TRC starts SGR trials tied to cautious speeds

27Feb 2024
James Kandoya
DAR ES SALAAM
News
The Guardian
TRC starts SGR trials tied to cautious speeds

THE Tanzania Railways Corporation (TRC) yesterday started trial journeys on the standard gauge railway (SGR) electric train from Dar es Salaam to Morogoro.

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HISTORY IN THE MAKING: An electric train operated by the state-run Tanzania Railways Corporation pictured along the Pugu (Ilala District) stretch of the Standard Gauge Railway in Dar es Salaam Region yesterday. It was during a test run between the country’s commercial capital, Dar es Salaam, and Morogoro Region, pending the envisaged official start of regular services this July. Photo: Guardian Correspondent

TRC director general Masanja Kadogosa told journalists after arrival that the train spent more than three hours contrary to the projected time of two hours when operations actually started.

The train left Dar es Salaam at around 9:40am and arrived in Morogoro at 12:45pm, with the South Korean-made train cruising between 50 and 130 kilometres per hour.

The first trial trip avoided reaching speeds of up to 160 kilometres per hour, with the TRC CEO explaining that it was vital to take precautions during trials, as proper operations haven’t yet been permitted by the responsible authorities.

At a future moment the Land Transport Regulatory Authority (LATRA) will conduct an assessment to allow train to cruise at 160 kilometres per hour, he specified.

The trials started in a series to ensure all the systems such as electrical circuits, signalling and brakes function properly, ready for TRC to start SGR operations when the testing is over and it is commissioned, he said.

Starting the trials is tied to an implicit schedule directed by President Samia Suluhu Hassan to ensure that operations commence by June, he said, explaining that the locomotives test was successful.

TRC has now started testing four passengers’ coaches, while testing the remaining wagons until it is ascertained that all the systems function properly, he said.

Testing of coaches from Dar es Salaam to Dodoma will continue in the second week of March, he said, noting that TRC has sufficiently trained local technicians to operate the trains.

The first batch of 167 technicians dispatched to five countries had returned, thus having 20 locomotive drivers and over 200 electrical circuits, signals and telecommunication technicians, he said.

TRC is set to dispatch 80 engineering cadets of different cadres for training, the first set of electric multiple unit (wagons) cadets coming back next month, he said.

TRC started testing its first electric locomotive on January 10 after it was delivered from South Korea, following a contract award in July 2021.

TRC awarded the South Korean manufacturer a 335·4bn/- won a contract to supply 17 four-axle 25 kV 50 Hz electric locomotives and 10 EMUs, he added.

 

 

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