Transport in Tanzania

Tanzania Roads and rails
Red: Tarmac Roads Blue:Railway

Transport in Tanzania is mainly by road, supplemented by rail. Tanzania's road network, is of limited quality and not many roads are tarmacked. Dirt roads become impassible during the rainy season and can remain impassable for days, or, more often, weeks. The only reliable surface connection from the east of the country towards Lake Tanganyika-is by rail, during rainy season. Air transport is unaffordable for the vast majority of people. There are few commercial airports, but a large number of basic landing strips for small aircraft do exist.

Railways

In 2008 Tanzania had 3,689 km (2,292 mi) of rail, ranking it 46th in the world by extent of railway system. Tanzania's system includes 2,720 km (1,690 mi) of 1 gauge, or narrow gauge, and 969 km (602 mi) of 1067 gauge track.

Standards

• Coupling (railway): Norwegian
• Railway brake: Air (?). It is not clear if they use air or vacuum brakes .
• conversion to standard gauge is subject of USTDA grant.

Tanzania Railways Corporation (TRC)

Main article: Tanzania Railways Corporation

Further information: Rail transport in Tanzania

Two locomotives pull a passenger train into Dar es Salaam's main raiway station.

Tanzania is comparatively well-served by railways. Maintenance is a problem but generally the country has been able to rely on its railways rather than highways for transport between east and west. The connections between Lake Victoria and the eastern coast are especially vital. For this reason highway development has been neglected in the past. Only the south-east of the country does not have access to the railway network. Bukoba in the north west is served by a train ferry link to the railhead at Mwanza.

Central Line

• Dar es Salaam - ocean port - former national capital - 8 km from TAZARA line
• Morogoro - junction to north
• Kilosa - junction to south
• Gulwe
• Igandu
• Dodoma - national capital
• Manyoni - junction to north
• Itigi
• Tabora - junction to north
• Kaliua - junction to south
• Kigoma - terminal and port on Lake Tanganyika

Kidatu Line

• (Not shown on map)
• Kilosa - junction
• Kidatu - branch terminus - also served with break-of-gauge by TAZARA, with a container trans-shipment facility to move freight containers between TAZARA and Tanzania Railways Corporation trains

Mwanza Line

• Tabora - junction
• Isaka - 'dry port' and proposed junction for line to Rwanda and Burundi
• Shinyanga
• Mwanza - inland port on Lake Victoria

Mpanda Line

• Kaliua - junction
• Mpanda - branch terminus

Singida Line

• Manyoni - junction
• Singida - branch terminus

Link Line

• Morogoro - junction with Central Line
• Korogwe - junction with Tanga Line

Tanga line

• Tanga - ocean port
• Korogwe - junction
• Moshi
• Arusha - soda ash mining

Proposed extensions

• September 2007 - from Arusha to Musoma on Lake Victoria.

Mtwara Line (defunct)

In 1949 a line was built to link the Tanganyika groundnut scheme plantations around Nachingwea with the port of Mtwara. The scheme famously foundered and the railway was abandoned in 1962. Proposals have been made for a new railway to link Mtwara to iron ore deposits in the west, possibly connecting to Mbeya.

Towns served by rail

Main article: Railway stations in Tanzania

Railway links with adjacent countries

• Burundi - no - proposed 1435
• DR Congo - decades ago there was a train ferry between Kigoma and Kalemie, in 2007 there are no ferry links and the DR Congo line to Kalemie is defunct because of a collapsed bridge. Break of gauge: 1000/1067
• Kenya - yes - 1000 same gauge, but the link between Moshi and Voi has not operated for many years.
• Malawi - no - break of gauge 1000/1067
• Mozambique - no - break of gauge 1000/1067
• Rwanda - no - proposed 1435
• Uganda - yes - same gauge - via train ferry from Mwanza to Port Bell or Jinja.
• Zambia - yes - 1000/1067 break-of-gauge

The central line between Kigoma and Dar es Salaam carries international freight and passengers in transit from Burundi, DR Congo and Rwanda to the Indian Ocean, and the branch from Tabora to Mwanza carries freight and passengers between Uganda and the Indian Ocean.

Isaka Dry Port, a small town and station on the Mwanza Line at its intersection with the paved highway to Kigali. It has been developed into a so-called 'dry port' for trans-shipping Burundian and Rwandan road freight onto freight trains for the seaport of Dar es Salaam. There are proposals to build a railway from Isaka to Rwanda/Burundi..

Maps

• UN Map - Tanga and Kidatu lines not shown.
• Railways in southern Africa
• Official map
• UNHCR Map

Timeline

2008

• Work on a Line to Rwanda is to start soon and it is projected that it will be completed by 2013.

