Tanzania’s newly launched SGR electric train ferries 1 mln passengers in four months

DAR ES SALAAM, Nov. 21 (Xinhua) — At least 1 million passengers have traveled aboard the standard gauge railway (SGR) electric trains between Dar es Salaam, Morogoro, and Dodoma, the capital of Tanzania, since the service’s launch four months ago, an official has said.
Fredy Mwanjala, head of the communications unit for the Tanzania Railway Corporation (TRC), said Wednesday that the figure was twice the total of passengers using the old meter gauge railway (MGR) between the three destinations in a year.
Mwanjala was briefing members of a parliamentary standing committee on public investments.
President Samia Suluhu Hassan on Aug. 1 officially launched the commercial operations of the country’s SGR electric train service from Dar es Salaam to Dodoma. Commercial trial operations of the SGR electric train service started in July.
TRC director-general Masanja Kadogosa said the entire SGR project will cover 1,596 km from Dar es Salaam to the Mwanza Region. The modern rail link will cut travel time significantly and boost economic development in Tanzania and across the region.
In December, the TRC is expected to receive 264 cargo wagons, 200 for containers and 64 for loose cargo, made by China’s CRRC Qiqihar Rolling Stock Co., Ltd.
The 264 cargo wagons are part of 1,430 wagons to be made by the CRRC for the TRC, according to a recent TRC statement. ■