Usambara Railway

The Usambara was the first German railway in what was then German East Africa and in present-day Tanzania.

History

German East Africa

1891 a railway company was founded with the aim to connect the port Tanga on the Indian Ocean over the foot of the Usambara Mountains with Lake Victoria. As of June 1893, the line was driven by Thong. The main reason for the Bahntrassenbau was the German foremen Friedrich Philipp Schleef. Because of under-capitalization, the company had to be taken over in 1899 by the state. Companies was the route followed by the East African Railway Company, which was founded to build the Tanganjikabahn from Dar es Salaam to Kigoma and operate.

On September 26, 1911, the track top New Moshi Kilimanjaro reached after 351.4 kilometers. The commissioning of the entire route was made on October 4, 1911, the inauguration on February 7, 1912. 1914 drove a daily train from Tanga to Buiko, two days a week through to New - Moshi, and back. The journey over the entire distance was 40 minutes for 14 hours. From June 4, 1912 to May 12, 1913, the train was briefly the name of Northern Railway. An extension to Arusha was planned budgetary terms, the section was not initially built anymore because of the First World War.

British mandate

The British Mandate administration complemented the Usambara a connection between Moshi and Voi on the Uganda - Kenya and Uganda Railways train of Kenya and extended it in 1929 to its current endpoint Arusha.

Tanzania

After independence, Tanzania's central and Usambara been linked to a range of Mruazi after Ruvu. During the time of the East African Union, which covered the area of Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, the East African Railways Usambara belonged to (EAR ). The community was disbanded in 1977 and continued by the Tanzania Railway Corporation. This was taken over by an Indian investor in 2007.

Operation

At the time of German rule the web in 1913 with 18 locomotives, 31 passenger and 199 freight cars of 562 staff was operated ( including 35 Europeans ).

After the construction of the compound of Voi road between Arusha and Moshi on the one hand and the coast on the other hand was guided to the port of Mombasa, which only approached local significance to the eastern part of the Usambara. The passenger was settled there at that time with four railcars.

Today on the track run no more passenger trains. This traffic ceased in the 1990s. Freight traffic also was set with the aim of a general renovation of the track, resulting in vandalism and looting of the railway facilities.