2007

• Isaka-Kigali railway shaping Daily News August 24, 2007 - CONSTRUCTION of the 450-km Isaka-Kigali railway will start soon after completion of the line’s survey, President Jakaya Kikwete said yesterday. The president, who is on an eight-day official tour of Shinyanga region, told a large rally in Bukombe district that the line’s survey was currently at an advanced stage.
• Central line to have standard gauge? proposed by Dr. Maua Daftari.

TAZARA Railway

Main article: TAZARA Railway

The Tanzania-Zambia Railway Authority (TAZARA), formerly also called TanZam Railway. operates 1,860 km (1,156 mi) of 1067 narrow gauge track (to match Zambian/Southern African networks) between Dar es Salaam and Kapiri Mposhi in Zambia (of which 969 km (602 mi) is in Tanzania and 891 km (554 mi) is in Zambia); is not a part of Tanzania Railways Corporation. Because of the difference in gauge, this system doesn't connect to the Tanzanian Railway Network. However, a container trans-shipment yard to transfer freight containers between TAZARA and Tanzania Railways Corporation trains has been built at Kidatu near Morogoro. This allows containers to be shipped from as far as Uganda and Kenya via the Lake Victoria train ferries and the Kidatu yard to the Southern African rail network via Zambia without leaving the rail system.

• Dar es Salaam - ocean port - 8 km from TRC line

• Kidatu - break of gauge connection with Tanzania Railways Corporation, with a container trans-shipment facility to move freight containers between TAZARA and Tanzania Railways Corporation trains
• Mbeya
• Tunduma - Zambian border

Couplings and brakes

• TAZARA uses AAR couplings and air brakes.

Variable Gauge Axles

Main article: Variable gauge

VGA, aka SUW 2000 aka INTERGAUGE is method of enabling a train to operate on two gauges. The converter track is about 20 m long and has few moving parts. The conversion process it automatic and takes place at a speed of about 15 km/h. However VGA may not be feasible with metre gauge because of a lack of space between the wheels.

Links

• Official site

Roads

Many key highways are not paved, and Tanzania's rainy season can soon bring traffic to a standstill.

As of 2003 Tanzania had 78,891 km (49,021 mi) of roads, of which only 6,808 km (4,230 mi) were paved. Tanzania's roadway system ranks in 60th in the world by total length of roads.

National highways

Tanzania's principal paved highways are confined to the north-eastern, central-eastern, and south-western regions of the country:

• Dodoma to Dar es Salaam (connects the two capitals), 450 km (280 mi)
• Chalinze spur from the Dodoma-Dar es Salaam highway to Tanga, 245 km (152 mi)
• Segera spur from the Chalinze-Tanga highway to Moshi and Arusha, 370 km (230 mi)
• Arusha to the Kenyan border, 108 km (67 mi)
• Morogoro to Mbeya, 690 km (430 mi)

There are no paved links from the capital to the south-eastern, western, central and northern regions. Most of the roads between these areas are dirt tracks, with a few improved gravel sections. Within each area there are paved roads isolated from the rest of the paved network. The situation is:

• South-east regions: paved highways link Mtwara, Lindi, Masasi and Masuguru on the Mozambique border, but the only road link to the rest of the country is impassable after rain. A paved link is proposed from Masasi to Songea which would connect to a paved spur of the Mbeya-Dar es Salaam highway.
• Central regions: only dirt roads with some difficult sections to the west of Dodoma leading to Manyoni, Singida, Nzega, and Tabora. The Singida-Nzega dirt road is the only practical route between the eastern and western halves of the country, without going to the southern or northern borders.
• Northern: paved roads connect Mwanza and Musoma on Lake Victoria, but are only connected by dirt roads to the central, north-eastern and north-western regions, some are being upgraded to gravel roads.
• North-western regions have recently seen improvements with a new paved highway from Nzega to the Rwandan border. However the lake port of Bukoba is reachable only along improved gravel roads.
• Western regions are the most poorly served, with no paved highways except locally in Kigoma and Ujiji. Only one dirt road runs down the western side of the country, it is just a track between Kasulu and Sumbawanga and prone to flooding south of Mpanda. Between Tunduma in the south-west and Nyakanyazi junction near Kibondo in the north-west, a distance of nearly 1000 km, there are no highways in the centre of the country.

