Rift Valley Railways (RVR) is making a big push to take hold of a larger share of the Kenyan and Ugandan freight market by spending US$62 million buying new wagons and restoring the old ones. Track renewal will also take place as the trains also need to move freight along the tracks faster.

Currently, RVR has a 4% share of freight in the region and hopes that this will jump considerably to 35% in the next two-and-a-half years.

RVR intends to almost double its load capacity on every train to 1 500 t.

“We will be able to run bigger capacity trains, thereby improving our loading capacity and reducing the operation’s transit times,” executive chairman Brown Ondego said.

The upgrade and improvement of the railway between Uganda and Kenya is vital to increase trade across the East African region. The upgrade of the rail infrastructure will also reduce transport costs by up to a third.