99-570: Kenya Railways Corporation ( KRC ), also Kenya Railways ( KR ) is the national railway of Kenya . Established in 1977, KR is a state corporation . The original Uganda Railway was transformed into the East African Railways and Harbours Corporation (EAR&H) after World War I . The EAR&H managed the railways of Uganda , Kenya, and Tanganyika until the collapse of the East African Community in 1977. KR then took over
198-408: A crank on a driving axle. Steam locomotives have been phased out in most parts of the world for economical and safety reasons, although many are preserved in working order by heritage railways . Electric locomotives draw power from a stationary source via an overhead wire or third rail . Some also or instead use a battery . In locomotives that are powered by high-voltage alternating current ,
297-586: A dining car . Some lines also provide over-night services with sleeping cars . Some long-haul trains have been given a specific name . Regional trains are medium distance trains that connect cities with outlying, surrounding areas, or provide a regional service, making more stops and having lower speeds. Commuter trains serve suburbs of urban areas, providing a daily commuting service. Airport rail links provide quick access from city centres to airports . High-speed rail are special inter-city trains that operate at much higher speeds than conventional railways,
396-710: A fourth rail system in 1890 on the City and South London Railway , now part of the London Underground Northern line . This was the first major railway to use electric traction . The world's first deep-level electric railway, it runs from the City of London , under the River Thames , to Stockwell in south London. The first practical AC electric locomotive was designed by Charles Brown , then working for Oerlikon , Zürich. In 1891, Brown had demonstrated long-distance power transmission, using three-phase AC , between
495-527: A funicular railway at the Hohensalzburg Fortress in Austria. The line originally used wooden rails and a hemp haulage rope and was operated by human or animal power, through a treadwheel . The line is still operational, although in updated form and is possibly the oldest operational railway. Wagonways (or tramways ) using wooden rails, hauled by horses, started appearing in the 1550s to facilitate
594-488: A hydro-electric plant at Lauffen am Neckar and Frankfurt am Main West, a distance of 280 km (170 mi). Using experience he had gained while working for Jean Heilmann on steam–electric locomotive designs, Brown observed that three-phase motors had a higher power-to-weight ratio than DC motors and, because of the absence of a commutator , were simpler to manufacture and maintain. However, they were much larger than
693-431: A steam engine that provides adhesion. Coal , petroleum , or wood is burned in a firebox , boiling water in the boiler to create pressurized steam. The steam travels through the smokebox before leaving via the chimney or smoke stack. In the process, it powers a piston that transmits power directly through a connecting rod (US: main rod) and a crankpin (US: wristpin) on the driving wheel (US main driver) or to
792-469: A transformer in the locomotive converts the high-voltage low-current power to low-voltage high current used in the traction motors that power the wheels. Modern locomotives may use three-phase AC induction motors or direct current motors. Under certain conditions, electric locomotives are the most powerful traction. They are also the cheapest to run and provide less noise and no local air pollution. However, they require high capital investments both for
891-427: A bloated work force, and has run deficit operations in spite of its potential. For several years there had been plans to privatize and revitalize the system. In 2005, Rift Valley Railways (RVR) from South Africa won the concession to run KR and Uganda Railways Corporation . RVR was to take over operations on 1 August 2006 and intended to streamline operations, reduce the work force, and make major investments to upgrade
990-544: A diesel locomotive from the company in 1909. The world's first diesel-powered locomotive was operated in the summer of 1912 on the Winterthur–Romanshorn railway in Switzerland, but was not a commercial success. The locomotive weight was 95 tonnes and the power was 883 kW with a maximum speed of 100 km/h (62 mph). Small numbers of prototype diesel locomotives were produced in a number of countries through
1089-414: A distance of 609 km). However the project had been riddled with corruption allegations, overpricing, and ignoring of procurement processes. Nandi MP Alfred Keter has been at the forefront on the corruption allegations that caused the parliamentary committee of investment and transport to investigate the project. However Keter has been accused of being hired as a mouthpiece by a prominent investor to fight
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#17328519157171188-468: A double track plateway, erroneously sometimes cited as world's first public railway, in south London. William Jessop had earlier used a form of all-iron edge rail and flanged wheels successfully for an extension to the Charnwood Forest Canal at Nanpantan , Loughborough, Leicestershire in 1789. In 1790, Jessop and his partner Outram began to manufacture edge rails. Jessop became a partner in
1287-437: A large turning radius in its design. While high-speed rail is most often designed for passenger travel, some high-speed systems also offer freight service. Since 1980, rail transport has changed dramatically, but a number of heritage railways continue to operate as part of living history to preserve and maintain old railway lines for services of tourist trains. A train is a connected series of rail vehicles that move along
