Uganda Railway

Uganda Railway
Two Ugandan diesel locomotives with a freight train
Route length:	1340.5 km
Gauge :	1000 mm ( meter gauge )
Legend 0 Mombasa 3.2 Beach Line Junction Kipevu Container Port 9.6 Kwa Tomvu 13.8 Mirtini Makupa 18.9 Hairpin 23.9 Mazeras 38.8 Mariakani 51.7 Majhi jya TChumwi 60.9 Manjeva 67.1 Samburu 74.5 Mwembeni 84.1 Taru 97.7 Mackinnon Road 117.4 Bachuma 125.3 Wongala 135.9 Maungu 147.6 Ndara 164.4 Voi to Moshi and Arusha , Tanzania 171.2 Irima 185.2 Ndi 201.4 Mbololo 231.8 Tsavo 224.7 Kyulu 237.1 Kenani 250.2 Kanga 263.6 Mtito Andei 271.7 Kathekani 279.5 Darajani 291.2 Ngwata 297.2 Masongaleni 305.3 Kikumbulyu 310.6 Dwa Plantation Siding 315.0 Kibwezi 324.7 Mbuinzau 336.9 Makindu 343.8 Ikovo 354.9 Kiboko 369.3 Simba 376.0 Kivati 386.8 Emali 400.3 Sultan Hamud to Kibiri 416.2 Kima 425.4 Kalembwani 431.3 Tooka Kiu 445.0 Ulu 456.6 Konza to Magadi Machakos Road 469.4 Kapiti Plains 478.3 Stony Athi 488.3 Lukenya 500.7 Athi River 506.1 Marimbeti 516.0 Ebakasi 519.2 Airport Junction to Embakasi Airport 520.2 Nairobi East Junction to Nanyuki and Meru 525.2 Macadara 530.3 0 Nairobi 4.7 Saba stop 9.9 Kibera 14.5 Satelite stop 16.0 Lenanana 18.8 Dagoretti 30.6 Kikuyu Forest Station 38.5 Muguga 46.9 Limuru 57.0 Uplands 65.6 Mathathia 66.0 Escarpment 75.2 Kijabe (2) 77.0 Kijabe (1) 86.6 Longonot 94.9 Suswa 103.3 Munyu 111.7 Naivasha 119.2 Morendat 122.1 Marula loop 127.8 Ikek from Nyahururu 140.7 Gilgil 150.6 Kariandus 156.0 Eburru 163.1 Mbaruk 173.2 Lanet 173.7 Elementeita 181.1 Nakuru 188.1 0 Nakuru Junction 19.6 Njoro 40.6 Elburgon 49.5 Turi 56.7 Molo Vertex 2545 m 68.3 Mau Summit 81.8 Londiani 95.2 Kedowa 110.8 Kipkelion 129.8 tunnel 139.9 Fort Ternan 151.2 Koru 161.5 Muhoroni 173.1 Chemelil 180.9 Kibigori 188.1 Miwani 201.1 Mile 125 205.7 Ginnery siding 206.0 Mile 128 207.4 Kibos from Butere from Kisumu Pier 216.7 Kisumu 20.6 Menengai by Solai 32.7 Rongai 44.0 Visoi 60.4 Sabatia 72.5 Maji Mazuri 85.1 Makutano 104.0 Equator 120.1 Timboroa 136.0 Ainabkoi 147.3 Tumeiyo 157.2 Kipkabus 169.0 Captagat 173.8 Cheploske 187.1 plateau 198.1 Sosian 203.7 Eldoret 220.6 Reading after Kitale 243.3 turbo 257.5 Kipkarren River 271.2 Lugari 290.9 Webuye 307.0 Sudi 323.3 Bungoma 346.1 Myanga 370.7 0 Malaba  Kenya Uganda   15.6 Tororo Connection to Takataka cement factory Tororo – Arua Mine railway line 39.8 Nagongera 54.9 Busolwe 69.4 Budumba 82.4 0 Buccos 12.5 Nisinze 93.0 0 Busembatia 24.2 16.0 Kaliro 32.2 Bugamba 46.3 Namaganda 52.0 Kamuli 60.7 Mbulamuti Busoga railway to Namasagali 69.1 Kasambira 86.0 Luzinga Butamira 110.3 Kakira 110 Bukona 120.1 Iganga 131 Bulanga 141.2 Magamaga 141.2 Magamaga 160.3 Jinja to Jinja Pier White Nile Connection to the Owen Falls Dam power station 165.3 Uganda Electricity Board Siding 175.8 Nyenga 181.9 Bundo siding 190.4 Lubanyi 202.4 Kawolo 216.9 Seta 226.3 Mukono 239.5 Namanve from Port Bell 251.4 Kampala 257.7 Nalukolongo 280.2 Bujuko 305.3 Kawolongojo 324.4 Mityana 336.8 Mpanga 343.3 Myanzi 354.0 Wamala 383.4 Musozi 416.1 Kasambya 439.2 Nkonge 452.3 Masaka ballast siding 470.5 Kabagole 501.7 Bihanga 513.3 Kabuga 527.4 Kamwenge 556.1 Dura River to the Hima cement factory 568.3 Kanyatete from the Kilembe copper mine 585.8 Kasese

