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124-737: The Tazara Railway , also called the Uhuru Railway or the Tanzam Railway , is a railway in East Africa linking the port of Dar es Salaam in east Tanzania with the town of Kapiri Mposhi in Zambia 's Central Province . The single-track railway is 1,860 km (1,160 mi) long and is operated by the Tanzania-Zambia Railway Authority (TAZARA). The governments of Tanzania , Zambia , and

248-408: 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 ,

372-586: 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,

496-731: 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

620-542: 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

744-492: 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

868-500: A luxury train , that runs periodic tours from Cape Town to Dar es Salaam via the TAZARA. The TAZARA tracks are also used for passenger commuter rail service between Dar es Salaam and its suburbs. The Dar es Salaam commuter rail was launched in 2012 to relieve traffic congestion. The TAZARA offers two routes on its 20.5 km rail network. The TAZARA has a track gauge of 3 ft 6 in ( 1,067 mm ), also known as

992-431: 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

1116-469: 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

1240-570: A concession to operate the line. A corresponding Memorandum of Understanding was signed at the 9th Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in Beijing in September 2024. The refurbishment is to commence as a public private partnership . Running some 1,860 km (1,160 mi) from Tanzania 's largest city, Dar es Salaam , on the coast of the Indian Ocean to Kapiri Mposhi , near

1364-550: 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

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1488-441: A dire shortage of all commodities." Braving rain, sun and wind, the workers laid the track through some of Africa's wildest and most rugged landscapes. One Chinese worker recalled that his team was trapped in the wilderness for a week after floods and landslides washed away the only connecting road. "We lived in fear of lions and hyenas ." Another interviewee stated that conditions were often so bad that "[s]ometimes we had to drink

1612-489: A diverse set of equipment from different donor countries. The USAID then funded a $ 50 million program over seven years, providing locomotives, facilities, and training. Equipment repairs would only "reduce some short-range problems", and the report highlighted the need to address "underlying causes", such as the locomotive workshops lacking basic supplies, and less than 20% of employees at the locomotive workshops being engaged in actual work. Thanks to support from foreign donors,

1736-478: 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

1860-437: 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

1984-498: 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

2108-423: 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

2232-477: 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

2356-676: 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

2480-465: 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

2604-426: A railway between the two countries. Chairman Mao Zedong told Nyerere, "You have difficulties as do we, but our difficulties are different. To help you build the railway, we are willing to forsake building railways for ourselves." Chinese leaders assured Nyerere that Tanzania and Zambia would have full ownership of the completed railway, along with transferred technology and equipment. Nyerere did not immediately accept

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2728-439: 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

2852-570: A road be built instead. In 1961, Tanganyika became independent under the leadership of Julius Nyerere , and in 1964 the country joined with Zanzibar to form the United Republic of Tanzania . Also in 1964, Northern Rhodesia was granted independence as Zambia , under the leadership of Kenneth Kaunda . Both Nyerere and Kaunda were charismatic socialist African leaders who supported the self-determination of their African neighbors. A railway connecting their two countries would help to develop

2976-739: 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

3100-407: 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

3224-632: 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

3348-408: 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

3472-711: Is 49 metres (160 ft) in height, and the Irangi Number 3 Tunnel is 2.4 km ( 1 + 1 ⁄ 2  mi) long. After the work crews reached Zambia at the end of 1972, the terrain became much easier, and the track-laying machine could advance 3 km (2 mi) per day The project pressed forward despite the enormous upheaval in China caused by the Cultural Revolution , during which most domestic railway projects were delayed as many government officials were purged. President Liu Shaoqi, who had made

3596-767: Is a chilling one for the West." The United States funded the Tanzam Highway , which was built from 1968 to 1973, to compete with the railway. As the projects proceeded in parallel, Chinese and American workers clashed at the Great Ruaha River bridge in 1970. Obstacles and Costs • Huge cost • Largest single foreign-aid project undertaken by China at the time, with construction cost of US $ 406 million (US $ 2.67 billion today) (NYT 1971) • Technical challenges • Loss of life • 160 workers, including 64 Chinese citizens died • Labor challenges • Operational difficulties. Before

3720-410: 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

3844-399: 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

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3968-673: 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 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