1386-488: A larger locomotive named Galvani , exhibited at the Royal Scottish Society of Arts Exhibition in 1841. The seven-ton vehicle had two direct-drive reluctance motors , with fixed electromagnets acting on iron bars attached to a wooden cylinder on each axle, and simple commutators . It hauled a load of six tons at four miles per hour (6 kilometers per hour) for a distance of one and a half miles (2.4 kilometres). It
1485-423: A locomotive. This involves one or more powered vehicles being located at the front of the train, providing sufficient tractive force to haul the weight of the full train. This arrangement remains dominant for freight trains and is often used for passenger trains. A push–pull train has the end passenger car equipped with a driver's cab so that the engine driver can remotely control the locomotive. This allows one of
1584-703: A memorandum of understanding with the China Road & Bridge Corporation to build a standard-gauge railway between Mombasa and Nairobi. The US$ 3.6 billion railway was the largest infrastructure project in Kenya since independence. Financing was finalised in May 2014, with the Exim Bank of China extending a loan for 90 percent of the project cost and the remaining 10 percent coming from the Kenyan government. 25,000 Kenyans were hired to work on
1683-477: A number of trains per hour (tph). Passenger trains can usually be into two types of operation, intercity railway and intracity transit. Whereas intercity railway involve higher speeds, longer routes, and lower frequency (usually scheduled), intracity transit involves lower speeds, shorter routes, and higher frequency (especially during peak hours). Intercity trains are long-haul trains that operate with few stops between cities. Trains typically have amenities such as
1782-650: A piece of circular rail track in Bloomsbury , London, the Catch Me Who Can , but never got beyond the experimental stage with railway locomotives, not least because his engines were too heavy for the cast-iron plateway track then in use. The first commercially successful steam locomotive was Matthew Murray 's rack locomotive Salamanca built for the Middleton Railway in Leeds in 1812. This twin-cylinder locomotive
1881-460: A pivotal role in the development and widespread adoption of the steam locomotive. His designs considerably improved on the work of the earlier pioneers. He built the locomotive Blücher , also a successful flanged -wheel adhesion locomotive. In 1825 he built the locomotive Locomotion for the Stockton and Darlington Railway in the northeast of England, which became the first public steam railway in
1980-439: A revival in recent decades due to road congestion and rising fuel prices, as well as governments investing in rail as a means of reducing CO 2 emissions . Smooth, durable road surfaces have been made for wheeled vehicles since prehistoric times. In some cases, they were narrow and in pairs to support only the wheels. That is, they were wagonways or tracks. Some had grooves or flanges or other mechanical means to keep
2079-724: A single lever to control both engine and generator in a coordinated fashion, and was the prototype for all diesel–electric locomotive control systems. In 1914, world's first functional diesel–electric railcars were produced for the Königlich-Sächsische Staatseisenbahnen ( Royal Saxon State Railways ) by Waggonfabrik Rastatt with electric equipment from Brown, Boveri & Cie and diesel engines from Swiss Sulzer AG . They were classified as DET 1 and DET 2 ( de.wiki ). The first regular used diesel–electric locomotives were switcher (shunter) locomotives . General Electric produced several small switching locomotives in
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#17328519157172178-407: A standard. Following SNCF's successful trials, 50 Hz, now also called industrial frequency was adopted as standard for main-lines across the world. Earliest recorded examples of an internal combustion engine for railway use included a prototype designed by William Dent Priestman . Sir William Thomson examined it in 1888 and described it as a "Priestman oil engine mounted upon a truck which
2277-620: A terminus about one-half mile (800 m) away. A funicular railway was also made at Broseley in Shropshire some time before 1604. This carried coal for James Clifford from his mines down to the River Severn to be loaded onto barges and carried to riverside towns. The Wollaton Wagonway , completed in 1604 by Huntingdon Beaumont , has sometimes erroneously been cited as the earliest British railway. It ran from Strelley to Wollaton near Nottingham . The Middleton Railway in Leeds , which
2376-408: A wheel. This was a large stationary engine , powering cotton mills and a variety of machinery; the state of boiler technology necessitated the use of low-pressure steam acting upon a vacuum in the cylinder, which required a separate condenser and an air pump . Nevertheless, as the construction of boilers improved, Watt investigated the use of high-pressure steam acting directly upon a piston, raising
2475-531: Is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in tracks , which usually consist of two parallel steel rails . Rail transport is one of the two primary means of land transport , next to road transport . It is used for about 8% of passenger and freight transport globally, thanks to its energy efficiency and potentially high speed . Rolling stock on rails generally encounters lower frictional resistance than rubber-tyred road vehicles, allowing rail cars to be coupled into longer trains . Power