The Uganda Railway (English: Uganda Railway ) is a railway line that connected Mombasa in Kenya on the Indian Ocean via Nairobi and Kampala with Kasese in Uganda . Today it is only in operation as far as Kampala. In addition, “ Uganda Railway ” is the name of the original operating company.

history

The curve at Mombasa in one of the first years of operation.

Advertising poster for the Uganda Railway

Political requirements

On August 14, 1896, the British Parliament created the legal and financial basis for the construction of the railway from the Indian Ocean to Lake Victoria , which began that same year. The construction was not without controversy. Opponents called the route Lunatic Line ( English for: "route of madness").

The railway was a British instrument in the " race for Africa ". It opened up inner-African territory, which at the beginning of its construction was still largely autonomous and indigenous , and to which the European rival powers had no access. The development of this area with the most modern and efficient means of transport at the time enabled Great Britain to rule in what would later become Kenya and Uganda within a few years. The cost of construction - initially estimated at £ 3 million - ended up being £ 5 million; including the cost of the port and shipyard facilities in Kisumu and the steamers operating on Lake Victoria: around £ 6.5 million. They were raised from the motherland of what was then the Protectorate of British East Africa .

Due to the supposed time pressure that resulted from the requirement to establish British rule in the area of ​​northern Lake Victoria and the sources of the Nile as quickly as possible, little consideration was given to the interests of the workers or the indigenous population during the construction. The long-term goal was to obtain a safe land connection for troop transports to India , even in the event of the Suez Canal being blocked .

The Indian entrepreneur Alibhoy Mulla Jeevanjee , owner of the company AM Jeevanjee & Co , signed a contract in 1895 in which he undertook to place 30,000 Indian workers in the construction of the railway and to provide food during construction. Most of the workers were recruited from British India . Their working conditions were poor, with around a third of the workers perishing due to illness, poor care and inadequate working conditions. Attacks by lions also claimed victims. In the most serious incident of its kind, 28 workers were killed during the construction of the bridge over the Tsavo . This was later discussed in the book The Man-Eaters of Tsavo and the films Bwana Devil and The Spirit and Darkness , among others . About 6,700 of the Indian workers stayed in Uganda and achieved - mostly as traders - relative prosperity within Ugandan society until the dictator Idi Amin ordered the expulsion of all Asians in 1972.

The indigenous population suffered from attacks and the diseases brought in by the workers, which resulted in the death of 20 to 50% of the population. Resistance was broken by force. The most famous incidents were the Kedong massacre , when the Maasai slaughtered 500 railroad workers after the rape of two girls and the British pursuing them, who ran out of ammunition, and the Nandi massacre, led by Richard Meinertzhagen , when the Nandi were building the railway through her Opposed territory. Two armored trains were also used, from which fleeing locals were shot at. These actions led to the flight of large parts of the indigenous population from the catchment area of ​​the railway.

Economic consequences

After the railway went into operation, the cost of transporting goods from Uganda to the coast fell by 97%. In addition to the military, the railway was also of considerable economic importance. Numerous tea and coffee plantations were created in their catchment area. The settlement of Europeans who operated such plantations was encouraged by the British government, since it was the freight traffic brought about by agriculture that made the railways profitable.

Uganda Railway operating surpluses

year	Operating surplus in £
1909	£ 65,800
1910	£ 98,500
1911	£ 131,400

The German Colonial Lexicon , printed in 1920, gives an overview of the increase in the quantities transported:

Freight tonnages towards the coast

year	Freight tonnages in tons
1907	16,000 t
1908	22,000 t
1909	29,000 t
1911	51,000 t

Railway construction

Railway construction in Railhead.