4092-556: 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

4216-624: The Cape gauge , which is widely used throughout southern Africa. TAZARA connects to the Cape-gauge Zambia Railways at Kapiri Mposhi . The remainder of Tanzania’s railways have 1,000 mm ( 3 ft  3 + 3 ⁄ 8  in ) metre gauge tracks. A transshipment station with a break of gauge station was built in Kidatu in 1998. Except for the rail gauge, TAZARA generally reflects Chinese railway standards of

4340-515: The Copperbelt of central Zambia , the Tazara is sometimes regarded as the greatest engineering effort of its kind since World War II . The railway crosses Tanzania in a southwest direction, leaving the coastal strip and then entering largely uninhabited areas of the vast Selous Game Reserve . The line crosses the Tanzam Highway at Makambako and runs parallel to the highway toward Mbeya and

4464-480: The People's Republic of China built the railway to eliminate landlocked Zambia 's economic dependence on Rhodesia and South Africa , both of which were ruled by white-minority governments. The railway provided the only route for bulk trade from Zambia's Copperbelt to reach the sea without having to transit white-ruled territories. The spirit of Pan-African socialism among the leaders of Tanzania and Zambia and

4588-760: The Southern Highlands of the Iringa Region and levels out onto a rolling plateau. Here, in the coffee and tea country of the Njombe Region , the weather becomes noticeably cooler, the air sharper. On the approach to Makambako , the Udzungwa Mountains National Park rise 2,137 m (7,011 ft) to the north, while the Kipengere Range roll ahead to the south. Makambako is one of the meeting points of

4712-678: 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

4836-587: The independence of Namibia opened alternative transport routes for Zambian copper. Freight traffic bottomed out at 88,000 metric tons in Fiscal Year (FY) 2014/2015, less than 2% of the railway's design capacity of 5 million tonnes per year. In February 2024, the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) submitted a proposal for the upgrading of the Tazara to standard gauge , as well as for

4960-414: 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

5084-458: 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

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5208-418: 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

5332-560: The "bamboo railway". The West also voiced concerns about a potential loss of Tanzanian sovereignty, which were worsened when both Tanzania and Zambia signed trade agreements favorable to Beijing. One caveat of this agreement allowed Beijing to flood Tanzanian and Zambian markets with surplus goods, which harmed local businesses despite the overall boost to the economy that would be provided by the railway. The Wall Street Journal stated in 1967, "the prospects of hundreds and perhaps thousands of Red Guards descending upon an already troubled Africa

5456-509: The 11th anniversary of Zambia's independence from Great Britain . The TAZARA has been a major economic conduit in the region notwithstanding operating difficulties from the start and never reaching its design capacity of 5 million metric tons. In the first two years of operation, TAZARA carried over 1.1 million metric tons of cargo annually. The diesel hydraulic locomotives sent by the Chinese were insufficiently powerful to haul heavy loads up

5580-540: 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

5704-521: 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

5828-508: 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),

5952-528: The 1970s. The technical characteristics of the line were: At the moment the railway operates three types of locomotives as listed below: In the late 19th century, Cecil Rhodes envisioned a railway from British Rhodesia to Tanganyika (then German East Africa ) to carry copper ore. After World War I , Tanganyika was handed over to the United Kingdom for administration as a League of Nations Mandate , and British colonial authorities again explored

6076-467: The 1990s, the economic performance of the railway began to decline with changes to the broader economic and political environment. With the independence of Namibia in 1990 and multiracial elections in South Africa in 1994, southern Africa was no longer dominated by white minority governments, and Zambian copper had more economic outlets to the south and east. Road transport provided competition in

6200-464: 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

6324-530: 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

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6448-551: The Chambeshi River Bridge was blown up by the Selous Scouts in 1979 and required one year to reconstruct. As a result of these difficulties, cargo transport fell below 800,000 tons per annum from 1979/80 to 1982/83. In addition, landslides and washouts frequently disrupted service, especially during the rainy seasons of 1979 and 1985/86. In 1983, Tanzania and Zambia invited the Chinese back to help manage

6572-611: The Chinese offer but sought to use it to induce Western backing for the railway, but none was forthcoming. He did, however, accept a team of Chinese surveyors , who produced a short report in October 1966. Kaunda was wary of Communist involvement and wanted to maintain friendly ties with Britain. He turned down an offer from the Chinese Embassy in Lusaka to build the railway. In addition, Zambia and Rhodesia were joint owners of