2574-410: Is a single, self-powered car, and may be electrically propelled or powered by a diesel engine . Multiple units have a driver's cab at each end of the unit, and were developed following the ability to build electric motors and other engines small enough to fit under the coach. There are only a few freight multiple units, most of which are high-speed post trains. Steam locomotives are locomotives with
2673-399: Is dominant. Electro-diesel locomotives are built to run as diesel–electric on unelectrified sections and as electric locomotives on electrified sections. Alternative methods of motive power include magnetic levitation , horse-drawn, cable , gravity, pneumatics and gas turbine . A passenger train stops at stations where passengers may embark and disembark. The oversight of the train is
2772-550: Is one of the largest recipients of Belt and Road Initiative funding, as of at least 2024. The project cost of the first phase of the SGR from Mombasa to Nairobi was 90% financed by the Export-Import Bank of China . The remainder of the project cost was funded by the Kenyan government. The $ 3.23 billion financing from Exim was finalised in May 2014. Exim advanced the loan amount in two subsidized loans of US$ 1.63 billion each. One of
2871-415: Is planned. The finished project will connect Mombasa via Kampala to Kigali, hence MoKaKi. The first phase between Nairobi and Mombasa, a distance of 609 km, was built by China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC). The project will cost Sh327 billion, but it was later increased to Sh 420 billion to allow it source for locomotives and wagons as well. The estimated cost was $ 2.9m per km. The $ 3.8 billion deal
2970-475: Is the capital of Nairobi that was founded as a rail depot of the UR. The British added several branch lines as well as a link to Tanzania and a link to Uganda . The total system eventually had 2,778 km (1,726 mi) of track. As of 2006 much of the overall railway system has been neglected or is in disrepair. Nevertheless, the mainline from Mombasa to Kisumu is operative though at reduced speed. For passengers,
3069-408: Is usually provided by diesel or electrical locomotives . While railway transport is capital-intensive and less flexible than road transport, it can carry heavy loads of passengers and cargo with greater energy efficiency and safety. Precursors of railways driven by human or animal power have existed since antiquity, but modern rail transport began with the invention of the steam locomotive in
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3168-550: Is worked on a temporary line of rails to show the adaptation of a petroleum engine for locomotive purposes." In 1894, a 20 hp (15 kW) two axle machine built by Priestman Brothers was used on the Hull Docks . In 1906, Rudolf Diesel , Adolf Klose and the steam and diesel engine manufacturer Gebrüder Sulzer founded Diesel-Sulzer-Klose GmbH to manufacture diesel-powered locomotives. Sulzer had been manufacturing diesel engines since 1898. The Prussian State Railways ordered
3267-671: The United Kingdom at the beginning of the 19th century. The first passenger railway, the Stockton and Darlington Railway , opened in 1825. The quick spread of railways throughout Europe and North America, following the 1830 opening of the first intercity connection in England, was a key component of the Industrial Revolution . The adoption of rail transport lowered shipping costs compared to water transport, leading to "national markets" in which prices varied less from city to city. In
3366-609: The United Kingdom , South Korea , Scandinavia, Belgium and the Netherlands. The construction of many of these lines has resulted in the dramatic decline of short-haul flights and automotive traffic between connected cities, such as the London–Paris–Brussels corridor, Madrid–Barcelona, Milan–Rome–Naples, as well as many other major lines. High-speed trains normally operate on standard gauge tracks of continuously welded rail on grade-separated right-of-way that incorporates
3465-660: The inland container depot in the Embakasi division of Nairobi. There are nine passenger stations between Mombasa and Nairobi. Each station's architecture is inspired by local elements. Passengers can transfer at Nairobi Terminus to metre-gauge trains into the Nairobi city centre. Although they are currently designated as terminals , the Mombasa and Nairobi stations were built as through stations, and were originally designated Mombasa West Station and Nairobi South Station. When Phase 2 of
3564-414: The overhead lines and the supporting infrastructure, as well as the generating station that is needed to produce electricity. Accordingly, electric traction is used on urban systems, lines with high traffic and for high-speed rail. Diesel locomotives use a diesel engine as the prime mover . The energy transmission may be either diesel–electric , diesel-mechanical or diesel–hydraulic but diesel–electric
3663-458: The puddling process in 1784. In 1783 Cort also patented the rolling process , which was 15 times faster at consolidating and shaping iron than hammering. These processes greatly lowered the cost of producing iron and rails. The next important development in iron production was hot blast developed by James Beaumont Neilson (patented 1828), which considerably reduced the amount of coke (fuel) or charcoal needed to produce pig iron. Wrought iron