The line was built in meter gauge and consistently single track. The model was Indian railways, from which around 20,000 workers were recruited and some of the original material came from. Construction began in 1895 and was the essential prerequisite for the conquest of Uganda, which was not yet completed when the Uganda Railway was partially opened in 1896. The British brought in Sudanese soldiers as a military protection force, among whom there was a serious mutiny in 1897. The Uganda Railway was built and opened in sections from Mombasa in a north-westerly direction towards Uganda from 1896. It was difficult, mountainous terrain to cross that required numerous bridges and other engineering structures . Local uprisings by the King of Uganda and Unyoro had to be put down. The railway reached Nairobi in 1899 (km 530.3), originally a construction warehouse for the railway that developed into the capital of Kenya and carried around 179,000 passengers in the third year. The railway led to the founding of numerous other cities along the route:

• Eldoret , first called "64"
• Jinja , at the outlet of the White Nile from Lake Victoria
• Kisumu
• Kitale
• Nakuru
• Port Bell

From Nairobi in 1901 another section was opened towards Uganda. The railway was first led to Kisumu (then: Port Florence; today km 216.7, counted from Nakuru ) on Lake Victoria, which it reached in 1901, from where there was a connection with a ship belonging to the railway to the Ugandan ports on the northern shore of the lake . The railway line in the direction of Uganda was not expanded until 1923, starting with the existing line in Nakuru (km 188.1), and in 1926 it crossed the border into Uganda. In 1929 the Uganda Railway was connected to the Busoga Railway at Mbulamuti Station . This section between Busembatia and Mbulamuti was replaced in 1961 by a much shorter route for the Uganda Railway. The old line was reconnected in 1962 for direct traffic to Kakindu at Bukonte station . In 1930 the Uganda Railway reached Kampala. Here, the White Nile at was Jinja first with a ferry crossed. The bridge was not completed until 1931 and continuous train traffic to Kampala began on January 14, 1931. The extension of the line to Kampala from Nakuru meant that the original end of the line between Nakuru and Kisumu became a branch line of the main line Mombasa – Nairobi – Kampala. In 1952 the Ugandan government decided to extend the route behind Kampala to Kasese (km 585.8) near the border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo . This extension was opened in sections from 1953 to 1958, but closed in 1998 .

operator

The construction of the Uganda Railway began in 1896 by the Imperial British East Africa Company , but on October 1, 1903, the Protectorate administration transferred it to the Uganda Railway (UR). On February 26, 1926, the operating railway company of the Uganda Railway was renamed Kenya and Uganda Railway (KUR), in 1927 Kenya and Uganda Railway and Harbors (KUR & H).

On May 1, 1948, KUR & H and Tanganyika Railway and Port Services merged to form the East African Railways and Harbors Administration (EAR & H) and renamed East African Railways (EAR) after independence in 1969 . After the customs and economic union between Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania broke up in 1977 due to the widely divergent political and economic systems, the part of the common railroad that was on Ugandan territory was renamed the Uganda Railway Cooperation (URC), the, the was on Kenyan territory, renamed Kenya Railways (KR).

Events

US President Theodore Roosevelt (seated, far right) on the viewing platform of a locomotive on the Uganda Railway

One of the first detailed descriptions of the railway line can be found in the expedition report of Ludwig von Savoyen, who in 1906 succeeded in mapping the sources of the Nile and the first ascent of the Ruwenzori mountain range. In 1909, the former President of the United States of America , Theodore Roosevelt , went on a safari in East Africa, during which he also took the Uganda Railway. He spent most of the day on a viewing platform for tourists mounted on the front of the locomotive.

During the First World War , the railway was of great importance in the campaign of British troops against the troops under the command of Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck in German East Africa, south of the railway line . The railway could quickly transport troops and heavy equipment far into the hinterland. Therefore, at the beginning of the war, the Uganda Railway was the target of numerous German small combat groups who attacked British military platoons and set booby traps.

Due to the dictatorship of Idi Amin and the subsequent collapse of the state structures in Uganda, rail traffic had to be stopped in 1979. From 1986, freight traffic was gradually resumed.

On August 20, 2000, 18 people were killed in an explosion at Athi River train station . The cause was several derailed liquid gas wagons on the railway.

