|
|||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Transport in Tanzania |
 |
To meet Wikipedia's quality standards, this article may require rewriting and/or reformatting. The current version of the article was imported from the CIA World Factbook. Please discuss this issue on the talk page. Editing help is available. |
Transport in Tanzania is mainly road transport, supplemented by rail. Tanzania's road network, however, is of limited quality and especially the tarmac roads are few. Dirt roads often turn unpassable in rainy seasons and can halt traffic for days on end or even weeks. The reliable connection to the East of the country towards Lake Tanganyika is by rail during rainy season. Air transport is out of reach for the vast majority of people, uses very few commercial airports and a larger number of basic landing strips for small aircraft.
Contents |
total: 3 690 km
narrow gauge: 2,721 km 1.000 m gauge; 969 km 1.067 m gauge (2002)
Tanzania is comparatively well-served by railways. Maintenance is a problem but generally the country has relied on railways rather than highways for transport between east and west, to the centre, and between Lake Victoria regions and eastern coastal regions. Consequently highway develoment has been neglected in the past. Only the south-east of the country does not have rail access (Bukoba in the north west is served by the railway ferry link to the railhead at Mwanza).
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, perhaps linking to Mbeya.
Formerly also called TanZam Railway.
1067mm gauge to match Zambian/Southern African networks.
Tanzanian Railways use Chopper couplings. It is not clear if they use air or vacuum brakes. Loco 2927 shows chopper couplings and thin air brake hoses.
VGA, aka SUW 2000 aka INTERGAUGE is method of operating a train on two gauges, and maybe more than two gauges. The convertor track is about 20m long and has few moving parts. The conversion process it automatic and takes place at a speed of about 15km/h. VGA would enable the Tanzanian railway network to be enlarged and rebuilt in a mosaic pattern.
Burundi - no - proposed 1435mm
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: 1000mm/1067mm
Kenya - yes - 1000 mm same gauge, but the link between Moshi and Voi has not operated for many years.
Malawi - no - break of gauge 1000mm/1067mm
Mozambique - no - break of gauge 1000mm/1067mm
Rwanda - no - proposed 1435 mm 5
Uganda - yes - same gauge - via train ferry from Mwanza to Port Bell or Jinja.
Zambia - yes - 1000mm/1067mm break-of-gaugeThe 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 has been developed into a so-called 'dry port' for trans-shipping Burundian and Rwandan road freight onto freight trains to the seaport of Dar es Salaam. There are proposals to build a railway from Isaka to Rwanda/Burundi. 5
Rwanda to start soon and be complete by 2013.
total: 88,200 km
paved: 3,704 km
unpaved: 84,496 km (1999 est.)
Tanzania's principal paved highways are confined to the north-eastern, central-eastern, and south-western regions of the country:
There are no paved links to south-eastern, western, central and northern regions, and 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:
The Cairo-Cape Town Highway (highway 4 in the Trans-African Highway network) runs through Tanzania between the Kenyan border town of Namanga in the north and the Tanzanian 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 the Taragire National Park turnoff and Iringa is not paved and can be very difficult after rain especially north of Kondoa Irangi. A longer eastern route is available via Moshi and Morogoro on paved roads but these have often been poorly maintained in the past and full of potholes. In south-west Tanzania the Trans-African Highway follows the Tanzam Highway linking Zambia to the port of Dar es Salaam.
Tanzania is well served by coastal and lake waterways around its edges, but there are no lakes or rivers used as waterways to any great extent in more central areas.
Tanzania has a strong maritime tradition going back centuries. Zanzibar was once the chief port along the entire Indian Ocean coast, and 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:
For about 80 years the famous Lake Victoria ferries carrying rail wagons and vehicles, and run by the railway companies of Tanzania and Uganda, have been the chief means of transport within northern Tanzania, between Tanzania and Uganda, and between northern Tanzania and south-western Kenya. Other ferry services link to the Tanzanian islands and smaller Tanzanian ports.
Lake Victoria ports in Tanzania:
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:
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:
total: 10 ships (1,000 gross register tons (GRT) or over) 30,781 GRT/33,805 metric tons of deadweight (DWT)
ships by type: cargo ship 2, passenger/cargo ship 2, petroleum tanker 3, roll-on/roll-off 1, short-sea passenger 2 (2002 est.)
gas 5 km; oil 866 km (2003)
123 (2002)
total:11
over 3,047 m: 2
2,438 to 3,047 m: 2
1,524 to 2,437 m: 5
914 to 1,523 m: 1
under 914 m: 1 (2002 est.)
total: 112
1,524 to 2,437 m: 18
914 to 1,523 m: 60
under 914 m: 34 (2002)
This article contains material from the CIA World Factbook (2003 edition) which, as a US government publication, is in the public domain.
|
|||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
