]
Posted on 25 April 2010 by Railways Africa Editor
Jenerali Ulimwengu, chairman of the board of Dar-es-Salaam’s Raia Mwema newspaper, in an opinion piece following the news that Tanzania is to scrap its railway concession, writes: “A major problem with our decision-makers is that they hesitate to make decisions, real game-changing decisions that reinvent landscapes and liberate slices of geography to send the human [...] [...more]
Posted on 20 April 2010 by Railways Africa Editor
The African Development Bank (AfDB) has lent Tanzania $US235.45 million to finance infrastructure projects, including a feasibility study on the proposed Tanzania-Rwanda-Burundi railway project. Senior finance ministry official Ramadhani Kijjah was quoted saying: “The construction of the Isaka-Kigali line in Rwanda and Keza-Musongati line in Burundi will contribute to the implementation of an efficient and [...] [...more]
Posted on 06 April 2010 by Railways Africa Editor
Jenerali Ulimwengu, writing in the Tanzanian press on 22 March about the railway concession, says: “Finally the deal has come unstuck and the government is once again saddled with an unwanted baby, having to dig deep into its pockets to get the wherewithal to run a service that is crucial to the country’s economy but [...] [...more]
Posted on 22 March 2010 by Railways Africa Editor
According to The Citizen (published in Dar-es-Salaam), the Tanzanian cabinet granted permission on 12 March for the government to take over the Tanzania Railways Limited (TRL) company from Rail India Technical and Economic Services Ltd (Rites), ie cancelling the 25-year concession signed barely three years ago. “President Jakaya Kikwete chaired the cabinet meeting at the [...] [...more]
Posted on 15 March 2010 by Railways Africa Editor
Following “extensive planning”, the University of Dodoma (UDom) has announced its intention to construct a railway network to shuttle students and visitors both on and outside its campus. The proposed system will link all five schools within the university campus to the main rail station near the centre of Tanzania’s capital city. UDom vice-chancellor Professor [...] [...more]
Posted on 08 March 2010 by Railways Africa Editor
During February, the government of Tanzania resolved to revoke the three-year-old, 25-year railway concession management contract with Rail India Technical and Economic Services (Rites), but this decision has been reversed in the face of “inherent contractual difficulties” whose consequences would be devastating – mainly in financial respects – to Tanzania. Ministry for infrastructure development Shukuru [...] [...more]