International Highways

The Cairo-Cape Town Highway (highway 4 in the Trans-African Highway network) runs through Tanzania from Namanga on the Kenyan border in the north and the Tanzanian/Mozambican border town of Tunduma in the south-west, via Arusha, Dodoma, Iringa and Mbeya, passing through some of the best scenery in Africa. The section between Taragire National Park and Iringa is not paved and can be very difficult after rain especially north of Kondoa Irangi. A longer eastern route via Moshi and Morogoro is paved. But these have often been poorly maintained in the past so are full of potholes. In south-west Tanzania the Trans-African Highway follows the Tanzam Highway linking Zambia to the port of Dar es Salaam.

Timeline

• May 2007 - Construction is set to begin on the Malagarasi Bridge, its set to cost USD25 million

Waterways

Tanzania has an abundance of coastal and lake waterways around its borders. In the central areas of the country there are no lakes or rivers that are usable for transportation.

Indian Ocean coast

Tanzania has a strong maritime tradition going back centuries. Zanzibar was once the chief port on the East African, Indian Ocean coast. Its hinterland reached into Central Africa as far as the middle Congo River. Swahili traders used dhows to conduct trade though many ports along the coast. This tradition continues today with motorised craft.

Indian Ocean ports:

• Wete
• Tanga
• Pangani
• Bagamoyo
• Zanzibar
• Dar es Salaam
• Kilindoni
• Kilwa Masoko/Kilwa Kisiwani
• Lindi
• Mtwara

Lake Victoria

For about 80 years the famous Lake Victoria ferries have carried rail wagons and vehicles from Uganda to Tanzania. The ferries are jointly run by the railway companies of Tanzania and Uganda and form the chief means of transport between Tanzania and Uganda. As well as between northern Tanzania and south-western Kenya. Other ferry services link to the Tanzanian islands and smaller Tanzanian ports.

Lake Victoria ports in Tanzania:

• Mwanza - railhead
• Bukoba
• Musoma

Lake Tanganyika

Once a rival to Lake Victoria as a waterway, the Lake Tanganyika ferries are no longer as busy and train ferries no longer operate. Trade has suffered due to wars in the DR Congo. Small ferries link communities along the Tanzanian shore (some with no road access), and commercial traffic runs between Kigoma and Bujumbura, Burundi and Mpulungu, Zambia, including the MV Liemba.

Lake Tanganyika ports in Tanzania:

• Kigoma - railhead
• Ujiji

Lake Malawi

Tanzanian communities along the north-east shore (some without road access) are linked by ferry, and Malawian steamer and boat services have run the length of the lake for about 120 years.

Tanzanian towns with ferry wharves on Lake Malawi:

• Itungi (paved highway link from Mbeya)
• Matema
• Manda
• Lituhi
• Mbamba Bay

Merchant marine

As of 2008, Tanzania's merchant fleet consisted of 9 Tanzanian-flagged vessels and 1 registered in Honduras. The small number of ships may be attributed to Tanzania's few exports, the relative insufficiency of its coast guard and naval forces, and Tanzania's single major port facility in Dar es Salaam. The nine domestically-flagged ships are one solely cargo ship, 4 passenger/cargo ships, and 4 oil tankers.

Pipelines

As of 2008, Tanzania could claim 253 km (157 mi) of gas pipeline, 888 km (552 mi) of oil pipeline, and an 8 km (5.0 mi) pipeline for refined petroleum products. The privately owned Tazama Pipeline accounts for a large portion of the country's crude oil transportation capability. It currently handles 600,000 tons of crude oil per year, but was designed to handle 1.1 million tons.

Airports

Tanzania had a total of 125 airports as of 2009, ranking it 47th in the world by number of airports.

Paved

total:9
over 3,048 m (10,000 ft): 2
2,438 to 3,047 m (7,999 to 9,997 ft): 2
1,524 to 2,437 m (5,000 to 7,995 ft): 4
914 to 1,523 m (2,999 to 4,997 ft): 1

Unpaved

total: 116
1,524 to 2,437 m (5,000 to 7,995 ft): 19
914 to 1,523 m (2,999 to 4,997 ft): 63
under 914 m (2,999 ft): 34

See also

• Economy of Tanzania
• Usambara Railway
• East African Railway Master Plan
• Lake Victoria ferries

External links

Government ministries and agencies

• Ministry of Infrastructure Development
• Ministry of Water and Irrigation
• Surface and Marine Transport Regulatory Authority (SUMATRA)
• Tanzania Civil Aviation Authority
• Tanzania Civil Aviation Authority - domestic air carrier market share statistics table
• Tanzania Ports Authority

References

 This article incorporates public domain material from The World Factbook (2024 ed.). CIA. (Archived 2009 edition.)