Regional railway network begins operation

A new containerised rail freight service linking Tanzania to the South African port of Durban has been launched with plans to extend the network to cover East and Central Africa. Trans Africa Railways customer service manager Mohamud Mabuyu told IRIN that the private Tanzanian-registered rail company started transporting goods from South Africa to Morogoro via Kidato transshipment facilities in Tanzania in December last year. Lines from Kidato to Kampala are being upgraded and could be running by the end of this year. He said the service was being offered only on containerised goods, but conventional freight would soon be included. Part of the project involves the modernisation of the port of Dar es Salaam, which would be incorporated in the new regional network. A diplomatic source in Uganda familiar with the project told IRIN that a series of talks among stakeholders in the project have been underway in Kampala. “The idea is to create a link from Durban to the Eastern and Central parts of the continent by reactivating the lines from Kampala to Kasese into Rwanda, and to build a rail extension into Congo and Southern Sudan,” he said.