Uganda Railway

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Uganda Railway is a historical railway system linking the interiors of Uganda and Kenya to the Indian Ocean at Mombasa in Kenya.

Near Mombasa, about 1899

1 History
2 Ferry service
3 Part of East African Railways Corporation
4 Uganda Railways Corporation
5 Books and movies
6 See also
7 External links

[edit] History

The line started at the port city of Mombasa in 1896 and reached Kisumu in 1901 on the eastern shore of Lake Victoria.

A disassembled ferry was transported to Kisumu by sea and rail where it was reassembled and used to provide a service to Port Bell and, later, other ports on Lake Victoria. A 7 mile / 10 km rail line between Port Bell and Kampala was the final link in the chain providing efficient transport between the Ugandan capital and the open sea, at Mombasa, over 900 miles / 1400 km away.

Branch lines were built to Thika in 1913, Lake Magadi in 1915, Kitale in 1926, Naro Moro in 1927, from Tororo to Soroti in 1929 and finally Mount Kenya in 1931. The mainline was extended from Nakuru towards Uganda reaching Kampala in 1931. Another went to Kasese in western Uganda in 1965. It was extended to Arua near the border with Zaire in 1964.

The railway is metre gauge and virtually all single-track. It was built by the British East Africa Company using labour mainly brought in from British India. The working and living conditions were bad and many died through disease or attack by wild animals, a popular theme of films. Crossing the 450 metre tall escarpment of the Rift Valley was a major technical problem. The railway cost around 5 million pounds and the first services started in 1903.

The Asian workers, from British India, were the first of many who emigrated to the region bringing much needed technical and entrepreneurial skills. Idi Amin expelled all the Asians resident in Uganda in 1972. Many remain in Kenya and Tanzania although many others have moved to the United Kingdom and other countries of the Commonwealth of Nations.

Despite being called "the Lunatic Line" by its detractors, the railway was a huge logistical achievement and became strategically and economically vital for both Uganda and Kenya. It was used in the suppression of slavery and in the First World War campaign against General Paul Erich von Lettow-Vorbeck in German East Africa, modern Tanzania. The railway allowed heavy equipment to be transported far inland with relative ease. Up until that time the main form of transport in the interior was ox-drawn wagon. The railway also allowed coffee and tea to be exported and encouraged colonial settlement and other types of commerce.

The focusing effect of railway junctions and depots created many of the interior's modern towns and ports, such as:

Eldoret, originally called "64" its distance, in miles, from the railhead at the time
Jinja, a city and port close to the outlet of Lake Victoria, the source of the River Nile
Kisumu, a city and port on Lake Victoria allowing ferry transport between Kenya, Tanganyika (modern Tanzania) and Uganda
Kitale, a small farming community in the foothills of Mount Elgon
Nairobi, started as a rail depot, becoming the capital of Kenya.
Nakuru, where the main line splits, one branch going to Kisumu and the other to Uganda
Port Bell, a rail-linked port, near to Kampala, on Lake Victoria allowing ferry transport between Kenya, Tanganyika and Uganda

[edit] Ferry service

A related article on the Lake Victoria ferries details the transport of steel ferries from Europe at the beginning of the 1900s, in parts, and their construction on the shores of Lake Victoria.

[edit] Part of East African Railways Corporation

The Uganda railway became part of the East African Railways Corporation after WWI. In 1977 the original East African Community dissolved and each of its countries established its own national railway. The Kenyan part of the Uganda railway - EARC became the Kenya Railways Corporation, while the Ugandan part was transformed into the Uganda Railways Corporation (URC).

[edit] Uganda Railways Corporation

Main article: Uganda Railways Corporation

The state of the modern railway in Uganda is not as impressive as those early achievements. Only the 5 mile, 8 km line between Kampala and Port Bell and the 120 mile main line from Kampala to the Kenyan border at Tororo remain in use. In 1989, government soldiers massacred sixty civilians at Mukura railway station.

More recently the Uganda Railways have been joint recipients of the 2001 Worldaware Business Award for "assisting economic and social development through the provision of appropriate, sustainable and environmentally complementary transport infrastructure". The Uganda Railways Update Report gives details of management improvement.