3762-418: The rotary phase converter , enabling electric locomotives to use three-phase motors whilst supplied via a single overhead wire, carrying the simple industrial frequency (50 Hz) single phase AC of the high-voltage national networks. An important contribution to the wider adoption of AC traction came from SNCF of France after World War II. The company conducted trials at AC 50 Hz, and established it as
3861-501: The "Jumbo Kenya Deluxe" connects Nairobi and Mombasa. The fourteen-hour overnight trip runs three times a week either eastbound or westbound on the single track . The "Port Florence Express" connects Nairobi with Kisumu. KR also operates the Kenyan ferry system on Lake Victoria. In 2010, KRX announced plans to construct a new station on Mombasa Road in Nairobi; part of a planned commuter network which would include an airport link. The KR has suffered from inefficient management, has
3960-532: The 1880s, railway electrification began with tramways and rapid transit systems. Starting in the 1940s, steam locomotives were replaced by diesel locomotives . The first high-speed railway system was introduced in Japan in 1964, and high-speed rail lines now connect many cities in Europe , East Asia , and the eastern United States . Following some decline due to competition from cars and airplanes, rail transport has had
4059-510: The 1930s (the famous " 44-tonner " switcher was introduced in 1940) Westinghouse Electric and Baldwin collaborated to build switching locomotives starting in 1929. In 1929, the Canadian National Railways became the first North American railway to use diesels in mainline service with two units, 9000 and 9001, from Westinghouse. Although steam and diesel services reaching speeds up to 200 km/h (120 mph) were started before
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4158-500: The 1960s in Europe, they were not very successful. The first electrified high-speed rail Tōkaidō Shinkansen was introduced in 1964 between Tokyo and Osaka in Japan. Since then high-speed rail transport, functioning at speeds up to and above 300 km/h (190 mph), has been built in Japan, Spain, France , Germany, Italy, the People's Republic of China, Taiwan (Republic of China),
4257-460: The 40 km Burgdorf–Thun line , Switzerland. Italian railways were the first in the world to introduce electric traction for the entire length of a main line rather than a short section. The 106 km Valtellina line was opened on 4 September 1902, designed by Kandó and a team from the Ganz works. The electrical system was three-phase at 3 kV 15 Hz. In 1918, Kandó invented and developed
4356-522: The Butterley Company in 1790. The first public edgeway (thus also first public railway) built was Lake Lock Rail Road in 1796. Although the primary purpose of the line was to carry coal, it also carried passengers. These two systems of constructing iron railways, the "L" plate-rail and the smooth edge-rail, continued to exist side by side until well into the early 19th century. The flanged wheel and edge-rail eventually proved its superiority and became
4455-511: The DC motors of the time and could not be mounted in underfloor bogies : they could only be carried within locomotive bodies. In 1894, Hungarian engineer Kálmán Kandó developed a new type 3-phase asynchronous electric drive motors and generators for electric locomotives. Kandó's early 1894 designs were first applied in a short three-phase AC tramway in Évian-les-Bains (France), which was constructed between 1896 and 1898. In 1896, Oerlikon installed
4554-630: The Kenya Railways Corporation, were among 18 officials, businesspeople and companies arrested on corruption charges involving land allocation for Kenya Railways Corporation's $ 3 billion flagship Nairobi-Mombasa railway . In 2012, plans were developed to expand the system with a new railway that connects to other countries, namely Uganda , Rwanda , and possibly South Sudan and Ethiopia . The new railway would be 1,435 mm ( 4 ft 8 + 1 ⁄ 2 in ) standard gauge . Kenya had been negotiating with China to reconstruct
4653-631: The Kenya-Uganda border. There were protests that the second phase would cut through the Nairobi National Park and that the cost of the railway was excessive. In September 2016, an environmental tribunal temporarily halted the project. On 20 October 2016, President Uhuru Kenyatta inaugurated construction of Phase 2A, from Nairobi to Naivasha. Phase 2A was constructed by the China Communications Construction Company . 85% of
4752-569: The Kenyan part of the EARC. Like the other members of the East African Community , Kenya uses the narrow gauge track gauge of 1,000 mm ( 3 ft 3 + 3 ⁄ 8 in ) ( metre gauge ). The mainline of the KR is based on the original Uganda Railway . Its 930 km (578 mi) main track connected the Indian Ocean port of Mombasa to the port of Kisumu at Lake Victoria . Half way
4851-579: The Nairobi-Mombasa section first. Construction of the first phase of the planned 2 937 km $ 13.5bn line was inaugurated in Mombasa on 28 November 2013. Civil works on the Mombasa-Nairobi first phase were completed in November 2016, and passenger service began on 31 May 2017. Passenger and freight services currently operate between Mombasa and Naivasha via Nairobi. The extension from Naivasha to Kampala
4950-399: The SGR are Kenyans, as of July 2018 Chinese workers still occupied most of the critical positions, including dispatchers and locomotive drivers. This sparked political controversy in Kenya, as after one year of operations a full handover to Kenyans was yet to take place. The Kenya Transport Ministry explained that a full handover would occur in 2027, according to the current agreement; later,
