Old rail jinxes latest bid to revive Nanyuki line

Business Daily 
JULY 06 2021 (Kenya)

The government’s bet on a century-old technology now risks derailing the revival of railway transport even before it is fully rolled out.

Still very much in its pilot stage, the metre-gauge railway line from Nairobi to Nanyuki has suffered multiple mishaps, casting doubts over its long-term viability.

Barely a year after the line was revived, it has emerged that it's too old and too weak to operate optimally as envisioned during its rehabilitation.

Veteran staffers at Kenya Railways Corporation (KRC) have intimated that technical factors and the design of the Nanyuki line could hamper its operations.

“The rails are narrower and support less loads because it has lower poundage,” an employee of the corporation told Business Daily.

In just under six months, the train has derailed twice, stalled four times and caught fire once. In one of those incidents in January, passengers had to spend part of the night in the bushes, prompting Kenya Railways to dispatch buses to take them to their destinations.

Source:

https://www.businessdailyafrica.com/bd/news/counties/old-rail-technology-jinxes-latest-bid-to-revive-nanyuki-line-3462706