Uganda: Train service launched though not yet punctual

If the relaunch of the passenger services was supposed to be an indicator that traffic on the roads would reduce, the first day had nothing to show for this. On Monday, passenger train services were relaunched for the first time since 1992. The train made four trips, with two in the morning, including the maiden service.

The morning train service included the official launch, which was largely a choreographed event. The reality set in on the afternoon train service from Namanve Train Station, which was expected to leave at 4:15 pm.

However, the largely dilapidated transit shade in Namanve was deserted by passengers. It was occupied by residents who stay around the area.

As the afternoon rain poured, the train service failed its first test. The locomotive that was supposed to move the wagons delayed by almost 45 minutes. But no one was complaining. That aside, the officials made no communication as to why the train was leaving behind schedule.

“The locomotive delayed because the one that was supposed to move the wagons got a mechanical problem,” an official from the Uganda Railways Corporation (URC) told Daily Monitor.

At a fee of Shs1,500, the passenger service is free of any pothole and traffic jam-like experience. Ms Nabulondo Sauda and her children, who took the train ride just for the experience attested to that.

“We moved in a taxi from Kampala to Namanve in order to get on the train and get a feel of it. I think the journey is less tiresome compared to the taxis and I am sure the kids enjoyed it,” she said.

Occasionally, the train could get cranky, shaky and passes too close to the rickety shacks around the Kireka area.

At the first stop for the train in Namboole, no one was picked up. In fact, taxi drivers around the area kept saying, “those things are empty.”

Another one added, “I see only staff members on the train.” The story was similar at all other stops on the route in Kireka and Nakawa. There were just no passengers.

Along the route, it is clear the task ahead for the passenger service. The infrastructure at Namanve train station is dilapidated. If it rains, there is no platform and shade for the passengers to get some protection.

Additionally, the Kireka and Nakawa stops have no visible infrastructure to cater for passengers. “Our hope is that the service is known by many in the near future, for us to improve the passenger numbers,” a ticketing officer on the train told the Daily Monitor.

On a given day, the train service is expected to at least reduce passenger traffic on the city roads by 4,000. For a train that left Namanve at 4:52pm and arrived in Kampala at 5:37pm, one could say it saves on time.

However, it costs Shs2,000 to get to the Namanve train station from the Jinja Highway on a boda boda, an additional cost to the Shs1,500 paid for the ticket. If day one was re-launched was anything to go by, the positive outcome was that the train finally moved after nearly two years.waiting.