Railways

Tanzania RailwaysTanzania Railways

Railway transport is the second most important mode of transport after road and critical for long distance freight along the main transport corridors in Tanzania.

Tanzania has a total of 3,676km of railway lines operated by two railway systems, Tanzania Railways Corporation (TRC) and Tanzania – Zambia Railways (TAZARA).

The mainline of TRC comprises the central corridor between the port of Dar es Salaam in the east, linking central and western areas of the country and terminating at Kigoma on Lake Tanganyika in the west.

The TAZARA line is 1,860 km in length, of which 975 km is in Tanzania and 885 km in Zambia.

The government of Tanzania is currently expanding the country’s rail network with the construction of the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) along the central corridor, set to start during the 2016–2017 fiscal year.

The railway project involves the construction of a SGR from Dar es Salaam-Tabora-Isaac-Mwanza, Tabora-Mpanda-Kalemela, Tabora-Kigoma and Uvinza-Isaac-Keza-Msongati.

The total length of the railway is 2,190 km. According to Makame Mbarawa, Tanzania’s Minister of for Works, Transport and Communications, the SGR project will be completed in 4 phases over the next 3 years.

Tanzania’s President Magufuli announced that the government has already allocated around USD455m to the project from the 2016–2017 budget.