5049-483: The SGR crosses the 2.6 kilometres (1.6 mi) Athi River Super Bridge , which at the time of its completion was the sixth-longest bridge in Africa. The SGR has a total of 98 bridges. The SGR's viaducts and embankments are elevated above ground level, allowing wildlife to pass underneath. This has brought a substantial improvement in wildlife protection from that which obtained under the old Uganda Railway. Passing through
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#17328519157175148-770: The SGR is completed, trains will continue through the Nairobi station to the Uganda border. Kenya is a member of the Northern Corridor Integration Project (NCIP), which has selected the Chinese National Railway Class 1 standard for its railways. The adoption of a common standard allows for seamless integration between the railways of NCIP countries. In the 2000s, Kenya's colonial-era metre-gauge railways deteriorated from lack of maintenance. By 2016, passenger trains were taking an entire day to travel from Nairobi to Mombasa, compared to 12 hours during
5247-468: The chairman of National Land Commission, and Atanas Kariuki Maina, managing director of the Kenya Railways Corporation, were among 18 officials, businesspeople and companies arrested on corruption charges involving land allocation for the $ 3 billion flagship Nairobi–Mombasa railway. The railway is owned by the Kenya Railways Corporation (KRC), a state-owned corporation of Kenya. It contracts
5346-430: The duty of a guard/train manager/conductor . Passenger trains are part of public transport and often make up the stem of the service, with buses feeding to stations. Passenger trains provide long-distance intercity travel, daily commuter trips, or local urban transit services, operating with a diversity of vehicles, operating speeds, right-of-way requirements, and service frequency. Service frequencies are often expressed as
5445-580: The early 1990s. Freight transported from the Port of Mombasa fell from 4.8 million tonnes per year in the 1980s to 1.5 million tonnes per year in 2012. In 2014, the Rift Valley Railways Consortium , the operator of railways in Kenya and Uganda, reported a loss of US$ 1.5 million. At the same time, the Chinese government was funding railway construction in other African countries. In 2011, Kenya signed
5544-402: The end of the 19th century, because they were cleaner compared to steam-driven trams which caused smoke in city streets. In 1784 James Watt , a Scottish inventor and mechanical engineer, patented a design for a steam locomotive . Watt had improved the steam engine of Thomas Newcomen , hitherto used to pump water out of mines, and developed a reciprocating engine in 1769 capable of powering
5643-467: The end of the 19th century, improving the quality of steel and further reducing costs. Thus steel completely replaced the use of iron in rails, becoming standard for all railways. The first passenger horsecar or tram , Swansea and Mumbles Railway , was opened between Swansea and Mumbles in Wales in 1807. Horses remained the preferable mode for tram transport even after the arrival of steam engines until
5742-515: The engine by one power stroke. The transmission system employed a large flywheel to even out the action of the piston rod. On 21 February 1804, the world's first steam-powered railway journey took place when Trevithick's unnamed steam locomotive hauled a train along the tramway of the Penydarren ironworks, near Merthyr Tydfil in South Wales . Trevithick later demonstrated a locomotive operating upon
5841-470: The era of great expansion of railways that began in the late 1860s. Steel rails lasted several times longer than iron. Steel rails made heavier locomotives possible, allowing for longer trains and improving the productivity of railroads. The Bessemer process introduced nitrogen into the steel, which caused the steel to become brittle with age. The open hearth furnace began to replace the Bessemer process near
5940-515: The first commercial example of the system on the Lugano Tramway . Each 30-tonne locomotive had two 110 kW (150 hp) motors run by three-phase 750 V 40 Hz fed from double overhead lines. Three-phase motors run at a constant speed and provide regenerative braking , and are well suited to steeply graded routes, and the first main-line three-phase locomotives were supplied by Brown (by then in partnership with Walter Boveri ) in 1899 on
6039-561: The highest possible radius. All these features are dramatically different from freight operations, thus justifying exclusive high-speed rail lines if it is economically feasible. Mombasa%E2%80%93Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway The Mombasa–Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway , completed in 2017, was built as the first phase of the Kenya Standard Gauge Railway . It is a standard-gauge railway (SGR) in Kenya that connects
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#17328519157176138-577: The interim review was initiated to study the feasibility of transferring critical positions to the Kenya Railways Corporation, which successfully negotiated takeover shifting towards an earlier date of May 2022 with the CRBC. Kenyans would gradually take over all positions on the SGR, completing the full takeover in 2022. During the transition period in June 2021, the Kenya Railroad Company had already taken over
6237-468: The large Indian Ocean city of Mombasa with Nairobi , the country's capital and largest city. This SGR runs parallel to the narrow-gauge Uganda Railway that was completed in 1901 under British colonial rule . The East African Railway Master Plan provides for the Mombasa–Nairobi SGR to link with other SGRs being built in the East African Community . At a cost of US$ 3.6 billion , the SGR
