Kenya recently approved freight tariffs for its Mombasa-Nairobi standard gauge railway.
Last mile talks
The SGR cargo line will run freight trains with 54 double-stack flat wagons, carrying 216 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) per trip, with a load of 4 000 tonnes on each train.“One of the key issues we will be engaging the stakeholders on is the last mile. This discussion will include whether the customers want us to do a full package that will see us deliver the goods to their doorstep or to the inland container depot,” Maina said, adding that they hope to start signing contracts with cargo firms over the next three months before officially rolling out services in January.
From next month, Kenya will also scale up the cargo service and undertake a three month trial period to allow business people and cargo freighters to do pilot runs on the SGR line. Since June, Kenya Railways has been doing a daily eight hour cargo trip from Mombasa to Nairobi but only with government supplies.