The East African Railway Master Plan is a proposal for rejuvenating the railways serving Tanzania, Kenya, and Uganda, and building new railways to serve Rwanda and Burundi. The objective is to further the economic development of East Africa by increasing the efficiency and speed, and lowering the cost, of transporting cargo between major ports on the Indian Ocean coast and the interior.
A later step would expand the East African railway network to South Sudan, Ethiopia, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo). [1] The plan is managed by infrastructure ministers from participating East African Community countries in association with transport consultation firm CPCS Transcom Limited. [2]
All new railways will be standard-gauge, and existing narrow-gauge railways will be rehabilitated. The plan accounts for break of gauge issues and aims for a good interoperability within the resulting hybrid railway network.
The members of the Northern Corridor Integration Project (NCIP) have agreed to build all of their railways to the Chinese National Railway Class 1 standard. The Central Corridor / Dar es Salaam-Isaka-Kigali/Keza-Musongati Railway Project countries (Tanzania, Rwanda, and Burundi) have selected the Chinese Class 2 standard and/or the American Railway Engineering and Maintenance-of-Way Association standard. [3]
Country | Railway | Gauge | Electrification [4] | Signaling [4] | Status |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Kenya | Mombasa–Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway | 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) (Northern Corridor Integration Projects) | Uncertain. [5] [6] | automatic block | Fully operational with diesel haulage. |
Nairobi–Malaba Standard Gauge Railway | none (25 kV 50 Hz AC proposed, but no funding yet) | under construction (SGR phase 2A)[ when? ] | |||
Uganda | Uganda Standard Gauge Railway | proposed | |||
Tanzania | Tanzania Standard Gauge Railway | 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) (Central Corridor / DIKKM projects) Archived 2019-03-03 at the Wayback Machine | 25 kV 50 Hz AC | Phase 1 complete, [7] 2, 3 and 5 under construction [8] [9] [10] | |
Rwanda | Rwanda Standard Gauge Railway | planned | |||
Tanzania | Isaka–Kigali Standard Gauge Railway | commencement phase[ when? ] | |||
Rwanda | |||||
Tanzania | Tanzania–Burundi Standard Gauge Railway | planned | |||
Burundi | |||||
Rwanda | Kigali–Kampala Standard Gauge Railway | proposed | |||
Uganda |
In addition to the railways mentioned above, there are ideas for new standard-gauge railway lines under the plan. [11] They are by definition international lines between Master Plan countries and third countries. But the table in the following also contains domestic railway lines within third countries, as it is possible to connect to these railways through railways featured by the Master Plan.
Country | Railway | Gauge | Electrification [4] | Signaling [4] | Status |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Ethiopia | Nairobi–Addis Ababa Railway | 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) (NCIP) | unknown | unknown | Lamu Port and Lamu-Southern Sudan-Ethiopia Transport Corridor proposed |
Kenya | |||||
Kenya | Lamu–Juba Railway Kisumu–Juba Railway | ||||
South Sudan | |||||
Uganda | Malaba–Juba Railway | proposed | |||
South Sudan | |||||
Uganda | Kampala–Kisangani Railway | ||||
DR Congo |
The Eastern African Railway Master Plan is not only taking new standard-gauge railways under the Master Plan into account, but also existing colonial era narrow-gauge railways, including Lake Victoria train ferries and pre-existing standard-gauge railways. It is planned to "rehabilitate" and to use some of the existing narrow-gauge railways in addition to the new standard-gauge railways to provide additional routes for cargo transports. For the break of gauge handling between the different railway gauges, see below. Only railways relatively close to the new railway network are shown in the table.
Country | Railway | Gauge | Electrification | Status |
---|---|---|---|---|
DR Congo | Vicicongo line | 600 mm (1 ft 11+5⁄8 in) | no | mostly out of use |
East Africa | Lake Victoria ferries | 1,000 mm (3 ft 3+3⁄8 in) | somewhat operational | |
Kenya | Kenya Railways Corporation | lack of maintenance, partially out of use | ||
Uganda | Uganda Railways Corporation | |||
Tanzania | Tanzania Railways Corporation | lack of maintenance, partially operational | ||
Tanzania | TAZARA Railway | 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in) | lack of maintenance, somewhat operational | |
Zambia | ||||
South Sudan | Babanusa-Wau Railway | minimally operational | ||
DR Congo | Great Lakes Railway | not operational | ||
Djibouti | Addis Ababa–Djibouti Railway | 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) | 25 kV 50 Hz AC | operational |
Ethiopia | ||||
Ethiopia | Awash–Weldiya Railway Weldiya–Mekelle Railway | under construction | ||
Burundi | no railways yet | 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) | 25 kV 50 Hz AC | proposed |
Rwanda | no railways yet | 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) | 25 kV 50 Hz AC | proposed |
The combination of railways with different track gauges into a hybrid railway network requires measures to make the different railways interoperable despite the break of gauge problem. In East Africa, this applies to the new standard-gauge railway network and to the old and eventually rehabilitated narrow-gauge railway network. Two methods exist within the East African Railway Master Plan countries for break of gauge handling and passenger transfers.
Break of gauge handling of cargo always needs to consider the much lower axle loads and different loading gauges on the narrow-gauge railway network. Therefore, the East African Railway Master Plan considers the new standard-gauge railways to become the backbone of the whole hybrid railway network, with narrow-gauge railways assuming the role of branch lines.
