Mombasa residents using the standard gauge railway (SGR) will from August this year be boarding trains at the Mombasa town railway terminus in a bid to reduce traffic on the road.
Miritini SGR terminus will be connected to a metre gauge rail to allow travellers to board at the Mombasa terminus.
Transport Cabinet Secretary James Macharia said the Mombasa-Miritini commuter train will be introduced after completing Makupa Bridge.
“We delayed the introduction of a commuter train in Mombasa after Makupa bridge was commissioned since removing the causeway forced the disconnection of rail. We shall open Makupa bridge by mid-July and continue rehabilitating the railway line and once completed we shall introduce commuter train to connect with SGR in Miritini,” said Mr Macharia.
The introduction of the Mombasa commuter train will provide a seamless connection between Mombasa and Miritini which is about 15km and it will be one of the strategies of KRC to encourage more Kenyans to use SGR.
At the moment, for one to board an SGR train in Miritini, a commuter has to either use a public service vehicle or a taxi to access the terminus. This is part of the government plan to ease congestion and time-consuming traffic gridlock in Kenya’s second-biggest city.
IN 2017, KRC invited bids from local and international firms to provide consulting services for the feasibility studies and design of the proposed railway network in Mombasa which was completed in 2020.
The government received financing from the World Bank for the National Urban Transport Improvement Project (Nutrip) and intends to apply part of the proceeds to develop a Mombasa metropolitan commuter rail plan.
The railway line was tampered with in January this year in the construction of Sh4.5 billion Makupa Bridge which is 98 percent complete and expected to be opened by President Uhuru Kenyatta this month.
Once the bridge built by China Communications and Construction Company is complete, the causeway will be demolished to connect the Tudor and Port Reitz creeks.
Makupa Causeway was the only blockage which the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 2018 had raised concern that the Kenyan Coastal tourism hub would have ceased to be an island city if the government wouldn't work to open up the channel.
UNESCO had issued a warning to the Kenyan government to demolish the causeway, which was built in 1929, and which was stopping waters from flowing freely to the island thus interfering with marine life.
Apart from restoring the ecosystem, the bridge will significantly improve infrastructure along the Mombasa-Nairobi Trunk Road and the movement of cargo from the Port of Mombasa.
It will take motorists only about 10 minutes from Moi International Airport, Mikindani, Changamwe, Magongo and Jomvu on the mainland side to the Mombasa city centre via the over-sea Makupa bridge.
The Makupa Causeway is one of three road links between the island and the mainland. The other two are the Nyali bridge and the Kipevu Causeway.
The Bridge comprises two four-lane parallel bridges with widths of 20-metre each and an extra two-metre rail for non-motorised traffic and a pedestrian footpath.
In January last year, President Uhuru Kenyatta ordered the removal of the causeway in Kibarani, exciting tourism players that congestion would be addressed.
Mombasa had ceased to be an island during colonial in 1929 after it was earthen to facilitate easier for man and machine to enter the town.
Before then, the Salisbury bridge stood over the waters, maintaining the island's integrity and allowing the waters and marine life of Makupa straits to flow freely.
But the vagaries of the First World War, specifically the fear of aerial attack on the bridge drove the British to fill the causeway to guarantee communication of the island with the mainland.
Marine experts Andrew Mwangura said the blockage of the free flow of water between Tudor and Port Reitz creeks at Makupa causeway, coupled with the massive reclamation of the sea, led the UN to threaten Kenya with the delisting of Mombasa as an island in the last four years.
“Now Mombasa will continue to remain an island as the delisting could have had a far-reaching consequence, especially on the tourism sector. The bridge has restored the status of Mombasa as a full island city, which is good in terms of marketing tourism,” said Mr Mwangura.