Situation in the last years before 2017

operator

On November 1, 2006, both URC and KR were acquired by the Rift Valley Railways Consortium (RVR). Since 2009, RVR has been owned by three private shareholders from Egypt (Citadel Capital), Kenya (Transcentury) and Uganda (Bomi Holdings) and operates all rail traffic on the Uganda Railway and shipping on Lake Victoria on the basis of a 25-year concession . From 2010 to the end of 2014 Tobias Heinemann was Chief Commercial & Marketing Officer at RVR.

modernization

In 2011, an international financial consortium led by the World Bank subsidiary International Finance Corporation (IFC) approved funding of $ 287 million for the modernization of the railways in Kenya and Uganda. The investment is intended to modernize the vehicle fleet, the railway infrastructure and to set up a logistics company that will bundle the import of goods to East Africa and handle it for the most part by rail. In view of the negotiated and signed financial framework, the project is one of the largest PPP projects in Africa and is rated by the RVR as an essential prerequisite for the further positive economic development of Kenya. This should reduce the travel time between Mombasa and Nairobi from 12 to 4 hours

In addition, the use of the Uganda Railway for public transport in the greater Nairobi area is planned under the leadership of RVR . For this purpose, another $ 500 million will be made available by the Kenyan government and the World Bank. German investors are u. a. the Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau and the DEG bank.

route

Main line

Truss bridge on the route; Small picture: A train on the top of the Mau pass

Bridge in Uganda

One of the first descriptions of the railway line can be found in the expedition report of Prince Ludwig of Savoy. The kilometers of the route counts from Mombasa to Nairobi (km 530.3). From Nairobi, the kilometer reading starts again at 0, counts to Nakuru Junction (km 188.1), starts again from 0 and then counts to the state border between Kenya and Uganda in Malaba (km 370.7). The section between the two border stations to Tororo is separately kilometer (15.6 km), then begins again and counts through to Kasese (km 585.8). In total, the route was 1674.9 km long. 1340.5 km of them are still in operation today.

The route runs from Mombasa inland, north of Kilimanjaro via Voi and Tsavo to Nairobi , the center of the colonial railway administration. Behind Nairobi the steep ascent into the Kikuyu Mountains begins , whose pass height is reached at 2340  m . Then the train cuts through the Great African Rift with 450 m difference in altitude in a lost slope and reaches the western edge of the ditch at Mau Summit at an altitude of 2545 m. From here it drops, often with artificial length developments, to Lake Victoria at 1113  m .

The condition of the track in Uganda is bad today. The operational safety is also not optimal, the driving speed is low, derailments are frequent. In 1993 there was a railway accident when a bridge was washed away after heavy rainfall. 114 people were killed. In 1999 there were 32 deaths when a passenger train derailed due to brake failure near Tsavo National Park . In 2000 there were 13 deaths when the brakes failed again on a train. In the same year, a freight train carrying gasoline exploded, burning 25 people.

Branch lines

A number of routes were created branching off from the Uganda Railway:

• During the First World War , the Voi (km 164.4) - border (Himo Loop (km 130.3) / Kahe Junction) - Moshi / Arusha route was built in 1915/1916 in order to improve the logistics for the British troops in German East Africa . Today this route is impassable.
• Sultan Hamud (km 400.3) - Kibri (26 km). It is a private railway line that is used exclusively for freight traffic and was operated by AfrOre Ltd. in 1946/1947. was built.
• Konza (km 456.6 km) - Magadi (146.4 km). The line was built as far as Kajiado (km 41.8) in 1915 by the State Railways and extended to its end in 1921 by the Magadi Soda Company. The route is still operated for freight traffic, and there may also be internal passenger traffic for personnel from the soda mine between Kajiado and Magadi.
• Nairobi - Meru (307.3 km). The line was opened from 1913 to Thika (53.9). From 1924 further sections followed. In 1930 Nanjuki (km 231.2) was reached. During the Second World War , the line was pushed towards Italian East Africa / Somalia . Due to the rapid military success of the British against the Italian army, the work was stopped in 1942 when the line had reached Meru, and the section Nanjuki – Meru was dismantled again immediately.
• From 1928 the Tororo – Arua Mine railway line , which branches off the Uganda Railway in a northerly direction just beyond the border with Kenya, was put into operation in sections.
• Gilgil (140.7 km) - Nyahururu (77.2 km). Built in 1928/1929, the line was closed in 1999.
• Nakuru (km 181.1 / 0.0) –Kisumu (km 216.7) (see: above)
• Rongai (km 32.7) - Solai (km 42.4). The line was built in 1926 and closed in 1983.
• Reading (km 220.6) - Kitale (km 64.9). The line was built in 1925 and closed in 1975.

Next was in Kisumu afterwards

• a connecting line to the port of 2.4 km in length was laid in 1904. Here there is only freight traffic;
• a line to Butere (km 69.6) opened in 1930/1932. Operations ceased after a serious accident in 2000, but resumed on May 1, 2004 after the line was renovated.

traffic

Garratt locomotive 5907 Mount Kinangop in Kibwezi station in the Mombasa - Nairobi section

Train Nairobi-Mombasa on the route

North of Nakuru Junction - and especially in Uganda - there is now only freight traffic on the route . Passenger traffic ceased there in the 1970s during the civil war in Uganda.