Break of gauge handling is usually done in dedicated break of gauge railway stations. The only existing break of gauge railway station within the reaches of the East African Railway Master Plan is the break of gauge transshipment station at Kidatu in Tanzania, which uses cranes for the transshipment of goods, especially containers, between the TAZARA Railway network (1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in)) and the Tanzania Railways Corporation network (1,000 mm (3 ft 3+3⁄8 in)). New break of gauge handling stations are to be constructed between the standard-gauge railway backbone and eventually rehabilitated narrow-gauge branch lines. As of September 2018, no actively planned break of gauge railway stations are in consideration.
Another method is to build a railway station of the standard-gauge railway in the immediate vicinity to an old railway station of the narrow-gauge railway network – which then allows passenger transfers between both railway stations. There is only one example for that as of September 2018. The Nairobi Terminus railway station of the new Mombasa–Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway is located in the southern Nairobi suburb of Syokimau just opposite of the Syokimau Terminus of the Nairobi rail service, a narrow-gauge commuter rail service linking Syokimau with Nairobi Central Station and the Nairobi Central Business District.
Methods of overcoming the breaks of gauge include
There are a number of systems of transport in Burundi, including road and water-based infrastructure, the latter of which makes use of Lake Tanganyika. Furthermore, there are also some airports in Burundi.
Transport in Kenya refers to the transportation structure in Kenya. The country has an extensive network of paved and unpaved roads.
Transport in Tanzania includes road, rail, air and maritime networks. The road network is 86,472 kilometres (53,731 mi) long, of which 12,786 kilometres (7,945 mi) is classified as trunk road and 21,105 kilometres (13,114 mi) as regional road. The rail network consists of 3,682 kilometres (2,288 mi) of track. Commuter rail service is in Dar es Salaam only. There are 28 airports, with Julius Nyerere International being the largest and the busiest. Ferries connect Mainland Tanzania with the islands of Zanzibar. Several other ferries are active on the countries' rivers and lakes.
Transport in Uganda refers to the transportation structure in Uganda. The country has an extensive network of paved and unpaved roads.
Rail transport in Tanzania is conducted by two companies. It has historically used narrow gauge trackage, but planning and construction of new standard gauge lines is underway as of 2017.
Rail transport in Kenya consists of a metre-gauge network and a new standard-gauge railway (SGR). Both railways connect Kenya's main port city of Mombasa to the interior, running through the national capital of Nairobi. The metre-gauge network runs to the Ugandan border, and the Mombasa–Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway, financed by a Chinese loan, reaches Suswa.
The Northern Corridor Transit and Transport Coordination Authority (NCTTCA) is an intergovernmental body, encompassing six countries in Eastern Africa, tasked with the job of coordinating transport infrastructure improvements.
Isaka is a small town and station on the narrow-gauge Mwanza railway line of Tanzania which connects to the seaport of Dar es Salaam.
There are several planned railway lines in Rwanda, including a line to Tanzania. Historical railways are limited to three industrial railways.
Railway stations in Tanzania include:
Musongati is a town in south-eastern Burundi. It is near the border with Tanzania though separated therefrom by lofty hills.
The history of rail transport in Burundi is limited to a now closed industrial railway, and a number of proposed railway projects that, as of 2012, had not been implemented.
The Mombasa–Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway is a standard-gauge railway (SGR) in Kenya that connects the large Indian Ocean city of Mombasa with Nairobi, the country's capital and largest city. This SGR runs parallel to the narrow-gauge Uganda Railway that was completed in 1901 under British colonial rule. The East African Railway Master Plan provides for the Mombasa–Nairobi SGR to link with other SGRs being built in the East African Community.
The Isaka–Kigali Standard Gauge Railway is a planned railway line linking the town of Isaka in Tanzania to the city of Kigali in Rwanda.
The Uganda Standard Gauge Railway is a planned railway system linking the country to the neighboring countries of Kenya, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of the Congo and South Sudan, as part of the East African Railway Master Plan. The new Standard Gauge Railway (SGR), is intended to replace the old, inefficient metre-gauge railway system. The entire 1,724 kilometres (1,071 mi) SGR in Uganda will cost an estimated $12.8 billion.
The Nairobi–Malaba Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) is the project of standard-gauge railway that should connect Kenya's capital city of Nairobi to Malaba, at the international border with Uganda. The Nairobi–Malaba SGR was to connect other standard gauge railways in Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, South Sudan and eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, under the East African Railway Master Plan.
The Tanzania Standard Gauge Railway is a railway system, under construction, linking the country to the neighbouring countries of Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi, and through these to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as part of the East African Railway Master Plan. The new standard gauge railway (SGR), is intended to replace the old, inefficient metre-gauge railway system.
The Kenya Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) is a partially fnished railway system connecting Kenya's cities. Once completed, it will link the country to the neighboring country of Uganda, and through Uganda, to South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, and Burundi. There are also plans to link to Addis Ababa, in neighboring Ethiopia to the north. The first segment, between Mombasa and Nairobi, opened passenger rail service in June 2017, and freight rail service in January 2018. Other segments are under construction or planned. The new standard gauge railway, is intended to replace the old, inefficient metre-gauge railway system.
The Rwanda Standard Gauge Railway is a standard gauge railway (SGR) system, under development, linking the country to the neighboring countries of Tanzania and Uganda. It is intended to ease the transfer of goods between the Indian Ocean ports of Dar es Salaam and Mombasa, and the Rwandan capital Kigali. The system is expected to link, in the future, to Rwanda's two other neighbors, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as part of the East African Railway Master Plan. With no previously existing railway network, Rwanda is developing its railway system from scratch. The project is dependent on the construction of the Tanzanian and Ugandan SGR lines to the Rwandan border, which have not been completed as of October 2023.
The Uvinza–Musongati–Gitega Railway is a planned railway line linking the town of Uvinza in Tanzania to the city of Gitega in Burundi, passing through the town of Musongati, Burundi, close to the common border between the two countries.