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Kenya Railways /CFM NEWS

Kenya

60 wagons arrive for SGR track operations

Kenya Railways has so far received 8 freight haulage heavy duty locomotives for mainline use out of the total expected 43, 2 shunting locomotives and 2 passenger locomotives/CFM NEWS

Nairobi, Kenya, Feb 13 – Kenya Railways on Monday received its first batch of wagons that will be deployed on the Standard Gauge Railway line once operations commence in June this year.

The consignment of 60 wagons arrived at the Port of Mombasa on February 10, 2017 aboard two ships and was offloaded today under the supervision of the China Road and Bridge Corporation

This is the first batch of the 1620 wagons which will be used for movement of cargo between Mombasa and Nairobi.

Kenya Railways says early arrival of the wagons gives the Corporation reasonable time to start testing and commissioning in readiness for trial operations ahead of the 1st June 2017 launch.

The network has capacity to hold 850 metres long trains moving at 80 kilometres per hour. This is the fastest we shall have moved such amount of cargo on this corridor which helps cargo owners to maximise on economies of scale, better supply chain and logistics management which should eventually translate to lower cost of transport and logistics for the Country and the Region.

“This is the fastest we shall have moved such amount of cargo on this corridor which helps cargo owners to maximise on economies of scale, better supply chain and logistics management which should eventually translate to lower cost of transport and logistics for the Country and the Region,” said Kenya Railways Managing Director Atanas Maina.

Kenya Railways has so far received 8 freight haulage heavy-duty locomotives for mainline use out of the total expected 43, 2 shunting locomotives out of the 8 on order, 2 passenger locomotives with another 3 expected by May to complete the order and a total of thirty 32 passenger coaches out of the 40 on order.

Maina says that the project is now in its final phase of construction and will soon be ready for operations. He stated that the delivery of the locomotives and rolling stock is an important component for the SGR project implementation and that the Corporation is right on track in all factors that pertain to the project implementation, even as subsequent operations are set to commence in earnest.

He stated that the delivery of the locomotives and rolling stock is an important component for the SGR project implementation and that the Corporation is right on track in all factors that pertain to the project implementation, even as subsequent operations are set to commence in earnest.

The wagons, says KR, will aid in decongesting the Port of Mombasa and engineer a significant shift of bulk cargo to rail from road come with improved technical performance and are able to operate at a commercial speed of 120 km/h.

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Plans are at an advanced stage to bring on board the operations and maintenance team before the launch date of June 1, 2017.

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