6696-514: 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

6820-511: The Express service makes fewer stops The entire journey, as scheduled, takes 36 hours, though delays can extend the trip to as long as 50 hours or more. Trains on the TAZARA are slower than overland bus service but cheaper and safer. The TAZARA trains have attracted foreign tourists wishing to see the landscape and wildlife along route. Rovos Rail of South Africa operates the Pride of Africa ,

6944-587: The Mainland, the Coast Region ranks fifth least populated, followed by Iringa, Lindi, Njombe, and Katavi. Between 1988 and 2002, the population of the Pwani Region increased at a rate of 2.4 percent each year. Between 2002 and 2012, the annual growth rate fell to an average of 2.2 percent. Agriculture remains the mainstay of the Pwani Region's economy. Commercial and peasant farming are practiced, with

7068-505: The Northern Rhodesia-Tanganyika railway was not economically justified, due to the low level of agricultural development and the fact that existing railways through Mozambique and Angola were adequate for carrying copper exports. A World Bank report in 1964 projected that only 87,000 tons of cargo would be carried between Zambia and Tanzania by the year 2000, not enough to support a railway, and recommended that

7192-530: The United States also joined in the donor efforts to improve the TAZARA and reduce the dependency of "frontline states" on South Africa. A 1987 report commissioned for the USAID identified inadequate motive power and poor equipment maintenance as constraints to operational capacity. The report found TAZARA mechanics to be poorly trained and supervised, many being illiterate, and faced with the need to maintain

7316-734: The Usangu Flats stretching to the north. From Mbeya town, both the railway and the highway heads northwest to Tunduma where they cross the border into Zambia. The Tazara enters northeastern Zambia in the Nakonde District , in the Muchinga Province , and heads southwest to Kasama . It then turns due south and crosses the Chambeshi River en route to Mpika . After entering the Central Province ,

7440-498: The Zambian Railway, and the joint ownership agreement would penalize Zambia for diverting traffic to other railways. A Canadian-British aerial survey was commissioned and conducted by chief engineer John Leslie Charles , concluding in a July 1966 report that the line was "feasible and economic" based on a predicted 2.5 million tons of traffic, with an estimated construction cost of £126 million ($ 353 million). Western funding

7564-620: The Zambian border, before entering Zambia , and linking with Zambia Railways at Kapiri Mposhi . From sea level, the railway climbs to 550 metres (1,800 feet) at Mlimba , and then reaches its highest point of 1,789.43 m (5,870 ft 10 in) at Uyole in Mbeya before descending to 1,660 m (5,450 ft) at Mwenzo, the highest point in Zambia, and settling to 1,274.63 m (4,181 ft 10 in) at Kapiri Mposhi. Upon leaving

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7688-523: The agricultural regions of southwestern Tanzania and northeastern Zambia. Nyerere and Kaunda pursued different avenues for the construction of a rail route. Funding was sought from France, which deemed the project not viable and refused. When Nyerere visited Beijing in February 1965, he was hesitant to raise the issue of the railway out of concern that China was also a poor country. President Liu Shaoqi offered to assist Tanzania and Zambia in building

7812-418: The assistance. British prime minister Harold Wilson , after seeing Tanzania's pro-China attitude at the 1965 Commonwealth Prime Ministers' Conference , claimed that many of Nyerere's ministers were "directly in the Chinese pay." Canadian prime minister Lester Pearson also questioned whether Nyerere should get so close to the Chinese. Nyerere later complained that Western nations opposed the Chinese plans for

7936-459: The black nationalist struggles of the late 1970s and 1980s. The railway served as a trade route for Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Malawi that did not pass through apartheid South Africa, or Angola or Mozambique, which were embroiled in civil wars with South African-backed proxies. During Zimbabwe's struggle for independence , the white Rhodesian government targeted ZIPRA 's supply lines from Tanzania. Rhodesian forces also attacked and destroyed three bridges;

8060-537: The cargo transported annually by TAZARA increased from 1.0 to 1.9 million metric tons in 1986 to 1991. The locomotive availability rate rose from 46% to 65%, and wagon turnaround time was reduced from 35 days to 20 days. Passenger traffic on the railway rebounded from 564,000 in the FY1982/83 to 1.6 million in FY1990/91. Local goods accounted for nearly half of the cargo shipped on the line between 1985 and 1988. In

