The Government of Tanzania has announced that the first trials for it’s first, speedy electric train will be conducted in July to cover a section of the Standard Gauge Railway.
Tanzania’s Minister for Works, Transport and Communications, Eng. Isack Kamwele said first trials for the country’s high-speed train will be conducted in July this year.
He was speaking last week at the launch of the flash butt welding of the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) exercise that took place at Soga in Coastal region outside Dar es Salaam.
The project is part of the upgrading of Dar es Salaam-Mwanza/Dar es Salaam-Kigoma railway line into a SGR.
The first 207 km phase of the new line will run from Dar es Salaam to Morogoro. The line is set to begin operations in December 2019. There will be three passenger trains in phase one that will be doing daily round trips between the two cities.
The railway will have six stations in Dar es Salaam, Pugu, Soga, Ruvu, Ngerengere and Morogoro with three passenger trains in phase one that will be taking daily round trips of at least 9-12 per train between the two cities.
The electric trains will use concrete sleepers to provide the railway network ability to carry up to 35 tonnes per axle loads. The rails and the train bridge can survive 40 years and 100 years respectively before any significant repairs can be made.
The US $1.9bn project is expected to boost employment in Tanzania, so far it has created 26,000 jobs.
The construction of the project began in May last year and is being undertaken by Turkish company Yapi Merkezi, in partnership with a Portuguese firm, Mota-Engil Africa.