The Kenya Railways Corporation (KRC) has introduced double-stack wagons on the Nairobi -Mombasa Standard Gauge Railway as it seeeks to boost efficiency.
The service will see the corporation transport an additional 152 Twenty Foot Equivalent Units (TEUs) on a single trip, reducing the time the cargo takes to arrive at Nairobi’s Inland Container Depot from the Port of Mombasa.
On a normal operation, KRC in liaison with Kenya Port Authority has been loading and moving a minimum of eight trains per day which is equivalent to delivery of above 800 TEU’s to the ICDs in Nairobi and Naivasha.
By using a double-stack technology, a freight train of a given length can carry roughly twice as many containers, sharply reducing transport costs per container.
“To improve daily cargo evacuation and efficiency of the Port of Mombasa, today we started loading and moving double-stack trains between the Port of Mombasa and ICD Nairobi via SGR,” said the corporation in a statement yesterday.
“The service will transport 152 containers from the current 108 containers enhancing faster cargo movement and increased efficiency at the port.”
The corporation that has also entered into a partnership with Nzoia Sugar for the transportation of sugar and other related products for the firm said the double stack service will not attract addition charges.
The Corporation currently charges $500 (Sh55, 050) to transport a 20-foot container and $700 (Sh77, 070) for a 40-foot container from Mombasa to the ICD in Nairobi.
“There will no additional charges to this service. We have simply devised a means to transport more cargo in a short duration,” said KRC.
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