Friends of the Rail Forum

1. Dar, Kigali to build EA’s first wide gauge railway line
By MOHAMED ISSA MOHAMED
Special Correspondent

Tanzania and Rwanda are to construct a 1,435mm standard gauge railway from Isaka to Kigali, thereby connecting the countries with the region’s first heavy duty wide gauge line.

American firm Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway will undertake the construction of the railway line, which is expected to speed up movement of cargo from Tanzania to Rwanda.

The line will be able to tolerate heavy cargo.

Pat Hiatte, general director, corporate communications at Burlington told The EastAfrican that his firm will be using the wide standard gauge instead of the narrow metre gauge.

Mr Hiatte said that while narrow gauge rails are cheaper, standard gauge or broad gauge have a greater haulage capacity and allow higher speeds.

“We are advising the two countries on acquisition of locomotives, railway freight cars and related equipment,” he said.

Dates for the construction are yet to be fixed but BNSF says the construction works will involve “grubbing, grading, construction of bridges, embankments and mountain cuts,” followed by laying of the 1,435 mm wide track.

Since the terrain is semi-mountainous, some portions of the line will pass through tunnels. The rail project will be complemented by the rehabilitation of the Dar es Salaam-Isaka line, which is narrower at 1,000 mm.

The American firm is still evaluating the tonnage potential of the route and compiling training package for operators.

Isaka, a dry port for receiving Rwandan transit goods, will become a rail terminus where the Isaka-Kigali and Dar es Salaam-Isaka lines, with their different gauges, will be integrated.

The American firm has also recommended the expansion of the Dar es Salaam port to maximise its use for Rwandan imports and exports.

The viability of the Isaka-Kigali railway link was established in a study conducted in 1913 by German colonial authorities. The study identified a “feasible engineering route between Isaka and Kigali.

The African Development Bank sponsored another feasibility study, which was completed last year and which gave similar results.

Mr Hiatte said the railway engineering design standards suggested for the development of the new railway are “world class” and will provide for the development of a standard gauge heavy tonnage railway.

The success of the Isaka-Kigali line, according to the company, will be determined by several factors. These are the state of co-operation between the governments of Rwanda and Tanzania, the ability to attract freight traffic and the ability of the port of Dar es Salaam to handle the tonnage.

The Tanzania-Zambia Railway Authority (Tazara) has also adopted a wider gauge of 1,067 mm to match that of Zambia Railways.

The East African region is however predominantly a narrow gauge zone. Like Hong Kong’s Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda and are mainly served by 1,000 mm gauge rail lines.

The gauge is the distance between the two rails of a railroad.

Some 60 per cent of the world’s railways are already standard gauge, also called international gauge.

It is expected that the project will take at least five years to complete. It will cost $2.7 million, with AfDB being the chief financier.

A complementary 480 km Isaka-Lusahunga tarmac road is already in place.

The BNSF Railway is among the top transporters of intermodal traffic in North America, and moves more grain than any other American railroad.

It also hauls enough coal to generate roughly 10 per cent of the electricity produced in the United States of America.

The East African

2. Tanzania to build rail link to Rwanda by 2013
Sat Jan 26, 2008 11:42am EST

NAIROBI, Jan 26 (Reuters) - Tanzania plans to build a rail link to Rwanda's capital Kigali by 2013 and work is expected to begin later this year, the office of Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete has announced.

The railway will run from Isaka in southern Tanzania and will be built by U.S.-based Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF).

"The construction of a rail link between Isaka and Rwanda's capital is planned to start later this year, the president was told today," said the statement, seen by Reuters on Saturday.

"A delegation of BNSF officials has also told President Kikwete the construction is expected to be completed in 2013."

It did not say how much the project would cost.

Political turmoil in Kenya since a disputed presidential election last month has disrupted road transport, affecting Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan.

