By KABONA ESIARA

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Five O’clock found me at the station ready for the 5.30pm train, which leaves Kampala city heading eastwards to Namanve, 16 kilometres away.

The Kampala train station, established in the 1920s, hosts the offices, service centre, and waiting and boarding areas, and has worked as the main office for passenger and cargo train over the years.

Located in the central business district — convenient for departing and incoming goods and passengers — the station has recently become a beehive of activity after the return of the train.

Booking for tickets is done here. Mornings and evenings are busy, as dozens of passengers throng the station to get a trip worth Ush2,000 ($0.52), much cheaper than the fare of the commuter taxis for the same journey, which is Ush4,000 ($1.05) or more.

On the day I took the train, the line was long and the ticketing officers were picking out people who had smaller denominations of the Ugandan currency — 1,000; 2000 and 5,000 — leaving those with big ones to wait.

As 5.30pm approached, the train hooted, sending an echoing sound into the city and signalling the start of the journey. The people in the queue rushed in to find seats.

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Inside the coach, the once-tattered seats are now covered in brown leather and a thin-inch sponge cushions making them more comfortable than the metal seats of the past.

The fans mounted above the dash of the coaches have been fixed, sending fresh air circulating and improving travellers’ experience. Before they were fixed, a frequent rider on the train says the heat in the coaches was unbearable.

The old, five-coache train snaked through Nakawa, Kireka, Namboole and terminated at Namanve.

Passengers board the commuter train at the Uganda Railways Corporation (URC) headquarters in Kampala, Uganda on November 5, 2019. PHOTO | REUTERS

For the 16km ride to Namanve, the train spent only 45 minutes, a huge difference from an average of two hours that vehicles, especially public commuter taxis, spend from the CBD to Kazinga near Namanve.

However, Uganda Railways Corporation (URC) is operating old rolling stock, and most of it is in disuse.

There are only five coaches to transport passengers in a city of four million people.

In order not to miss the train, many passengers reach the station early, some by 5.00am for the morning trip and 4.00pm to catch the train that departs at 5.30pm for the evening return journey.

With the market yearning for train services and Kampala struggling to achieve its ambitious plan to shift 20 percent of the freight and passenger bases to rail, Paul Power, a transport sector commentator based in Kampala, says the city needs $200 million to invest in rail passenger transport.

The money will be pumped into buying rolling stock, constructing stations, and improving the security and safety of the railway system in the Kampala commuter railway networks.

“My understanding is that at least 20 percent of the market share for rail transport is needed to make the planned standard gauge railway project viable and bankable. I don’t know the latest cost estimate, but I have heard anything from $3 billion to over $12 billion, with electrification,” Mr Power said.

He, however, noted that achieving a 20 percent market share for railway transport would be challenging, as currently rail transport on the metre gauge railway is less than one per cent of the freight transport market, and passenger services resumed on May 1, 2024, after almost a one year of absence due to track rehabilitation.

“The rolling stock needed to transport 20 percent of the freight and passenger markets by rail is enormous,” he said.

The government has also to come up with deliberate policies to encourage private investment in the railway to achieve the significant shift from road to rail transport, some of which include subsidies, enforcement of tighter road weight restrictions, restrictions on the type of goods that can be transported on roads.

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Uganda’s railway sector is described as not well organised. There is no safety regulator. Laws need to be updated, and there is no sustainable funding model for implementing a modern rail transport system.

A passenger awaits to board the commuter train at the Uganda Railways Corporation (URC) headquarters in Kampala, Uganda on November 5, 2019. PHOTO | REUTERS

According to Power, in Uganda, a strategic direction for the sector is missing, sector targets and objectives need to be defined, and a need to separate infrastructure management from train operations and safety regulation.

“These challenges are mostly 'soft.' Institutional and private investors need clarity on the 'operating environment' —that is, rules — before significant investor interest can be mobilised,” he explained.

Uganda’s plan to grow rail freight and passenger traffic got a boost recently, when Italian investors, led by Ambassador Mauro Massoni, expressed interest in constructing a 64km railway line from Tororo to Majanji.

This alternative route on the Northern Corridor is meant to reduce congestion and increase efficiency in the region’s transportation network, as it links to water, railways, and roads.

The planned investment complements the SGR linking Kenya to Kampala, whose construction works are yet to begin. The details of the investment in the proposed route, funding, and implementation timelines have not been made public.

President Yoweri Museveni welcomed the proposal, highlighting the potential for the railway line to cater to traffic from northern Uganda and neighbouring countries, bypassing Kampala.

“That traffic doesn’t have to come to Kampala. It can go straight either to Kenya or to Tanzania,” the President said, emphasising the project’s strategic importance.

The Italian investors also proposed establishing an academy to train Ugandans in cutting-edge railway construction and maintenance technology, ensuring skills transfer and job creation for the local workforce.

But, amid the challenges, signs that URC is fighting for a piece of the big commuter transport market share are clear.Lately, the train and coaches have been repainted.

Margret Nantume, one of the frequent users of the commuter train, said many people have not embraced the train because of the cost.
“While I use the train to escape the daily traffic gridlock on the Kampala-Jinja highway, the increase in the train ticket from Ush1,000 ($0.26) to Ush2,000 ($0.52) for every stop is discouraging passengers,” she said.

“Many people are opting for taxis and boda boda, which are flexible in pricing and charge fares per stop, while others walk to their destinations.”

Recently, URC acting managing director David Musoke Bulega revised the fares upwards to hedge his ticket sale revenues against fuel costs.

The train stops are located at far distances from the main road, which inconveniences passengers and adds to the transport costs to their destinations.

Children in school uniforms board a train in Kampala, Uganda. PHOTO | POOL

Passengers who live in Seeta and Mukono incur an additional Ush2000 ($0.52) to reach their destinations by taxi, in addition to the train ticket of the same amount, bringing the total to Ush4,000 ($1.05).

Besides, they have to walk 500 metres from the Namanve railway station to the nearest taxi stage.

The walk-to-work measure many households in Uganda have adopted to reduce pressure on their home budgets is also contributing to the reduced number of passengers travelling by train.

When the train stops at Namanve railway station, factory employees in Kampala’s Business and Industrial Park walk for either night shifts or to their homes. A 2021 study commissioned by Friedrich-Elbert-Stifting says 50 percent of workers in Uganda walk to and from work.

But John Leon Sengendo, URC publicist, says every inch of the train coach will be occupied in the coming days, when schools open for the second term.

He also expects passengers who opted for other transport modes to return and new ones recruited, especially when the Namanve-Kyetume line is completed in August this year.

The Namanve-Mukono section will be the third track to be completed, after the rehabilitation of the Tororo-Namanve line, including the line to Jinja Pier, which was completed two years ago. The Namanve-Kampala section, which was handed over in January this year, was the second to be completed by Spanish firm Imathia Construction, after replacing steel sleepers with concrete beams.

After Uganda Transport Company, a public passenger transportation firm, folded in the 1980s, Kampala was plunged into a disorganised and unreliable transport service run by unprofessional private players.

The government, under pressure to reduce traffic gridlocks, is betting on an efficient railway system to address this challenge. A 2017 World Bank study estimated that traffic jams cost Uganda more than $800 million annually in lost productivity, wasted fuel and increased emissions.

The ultimate plan of URC is to extend passenger services to Mukono, Kyengera, and Port Bell Kampala.

“We want to alleviate the problem and stress people face with road transport. Our roads are still highly congested, and people spend a lot of time in traffic jams for short distances. With the train service, it will be far smoother and faster. It is a worthwhile endeavour,” said Minister of Works and Transport Katumba Wamala.