6336-1218: The limit being regarded at 200 to 350 kilometres per hour (120 to 220 mph). High-speed trains are used mostly for long-haul service and most systems are in Western Europe and East Asia. Magnetic levitation trains such as the Shanghai maglev train use under-riding magnets which attract themselves upward towards the underside of a guideway and this line has achieved somewhat higher peak speeds in day-to-day operation than conventional high-speed railways, although only over short distances. Due to their heightened speeds, route alignments for high-speed rail tend to have broader curves than conventional railways, but may have steeper grades that are more easily climbed by trains with large kinetic energy. High kinetic energy translates to higher horsepower-to-ton ratios (e.g. 20 horsepower per short ton or 16 kilowatts per tonne); this allows trains to accelerate and maintain higher speeds and negotiate steep grades as momentum builds up and recovered in downgrades (reducing cut and fill and tunnelling requirements). Since lateral forces act on curves, curvatures are designed with
6435-805: The loan was to have an operator acceptable to the bank for the initial phase of operations, which led the Kenyan government to reject a planned international tender and to contract the mother company of CRBC. In January 2020, Business Daily Africa reported that the second loan, related to the Nairobi-Naivasha section of the Kenyan SGR, amounting to $ 1.482 billion, with a five-year grace period, fell due in January 2021. It attracts an interest rate of approximately 3.34 percent per annum and will be due in 30 semi-annual installments, beginning on 21 January 2021 until 21 July 2035. On 22 July 2020, Mohammed Abdalla Swazuri,
6534-440: The loans was a foreign aid loan provided on a concessional basis (very low interest rate) while the other was a below-market rate preferential export buyer's credit. A condition imposed by the Kenyan government for the financing was 40% of the total project costs or about 130 billion Kenyan shillings would be spent on local supplies including sand, cement, electric cables, galvanised iron and steel. A condition by Exim Bank for
6633-429: The locomotive-hauled train's drawbacks to be removed, since the locomotive need not be moved to the front of the train each time the train changes direction. A railroad car is a vehicle used for the haulage of either passengers or freight. A multiple unit has powered wheels throughout the whole train. These are used for rapid transit and tram systems, as well as many both short- and long-haul passenger trains. A railcar
6732-560: The main portion of the B&;O to the new line to New York through a series of tunnels around the edges of Baltimore's downtown. Electricity quickly became the power supply of choice for subways, abetted by the Sprague's invention of multiple-unit train control in 1897. By the early 1900s most street railways were electrified. The London Underground , the world's oldest underground railway, opened in 1863, and it began operating electric services using
6831-433: The mid-1920s. The Soviet Union operated three experimental units of different designs since late 1925, though only one of them (the E el-2 ) proved technically viable. A significant breakthrough occurred in 1914, when Hermann Lemp , a General Electric electrical engineer, developed and patented a reliable direct current electrical control system (subsequent improvements were also patented by Lemp). Lemp's design used
6930-412: The noise they made on the tracks. There are many references to their use in central Europe in the 16th century. Such a transport system was later used by German miners at Caldbeck , Cumbria , England, perhaps from the 1560s. A wagonway was built at Prescot , near Liverpool , sometime around 1600, possibly as early as 1594. Owned by Philip Layton, the line carried coal from a pit near Prescot Hall to
7029-484: The operations and maintenance of the line to the Africa Star Railway Operations Company (Afristar), a subsidiary of the China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC), and the primary constructor of the line. Afristar was given the legal right to the first ten years of operation of the SGR, with an interim review set for the end of the fifth year of the contract. While many of the employees working on
7128-502: The owners and the Toll appointed MD resigned, mirroring a similar reversal of appetite that occurred when Toll took over Tranz Rail (New Zealand's privatised rail operator) in 2003. During the riots of the 2007–2008 Kenyan crisis sections of railway were destroyed. As a result, shipments to Uganda were suspended. On 22 July 2020, Mohammed Abdalla Swazuri, the chairman of National Land Commission, and Atanas Kariuki Maina, managing director of
7227-513: The possibility of a smaller engine that might be used to power a vehicle. Following his patent, Watt's employee William Murdoch produced a working model of a self-propelled steam carriage in that year. The first full-scale working railway steam locomotive was built in the United Kingdom in 1804 by Richard Trevithick , a British engineer born in Cornwall . This used high-pressure steam to drive
7326-636: The project cost was financed by the Export-Import Bank of China , with the balance of the funded by the Kenyan government's Railway Development Levy Fund. The Nairobi–Naivasha portion opened in October 2019. Once the line from Naivasha to Malaba is completed, there are plans to extend lines to Kampala, Kigali, Bujumbura and Juba. The LAPSSET railway project is a railway that is proposed to connect Kenya , Ethiopia , and South Sudan . It will be built from Lamu in Kenya to Juba and Addis Ababa . Railway Rail transport (also known as train transport )