Last week, part of Kenya's rail network was disrupted when protesters uprooted part of the track running through Nairobi. The operator, Rift Valley Railway, expects services to resume next week after repairs. (Reporting by George Obulutsa; editing by Andrew Dobbie)

Reuters

3. Insider comments:

"The Rwandan government's Ministry of Infrastructure website lists the Isaka-Kigali project as a feasibility study only. The East African
itself, over a year ago, reported that the ADB was providing USD 2.6m for a feasibility study for an Isaka-Kigali link with an option a
branch from Kabanga (Tanzania) to Bujumbura (capital city of Burundi) either via Gitega (200km) or via Muyinga and Ngozi (220km). On the other hand, in January 2008 Reuters reported [see 2 above] a statement from the Tanzanian president's office that the Kigali line would be commenced by BNSF this year and finished by 2013. BNSF's website has no mention of the project."

East_African_Steam

"Quite a long story, but it is true, although for the most part this is a consulting engagement by some very key BNSF people, as opposed to direct involvement of the BNSF corporation and railway."

East_African_Steam

Interesting article.
I have often thought that the revival and expansion of rail could be a good solution to African transport problems, particulaly in the less developed areas; that building expensive, high capacity, heavy haul roads to support huge trucks over vast distances is a poor option. Rather build much cheaper, lighter roads for light traffic and put the big money into rail.

On a different note, if this goes ahead, that would create the third rail gauge in the country! Seems madness to me.
Amongst the supposed benefits given is the higher tonnage capacity of standard gauge. All well and good if the new line originated right at the source of the traffic, Dar es Salaam port. But the reality is that there is planned to be a metre gauge to standard gauge transhipment port at a place called Isaka. So, all the limitations of the old metre gauge (and probably, an under-engineered colonial railway) will still apply up to that point, presumably limiting or negating the higher capacity advantage. Cape gauge is proven to carry huge tonnages if properly set up and maintained and, given the small differences, so too should metre gauge.
This same problem applies to the Tazara line. Intra-African traffic is restricted by the necessity to tranship from Cape to metre gauge at Kidatu. This increases costs and reduces capacity. It would seem to me that East Africa might rather consider converting to Cape gauge across the system than building any new lines to a whole new (to them) gauge.

Steve, your first point is very true indeed. You only have to spend a short time in Kenya to notice (and be very inconvenienced by!) the huge heavily overloaded lorries battling their way from Mombasa (sea level) through Nairobi (over 1600 m) and on to Timboroa Summit (nearly 2,800 m), taking most of the goods for Uganda, southern Sudan, Rwanda and eastern Congo. I'm sure the same is true for trucks from Dar es Salaam. The road is mostly just two-lane tarmac. It was never built to carry such loads, and it is an appalling state. The distance from Nairobi to Kampala is roughly the same as the distance from Pretoria to Durban (600+ km). Last time I drove it, it took me 13 hours - double the Pretoria-Durban time. Railways are indeed the obvious solution to take long-distance freight off the roads.

On the gauges, I agree with you that experience has shown that Cape and metre gauges can carry heavy loads at reasonable speeds. We're not talking bullet trains at 350 kph, but freight at a steady 80 kph would be fine for Africa's needs.

On which of those two gauges Tanzania and Rwanda should use (assuming they were to abandon the standard gauge plan), I suppose it would depend on which direction they are looking to for their main transport needs. To the south and west there's a lot of Cape gauge (Zambia, Malawi, part DRC, Angola, Mozambique, etc), hence the TanZam railway. To the east and north, as well as most domestic Tanzanian railways, metre gauge (Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, part DRC, with Eritrea very close at 950mm and Sudan the exception with Cape gauge).

Isaka Station is on the Tabora-Mwanza Branch Line. Isaka was an ordinary railway station until the late 1980s when it started growing into an active commercial centre due to increased traffic on the highway to Rwanda. It has now become an Inland Dry Port, directly handling import and export traffic since 1999, a facility that simplifies Port and Customs clearance for importers and exporters.

A dry port is one thing with customs, etc, facilities. Johannesburg has a similar facility at City Deep, where containers transported from the coast are cleared.
A transhipment facility (albeit co-located) is another. The first theoretically increases efficiency, the latter the opposite. Of course the transhipment to road is presently enforced by the lack of an onward line, but why perpetuate the problem? Looking at the geography of the network, I would want to re-gauge the whole Tanzania system to cape gauge, certainly not to standard gauge. Of course that then would preclude any possible future connection and through running to Kenya and Uganda creating a similar dilemma then (but so would standard gauge).
Why, oh why did the colonials make this massive gauging mistake? Such a small number - only 65 mm - just for the sake of using cheaper, surplus materials.

