Tanzania to get new SGR electric trains November

The Tanzania Railways Corporation (TRC) has said it will receive the first batch of the 42 electric trains it had ordered by November this year.

Arrival of the locomotives, which are Tanzania's first electric trains, means that the country can soon start operating the Dar es Salaam-Morogoro section of the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR).

This is according to Works and Transport Minister Dr Leonard Chamuriho, who spoke this week after overseeing signing of the contract between TRC and Hyundai Rotem.

“Earlier, we procured 42 electric locomotives from Germany and South Korea. Once they arrive in November, testing of the SGR section from Dar es Salaam to Morogoro will commence,” he said.

Mr Kadogosa said the contractor would train Tanzanian engineers on how to operate the SGR trains.

“In every contract that we have signed so far, there is a component that compels the teaching of local experts on maintenance, signals and driving. We want more local engineers to be competent in all the aspects,” he said.

Construction of the Dar es Salaam-Morogoro section of the SGR is 92.7 per cent complete.

The deal with Hyundai follows Tanzania's plan to modernise its railroads after injecting $6.9 billion into upgrading its old rail system, which forced trains to be driven at slow speeds of between 30 to 40 kilometres per hour.

However, the new rail mean that electric locomotives can run at maximum speeds of up to 160 kilometres per hour.