Regular passenger trains currently (2010) run 3 times a week between Kisumu and Nairobi and between Nairobi and Mombasa. Until about 1997, the major tour operators offered trips between Mombasa and Nairobi. Today all tour operators have suspended this offer due to safety concerns.

See also

Mombasa – Nairobi railway line (standard gauge)

literature

• Baltzer: The Uganda Railway in British East Africa. In: Zentralblatt der Bauverwaltung. No. 14/1908.
• Baltzer: The Uganda Railway in the years of operation 1904 to 1909. In: Deutsche Kolonial-Blätter. No. 5/1911.
• German Colonial Lexicon. Volume III, 1920, p. 565.
• Caroline Elkins: Britain's Gulag. The brutal End of Empire in Kenya . London 2005
• Ronald Hardy: The Iron Snake . New York 1965.
• Charles Miller: The Lunatic Express: An Entertainment in Imperialism . London 2001. Penguin. ISBN 978-0-14-139136-6 .
• Richard T. Ogonda et al. George M. Onyango: Development of Transport and Communication . In: William Robert Ochieng: Historical Studies and Social Change in Western Kenya . Nairobi 2002. ISBN 978-9966-25-152-7 , pp. 219-231.
• RT Ogonda: Transport and Communications in the Colonial Economy . In: William Robert Ochieng u. RM Maxon: An Economic History of Kenya . Nairobi 1992. pp. 129-146. ISBN 978-9966-46-963-2 .
• Neil Robinson: World Rail Atlas and historical summary. Vol. 7: North, East and Central Africa. World Rail Atlas Ltd., 2009. ISBN 978-954-92184-3-5 , pp. 41-43 and 78-80, cards 43-46.
• Anthony Savage, Donald C. Clayton: Government and Labor in Kenya 1895–1963 . London 1975.
• Christian Wolmar : Blood, Iron & Gold: How the Railways Transformed the World . London 2009.
• Matthias Hille: The railroad in Uganda - aged trains on shaky tracks . Fern-Express issue 2/2018, pp. 10–15.

Web links

Commons : Uganda Railway  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• History of the Uganda Railway
• 1/4 scale replica of EAR 31 class steam locomotive "Uganda" at Stapleford Miniature railway in the UK

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Elkins, p. 2.
2. ↑ Elkins, p. 2.
3. ^ Herbert, Edwin: Small Wars and Skirmishes 1902-18; Nottingham 2003; ISBN 1-901543-05-6 , pp. 78-84.
4. ↑ ^{a b c d} Ludwig Amadeus of Savoy, Duke of Abruzzo: The Ruwenzori - exploration and first ascent of its highest peaks . Ed .: Dr. F. De Filippi. FA Brockhaus, Leipzig 1909, p. 36 .
5. ↑ Robinson, p. 79.
6. ^ Theodore Roosevelt: African Game Trails . Charles Scribners' Sons 1909: “ The railroad, the embodiment of the eager, masterful, materialistic civilization of today, was pushed through a region in which nature, both as regards wild man and wild beast, does not differ materially from what it was in Europe in the late Pleistocene . "
7. ↑ Reinhard K. Lochner: Battle in the Rufiji Delta . Munich 1987, p. 138ff. ISBN 3-453-02420-6
8. ↑ 18 dead, dozens injured in Kenyan train crash and explosion. www.independent.co.uk, August 20, 2000, accessed January 22, 2020 . 
9. ↑ Philipp Neumann: A path as a lifeline : In: Die Welt v. November 5, 2011. Retrieved November 15, 2012.
10. ↑ Heinemann, Tobias: Why it is to Africa's crucial interest to address transport challenges urgently , in: Daily Nation, September 26, 2011. Retrieved November 15, 2012
11. ↑ http://www.donaukurier.de/videos/?bctid=2888418386001
12. ↑ Philipp Neumann: A path as a lifeline : In: Die Welt v. November 5, 2011. Retrieved November 15, 2012.
13. ↑ According to the English language Wikipedia
14. ^ NZZ , March 25, 1999: Serious train accident in Kenya. At least 32 dead on the Nairobi-Mombasa route .
15. ↑ According to the English language Wikipedia
16. ↑ According to the English language Wikipedia
17. ↑ Robinson, p. 43, note 5.
18. ↑ http://www.seat61.com/Kenya.htm