Of course you can ask which colonials made the error. The East Afican admins or the Cape ones? Maybe the Cape (and other colonial countries - Australia, New Zealand) should have adopted a metric gauge like India and East Africa, rather than a round imperial measurement. Needless to say, despite the anticipation at the time that India would adopt the metric system, the sole perveyor of metric measure there was the branch railway system for many, many more years.

Tanzania, Rwanda to Build East Africa’s First Wide Gauge Railway
March 24, 2008

With major financial assistance of US$2.7 million coming from the African Development Bank, Tanzania and Rwanda have agreed to construct a 1,435 mm standard gauge railway from Isaka in western Tanzania to Kigali in Rwanda, thereby connecting a 1,200 km rail route between the two countries with the region’s first heavy duty wide gauge line.

The American firm, Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway, will undertake the five-year construction of the railway line, which is expected to speed up movement of cargo from Tanzania to Rwanda.

The line will be able to tolerate heavy cargo as well, according to the US firm.

Pat Hiatte, the general director of corporate communications at Burlington, told APA that his firm will be using the wide standard gauge instead of the narrow meter gauge.

Hiatte said that while narrow gauge rails are cheaper, standard gauge (also known as broad gauge) has a greater haulage capacity and allowed for higher speeds.

“We are advising the two countries on acquisition of locomotives, railway freight cars and related equipment,” he added.

Dates for the construction are yet to be fixed but BNSF said the construction works would involve “grubbing, grading, construction of bridges, embankments and mountain cuts,” followed by the laying of the 1,435 mm wide track.

Since the terrain is semi-mountainous, some portions of the line will pass through tunnels. The rail project will be complemented by the rehabilitation of the Dar es Salaam-Isaka line, which is narrower at 1,000 mm.

Isaka, a dry port for receiving Rwandan transit goods, will become a rail terminus where the Isaka-Kigali and Dar es Salaam-Isaka lines, with their different gauges, will be integrated.

The American firm has also recommended the expansion of the Dar es Salaam port to maximize its use for Rwandan imports and exports.

The viability of the Isaka-Kigali railway link was established in a study conducted in 1913 by German colonial authorities. The study identified a “feasible engineering route between Isaka and Kigali.

The African Development Bank sponsored another feasibility study, which was completed last year and which gave similar results.

Hiatte said the railway engineering design standards suggested for the development of the new railway are “world class” and will provide for the development of a standard gauge heavy tonnage railway.

The success of the Isaka-Kigali line, according to the company, will be determined by several factors. These are the state of co-operation between the governments of Rwanda and Tanzania, the ability to attract freight traffic and the ability of the port of Dar es Salaam to handle the added tonnage.

The Tanzania-Zambia Railway Authority (Tazara) has also adopted a wider gauge of 1,067 mm to match that of Zambia Railways.

The East African region is, however, predominantly a narrow gauge zone. Like Hong Kong’s Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda and are mainly served by 1,000 mm gauge rail lines.

The gauge is the distance between the two rails of a railroad. Some 60 per cent of the world’s railways are already standard gauge, also called international gauge.

Source African Press Agency

Net News Publisher

RWANDA – TANZANIA LINE
Railways Africa
Saturday, 17 January 2009

The proposed new railway linking Rwanda to Isaka (on Tanzania’s Mwanza branch) is to be completed within four years at an estimated cost of $US4 billion. It is planned to expropriate the Hotel La Palisse in Kigali for conversion to the capital’s terminal station. 

 Project coordinator Philip Munyaruyenzi is quoted saying that the line from Tanzania will run via Rusumo Bridge to Sake in the Bugesera distict (where Rwanda's future airport is to be built) and then by way of Nyandungu to Kigali. A branch to Burundi will run via Cyankuzo-Gitega and Musongati. The routes were determined following feasibility and other studies carried out by DB International.