8184-608: The coast, Tazara runs west, through the Pwani Region , then dips south of Mikumi National Park and enters the wilderness in the northern part of the Selous Game Reserve in the Morogoro Region . The Selous is one of the largest faunal reserves in the world and passengers can often see wildlife such as giraffe , elephant , zebra , antelope and warthog , which have become accustomed to the rumbling of

8308-403: The construction of 93 stations, 320 bridges, 22 tunnels and 2,225 culverts. Virtually all building materials, equipment and significant amounts of food and medical supplies were shipped from China. According to Du Jian, a Chinese interpreter, China "shipped out more than 1.5 million tonnes of materials, including steel rail, cement, and dynamite, and daily necessities, even though it suffered itself

8432-510: The country's socialist ethos, a labor-intensive model instead of the Western capital-intensive model. In total, China sent about 50,000 personnel to work on the railway from 1965 to 1976, including 30,000 to 40,000 workers. An estimated 60,000 Africans participated in the railway's construction. At the height of construction in 1972, there were 13,500 Chinese and 38,000 African workers on the project. Chinese engineers lived and worked according to

8556-465: The debts it was owed by the TAZARA. Since the loan was interest-free and not indexed for inflation, the real value of the debt had also shrunk by more than 80%. Rail transport Rail transport (also known as train transport ) 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

8680-430: 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

8804-402: 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

8928-471: 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

9052-527: 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

9176-475: 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

9300-522: 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

9424-668: The form of the Trans–Caprivi Highway and the Walvis Bay Corridor to Namibia . The privatization of Zambia's copper mines forced railways in Zambia to compete for previously guaranteed government cargo. Traffic on Zambian Railways fell from 6 million tonnes in 1975 to 690,000 tonnes in 2009. TAZARA suffered an even greater drop in traffic. In the early 2000s, the end of civil wars in Angola and Mozambique opened further rail outlets for Zambian copper. In 2008,

9548-617: 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. Pwani Region The native peoples of the Pwani Region are the Zaramo , Kwere , Doe , Ndengereko , Zigua , and Rufiji . The Zaramo are the dominant people group in Pwani Region and are native to central Pwani, specifically in Kisarawe, Kibaha, Mkuranga, and Bagamoyo districts. The second-largest group in terms of

9672-597: The idea. Still, from the outset, the Western powers refused to construct the Tanzam railway because it would have been unprofitable for Western investors. Following World War II, interest in railway construction revived. A map from April 1949 in Railway Gazette showed a proposed line from Dar es Salaam to Kapiri Mposhi , not far from the route that would eventually be taken by the Chinese railway. A report in 1952 by Sir Alexander Gibb & Partners concluded that

9796-672: The invention of the steam locomotive in 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

9920-440: The latter taking precedence. Crop farming employed 82 percent of the economically active population in the 2007/08 Coast area agriculture sample census report, followed by livestock husbandry (2 percent), and fishing (2%). The remaining 12% worked in non-farming activities such as trade and repairs. Agriculture generates the majority of the region's monetary income, primarily through the sale of coconuts, oranges, mango, and cassava on

10044-1230: 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

10168-452: The line was reportedly shipping 15,000 tons of copper weekly, but still prone to breakdowns and delays. In addition to carrying copper, manganese , cobalt and other minerals for export, the TAZARA also transports Asian imports and fertilizer to Zambia, Congo , Malawi , Burundi , and Rwanda . The Chinese government has also been unwilling to see the complete shutdown of its signature foreign aid project. In 2011, China cancelled half of

10292-429: 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

10416-569: 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

10540-433: 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

10664-521: The money to build the railway." Finally, Kaunda dropped his objections and accepted the Chinese offer while visiting China in January 1967. On 6 September 1967, an agreement was signed in Beijing by the three nations. China committed itself to building a railway between Tanzania and Zambia, supplying an interest-free loan of RMB988 million (approx. US$ 406 million) to be repaid between 1973 and 2013. This

10788-412: 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

10912-504: The offer to President Nyerere in 1965, was removed from power in 1966, publicly vilified and died in 1969. In Tanzania, Abdulrahman Mohamed Babu, who had persuaded the Chinese to back the TAZARA, was sentenced to death in 1972 for allegedly plotting to overthrow the Zanzibar government. He was pardoned by Nyerere in 1978. The first passenger train arrived in Dar es Salaam on 24 October 1975,