7425-491: The project. Tracklaying was completed in December 2016. Passenger service was officially inaugurated on 31 May 2017, eighteen months ahead of schedule. In 2022 500 additional freight wagons were ordered to increase capacity. In June 2024, a further 20 coaches from CRRC Nanjing Puzhen (four premium coaches, four first class coaches, 10 economy coaches and two power wagons) were shipped from Shanghai. The Mombasa-Nairobi Railway
7524-476: The project. By May 2015, construction was underway, and Civil works on the first phase were completed in November 2016. Passenger service between Mombasa and Nairobi, called the Madaraka Express, began on 31 May 2017. By November 2018 the service had transported over 2 million passengers. The second phase is operating between Nairobi and Naivasha . When complete, it will extend further westwards to Malaba on
7623-467: The rough and hilly terrain, large portions of the SGR were built on viaducts and embankments and in cuttings . For example, the Uganda Railway tackled the hilly terrain near Mazeras township by using a spiral . In contrast, the SGR passes through this area on two bridges, with the 43.5 metres (142 ft 9 in) high Mazeras-2 bridge being the highest one on the route. As it approaches Nairobi,
7722-441: The standard for railways. Cast iron used in rails proved unsatisfactory because it was brittle and broke under heavy loads. The wrought iron invented by John Birkinshaw in 1820 replaced cast iron. Wrought iron, usually simply referred to as "iron", was a ductile material that could undergo considerable deformation before breaking, making it more suitable for iron rails. But iron was expensive to produce until Henry Cort patented
7821-491: The system. On 28 July 2006 the East African Standard reported that the planned take-over was postponed to 1 November 2006. This operational take-over took place in November and was scheduled to last for 25 years. On 9 October 2008, Toll Holdings of Australia announced that it has entered into a contract to manage the Kenya - Uganda railway, replacing the management by Rift Valley Railways Consortium. The consortium
7920-450: The ticketing, security, and refuelling departments. In 2018, the railway handled 1.6 million passengers and 5 million tonnes of freight. In 2019, the government required all cargo being cleared in the port in Mombasa to be handled by the railway, leading to protests from cargo transporters. According to a contract between the Exim bank, Kenya Railways Corporation , and Kenya Ports Authority ,
8019-470: The time, was Liverpool and Manchester Railway , built in 1830. Steam power continued to be the dominant power system in railways around the world for more than a century. The first known electric locomotive was built in 1837 by chemist Robert Davidson of Aberdeen in Scotland, and it was powered by galvanic cells (batteries). Thus it was also the earliest battery-electric locomotive. Davidson later built
8118-536: The track. Propulsion for the train is provided by a separate locomotive or from individual motors in self-propelled multiple units. Most trains carry a revenue load, although non-revenue cars exist for the railway's own use, such as for maintenance-of-way purposes. The engine driver (engineer in North America) controls the locomotive or other power cars, although people movers and some rapid transits are under automatic control. Traditionally, trains are pulled using
8217-515: The train carrying 2 million riders in the first 17 months of operation. By November 2018, the SGR was operating 30 freight trains and 4 passenger trains per day. Double stack freight trains have run on the line since 2018. The Mombasa-Nairobi SGR generally runs parallel to the Uganda Railway , a metre-gauge line that was built during British colonial rule. The SGR, however, has a straighter alignment that accommodates higher speeds. Because of
8316-466: The transport of ore tubs to and from mines and soon became popular in Europe. Such an operation was illustrated in Germany in 1556 by Georgius Agricola in his work De re metallica . This line used "Hund" carts with unflanged wheels running on wooden planks and a vertical pin on the truck fitting into the gap between the planks to keep it going the right way. The miners called the wagons Hunde ("dogs") from
8415-728: The transportation corridor between Tsavo East National Park and Tsavo West National Park concurrently with the Nairobi–Mombasa Road , the road and old metre-gauge railway were built at ground level, causing frequent collisions with wildlife. Passenger trains run between Mombasa Terminus in Miritini and Nairobi Terminus in Syokimau , near the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport . Freight services are provided between Port Reitz , just west of Mombasa Island , and
8514-609: The wheels on track. For example, evidence indicates that a 6 to 8.5 km long Diolkos paved trackway transported boats across the Isthmus of Corinth in Greece from around 600 BC. The Diolkos was in use for over 650 years, until at least the 1st century AD. Paved trackways were also later built in Roman Egypt . In 1515, Cardinal Matthäus Lang wrote a description of the Reisszug ,
8613-601: The world in 1825, although it used both horse power and steam power on different runs. In 1829, he built the locomotive Rocket , which entered in and won the Rainhill Trials . This success led to Stephenson establishing his company as the pre-eminent builder of steam locomotives for railways in Great Britain and Ireland, the United States, and much of Europe. The first public railway which used only steam locomotives, all
