TAZARA gets more passengers, revenues

Marco Mabala, the TAZARA board secretary, made this affirmation when unveiled this situation at a virtual board meeting on Tuesday, releasing his remarks in the city yesterday.

The meeting brought on board Stephen Mbewe (sitting in for Fredrick Mwalusaka) and Prof. Godius Kahyarara, Transport permanent secretaries in Zambia and Tanzania respectively, along with Prof. Razack Lokina, Rukia Shamte and Irene Mwamba Lumbwe, board members.

Greater railway traffic arose from reopening the Chambeshi Bridge and a concurrent rise in bus fares, he said.

Annual performance for fiscal 2022/2023 showed a remarkable improvement in revenue by 10 per cent, driven by a surge in the traffic average haul after Chambeshi Bridge reopened in September 2022, he stated.

During fiscal 2022/2023, revenue reached $26.78m, a notable increase from the $24.28m earned for 2021/2022, he said, affirming that TAZARA slipped on the traffic volumes after the bridge was closed, aside from equipment unreliability.

Freight volumes moved on the TAZARA line dropped by 3.7 per cent from 337,475 metric tonnes during 2021/2022 to 324,903 metric tonnes fiscal 2022/2023, while travellers across the various types of passenger trains witnessed a 1 per cent decrease to 2,710,104 passengers during 2022/2023, from 2,738,452 passengers documented in the preceding fiscal year, he stated.

Availability of train coaches was the primary limitation confronting passenger services, he explained, highlighting that the Udzungwa Shuttle between Kidatu and Makambako saw a 2.2 per cent growth in passenger numbers, from 351,826 passengers for the year ending June 2022 to 359,564 passengers for the period ending on June 30, 2023.

Conversely, the Dar es Salaam city commuter train witnessed a 4.1 per cent decrease in ridership as commuters dropped from 2,268,901 during fiscal 2021/2022 to 2,175,501 up to June 2023.

The board acknowledged the management's proactive efforts to improve performance, stressing the pivotal role of innovation in furthering these positive trends, he said.

The management was commended for engaging a second operator under open access arrangements, allocating 16 per cent of earnings from open access to maintenance, demanding that it be raised to 20 per cent, citing the need for enhanced track reliability.

Revitalisation of TAZARA operations was on the cards given the commitment of presidents Samia Suluhu Hassan and Hakainde Hichilema, along with directives of the council of ministers, to revitalise TAZARA operations with the involvement of Chinese investors.

China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC), a subsidiary of China Railway Construction Corporation (CRCC is the company picked to negotiate on the TAZARA concession. A proposal from CCECC was expected at the start of this week, he added.