11036-461: 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

11160-568: The railway again turns to the southwest, running along the northern foothills of the Muchinga Mountains, past Serenje and Mkushi to Kapiri Mposhi, located due north of the Zambian capital, Lusaka . As of February 2016, two passenger trains per week traverse the entire TAZARA in each direction. Departures are on Tuesdays and Fridays in each direction. The brand new Express train travels Fridays from Dar and Tuesdays from New Kapiri Mposhi. The Ordinary train makes all possible stops, and

11284-734: The railway and the Tanzania-Zambia Highway. From Makambako the railway and the highway run a parallel course towards Mbeya running past the Kipengere Range that towers to the south. Here in the Mbeya Region , the Tazara crosses several upstream tributaries of the Great Ruaha, which are lined with belts of forest and grasslands. After the Kipengere Mountains, the Uporoto Range takes over with

11408-725: The railway construction began, 12 Chinese surveyors traveled for nine months on foot from Dar es Salaam to Mbeya in the Southern Highlands to choose and align the railway's path. Chinese workers had already begun arriving in 1969, and construction began in July 1970. A formal inauguration ceremony was held on 26 October 1970, where the band played Sailing the Seas Depends on the Helmsman and marchers held signs saying, "The Uhuru line will fight Imperialism". Chinese assistance

11532-406: The railway's condition was described as being "on the verge of collapse due to financial crisis," and dangerous track conditions were discovered by Chinese technicians inspecting the line. The company's cash flow difficulties have led to delays in paying salaries, resulting in frequent strikes by the workforce. By 2012, TAZARA had only 10 operational main line locomotives. In September 2013, the TAZARA

11656-412: The railway, but did not offer him any alternative. "... all the money in this world is either Red or Blue. I do not have my own Green money, so where can I get some from? I am not taking a cold war position. All I want is money to build it." In November 1965, Southern Rhodesia 's white-led colonial government issued its Unilateral Declaration of Independence from Britain, threatening Zambia's access to

11780-563: The railway. About 250 Chinese managers were assigned to railway bureaus along the route. They brought operational profitability to the railway and paid for their expenses through revenues, but China had to issue additional zero-interest loans to pay for spare parts and rehabilitation. From 1987 to 1993, foreign aid totaling $ 150 million was supplied by the European Economic Community , Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, West Germany, Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland. In 1987,

11904-745: The railway. In 1972, two hundred Tanzanian and Zambian students were enrolled in the Northern Jiaotong University in Beijing to learn railway management, but a dozen of them were expelled in the first year for misbehavior. Employee theft was so common that 20 Zambian crew members were fired in 1978 for stealing, drivers were brought back from China for a return run, and hundreds of other Chinese advisers had their stay extended. These problems resulted in much lengthier than planned turnaround times for freight, and in 1978 Zambia had to break ranks and reopen links with white-ruled Rhodesia for its copper exports. TAZARA played an important role in

12028-402: The same standards as their African counterparts. Construction camps were set up for each 64-kilometre (40 mi) section of track, being relocated as the work progressed. Papaya and banana trees were grown to provide shade and food, and workers tended vegetable gardens in the camps on off-hours. The work involved moving 330,000 tons of rail and 89 million cubic meters of earth and rock, and

12152-571: The sea. In the first months after UDI, supplies had to be airlifted to Zambia or transported 1,600 km (1,000 mi) by road. Nyerere warned Humphry John Berkeley , a British politician who served as the economic consultant for the Canadian-British survey team, that "The West must hurry, because the Chinese are going ahead." Yet, when Berkeley met with Harold Wilson, the British prime minister assured him that "The Chinese have not got

12276-441: 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

12400-442: The steep escarpment between Mlimba and Makambako, limiting the line's carrying capacity. When the Chinese rolling stock broke down, there was limited local capacity for repair. By 1978, 19 to 27 of the locomotives were out of operation, as were half of the rail cars. The railway was also beset with staff difficulties. In their haste to complete the railway, the Chinese did not train enough African technicians to take over management of

12524-496: The symbolism of China's support for newly independent African countries gave rise to Tazara's designation as the "Great Uhuru Railway", Uhuru being the Swahili word for freedom. The project was built from 1970 to 1975 as a turnkey project financed and supported by China. At its completion, the Tazara was the longest railway in sub-Saharan Africa. Tazara was also the largest single foreign-aid project undertaken by China at