8712-507: Was a soft material that contained slag or dross . The softness and dross tended to make iron rails distort and delaminate and they lasted less than 10 years. Sometimes they lasted as little as one year under high traffic. All these developments in the production of iron eventually led to the replacement of composite wood/iron rails with superior all-iron rails. The introduction of the Bessemer process , enabling steel to be made inexpensively, led to
8811-585: Was accomplished by the distribution of weight between a number of wheels. Puffing Billy is now on display in the Science Museum in London, and is the oldest locomotive in existence. In 1814, George Stephenson , inspired by the early locomotives of Trevithick, Murray and Hedley, persuaded the manager of the Killingworth colliery where he worked to allow him to build a steam-powered machine. Stephenson played
8910-470: Was among Kenya's most expensive infrastructure projects as at the time it was launched. The prime contractor was the China Road & Bridge Corporation CRBC, which hired 25,000 Kenyans to work on the railway. CRBC's holding company, China Communications Construction Company is contracted to operate the line for its first five years. As of 2020, railway operation expenses exceeded revenues. An extension from Nairobi to Naivasha and Suswa , begun in 2018,
9009-509: Was built by Siemens. The tram ran on 180 volts DC, which was supplied by running rails. In 1891 the track was equipped with an overhead wire and the line was extended to Berlin-Lichterfelde West station . The Volk's Electric Railway opened in 1883 in Brighton , England. The railway is still operational, thus making it the oldest operational electric railway in the world. Also in 1883, Mödling and Hinterbrühl Tram opened near Vienna in Austria. It
9108-687: Was built in 1758, later became the world's oldest operational railway (other than funiculars), albeit now in an upgraded form. In 1764, the first railway in the Americas was built in Lewiston, New York . In the late 1760s, the Coalbrookdale Company began to fix plates of cast iron to the upper surface of the wooden rails. This allowed a variation of gauge to be used. At first only balloon loops could be used for turning, but later, movable points were taken into use that allowed for switching. A system
9207-438: Was completed in October 2019, extending the line's length by 120 km from its original length of 472 km to approximately 592 km (368 mi). The first fare-paying passengers boarded the "Madaraka Express" on Madaraka Day (1 June 2017), the 54th anniversary of Kenya's attainment of self-rule from Great Britain. Commercial freight services began on 1 January 2018. Passenger uptake has exceeded expectations, with
9306-478: Was criticized for falling freight traffic in the two years since taking control, while RVR alleges the drop is due to the poor condition of the railway infrastructure and the damage done by protesters during the 2007–2008 Kenyan crisis . Officers from Toll subsidiary Patrick Defence Logistics were to manage the railway after the transition. Towards the end of 2008, after just a few months in charge, Toll pulled out of its management obligations after disagreements with
9405-535: Was introduced in which unflanged wheels ran on L-shaped metal plates, which came to be known as plateways . John Curr , a Sheffield colliery manager, invented this flanged rail in 1787, though the exact date of this is disputed. The plate rail was taken up by Benjamin Outram for wagonways serving his canals, manufacturing them at his Butterley ironworks . In 1803, William Jessop opened the Surrey Iron Railway ,
9504-479: Was light enough to not break the edge-rails track and solved the problem of adhesion by a cog-wheel using teeth cast on the side of one of the rails. Thus it was also the first rack railway . This was followed in 1813 by the locomotive Puffing Billy built by Christopher Blackett and William Hedley for the Wylam Colliery Railway, the first successful locomotive running by adhesion only. This
9603-452: Was signed in May, 2012 in Nairobi by visiting Chinese premier Li Keqiang, along with the presidents of Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan and Uganda. The Exim Bank of China provided 90% of the funds for the phase-one project, with Kenya providing the remainder. President Uhuru Kenyatta presided over the groundbreaking ceremony for the standard gauge railway in November 2013. The whole project is expected to cost Ksh 1.3T (327b from Mombasa to Nairobi,
9702-742: Was tested on the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway in September of the following year, but the limited power from batteries prevented its general use. It was destroyed by railway workers, who saw it as a threat to their job security. By the middle of the nineteenth century most european countries had military uses for railways. Werner von Siemens demonstrated an electric railway in 1879 in Berlin. The world's first electric tram line, Gross-Lichterfelde Tramway , opened in Lichterfelde near Berlin , Germany, in 1881. It
9801-609: Was the first tram line in the world in regular service powered from an overhead line. Five years later, in the U.S. electric trolleys were pioneered in 1888 on the Richmond Union Passenger Railway , using equipment designed by Frank J. Sprague . The first use of electrification on a main line was on a four-mile section of the Baltimore Belt Line of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) in 1895 connecting
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