The Tanzania-Zambia Railway Authority (TAZARA) will soon resume the cross-border passenger train operations that were suspended in August, the authority said on Thursday. Conrad Simuchile, TAZARA head of public relations, said in a statement that the cross-border passenger trains between Dar es Salaam in Tanzania and New Kapiri-Mposhi in Zambia will revert back to the old schedules and run through across the borders from December 30. Both the express and ordinary passenger trains will no longer terminate or u-turn at the Tanzania/Zambia border station of Nakonde, but will instead run through all the way to Dar es Salaam and New Kapiri-Mposhi as used to be the case since the inception of the railway, said the statement. These changes have been necessitated by our experience since August when we stopped inter-state operations. We have received numerous complaints from the travelling public as well as the operational challenges we have faced following the transition, he said. On Sunday, TAZARA Council of Ministers agreed to immediately inject 25 million U.S. dollars to save the 1,860-km railway line from total collapse. TAZARA was constructed as a turnkey project between 1970 and 1975 through an interest-free loan of 500 million dollars from China, with commercial operations starting in July 1976, covering 1,860 kilometres from Dar es Salaam in Tanzania to New Kapiri Mposhi in Zambia. Enditem
Posted on: Thu, 25 Dec 2014 19:47:03 +0000