12648-516: The territory is the Rufiji people who are native to Rufiji and Kibiti districts. The Kwere and Doe are native to Bagamoyo District and also southern Zigua people. In 2012, the region had 1,098,668 residents, up from 885,017 in the 2002 Population Census, indicating a considerable increase of 213,651 individuals (24.1%) during the intercensal period. The region has a population of 2.5 percent of Tanzania's overall population. When compared to other regions on

12772-460: The time, at a construction cost of US $ 406 million (the equivalent of US $ 3.19 billion today). Tazara has faced operational difficulties from the start and was kept running by continued assistance from China, several European countries, and the United States. Freight traffic peaked at 1.2 million tons in 1986, but began to decline in the 1990s as the end of apartheid in South Africa and

12896-475: 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

13020-543: 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

13144-650: The trains. The railway crosses the Great Ruaha River for the first time in the Selous. Further south, the railway cuts through the fertile Kilombero Valley , and skirts the great Kibasira Swamp. The next section, between Mlimba (the Kingdom of Elephants) and Makambako (the Place of Bulls) was to be 158 km (98 mi) long, and presented the builders of the railway with the greatest challenge. To lay track across rugged mountains, precipitous valleys and deep swamps, it

13268-471: 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

13392-473: The water that we found in the elephants' footprints." Medical care was so lacking that one Chinese worker died due to an untreated bee sting. Over 160 workers, including 64 Chinese nationals, died in construction accidents. However, construction accidents were not the only cause of death. Food for Chinese workers was sent from China, and shipping delays often meant that the food, typically nothing more than dehydrated vegetables and other basic goods like wheat flour,

13516-629: 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 ,

13640-559: 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

13764-512: 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

13888-602: 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

14012-514: 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

14136-706: 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

14260-548: 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 ,

14384-489: 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

14508-522: Was moldy when it arrived, causing working conditions to become even more dire.Some of the victims were buried in a cemetery in Tanzania . The section from Mlimba to Makambako crosses mountains and steep valleys. Almost 30 percent of the bridges, tunnels, viaducts, and earthworks of the entire route are located a 16-kilometre (10 mi) stretch of this section. The bridge across the Mpanga River

14632-547: Was necessary to construct 46 bridges, 18 tunnels, and 36 culverts. Because of the heavy rainfall in this area, intricate drainage works had to be integrated with every feature. The most spectacular feature is the bridge across the Mpanga River, which stands on three 50 m (164 ft) tall pillars . At Kidatu , a metre gauge branch railway connects to the Central Line at Kilosa . The TAZARA then climbs into

14756-535: Was not, however, forthcoming, as Britain, Japan, West Germany, World Bank, the United States and United Nations all declined to fund the project. The Soviet Union was also uninterested. At the time, China was actively seeking diplomatic support in the Third World against the United States and Soviet Union. Trade Minister Abdulrahman Babu and other ministers from Zanzibar were instrumental in lobbying Chinese leaders for support and then persuading Nyerere to accept

14880-404: Was part of China’s larger policy of giving unilateral aid to developing nations during the 1960s and 1970s, which strengthened after Premier Zhou Enlai visited Africa in 1964 and declared the continent "ripe for revolution." The West reacted to Chinese backing for the project with both derision and alarm. Critics questioned the construction quality and competence of the Chinese, calling the TAZARA

15004-691: Was provided in large part by the Railway Engineering Corps of the People’s Liberation Army (predecessor of China Railway Construction Corporation ) and the foreign aid department of the Ministry of Railways (predecessor of China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation ). Chinese personnel sent to Africa were selected for political dependability, moral probity, technical expertise and personal fitness, and underwent as much as two months of training. Chinese assistance followed

15128-423: Was reporting $ 1.53 million in monthly revenue against $ 2.5 million in monthly expenditures. The railway is sometimes described as an economic "lifeline" for Zambia and the government in Lusaka has ostensibly remained committed to its revitalization. In April 2013, Zambia’s second largest copper miner, Konkola Copper Mines, agreed to re-commence shipping copper on the TAZARA after a five-year hiatus. By November 2013,

15252-705: 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

15376-636: 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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