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The Uganda Railway Cooperation has relaunched the Kampala-Namanve passenger services that had initially been halted because of safety concerns.

Following an earlier suspension due to safety concerns, the Uganda Railway Cooperation (URC) has resumed passenger services between Kampala and Namanve.

While addressing the media during the relaunching of the Kampala-Namanve passenger services, Andrew Muguluma, the head of the technical committee and a member of the board of directors at the URC said, that with the relaunching of the passenger services after rehabilitation, the train will no longer stop in Namanve but will proceed to Mukono.

On a daily, he said URC will have four trips on the line.

“People commuting the Kampala to Mukono route have been taking approximately two hours on the road because of traffic jam but since we have extended the services to Mukono, a person will only take approximately 30-40 minutes while commuting,” Muguluma said.

“We shall be taking two trips in the morning and two in the evening but with time, more will be added as we get more coaches,” Muguluma said adding that URC plans to extend the railway services to Masaka.

Muguluma revealed that in the next one to two years, they plan to purchase more locomotives that will ease the transportation of passengers.

On May 1, 2024, URC reopened the Kampala-Namanve passenger railway service after it was closed in 2023 for renovation.

URC currently operates four trips—two in the morning and two in the evening—between Kampala and Namanve at UGX 2,000 per trip, with a daily average of 1,600 passengers.

In September last month, the URC technical team halted passenger transportation services to Namanve due to the hazardous situation along the Mbuya-Kinawataka section where the Kinawataka swamp had eroded the soil around the railway leaving only a few feet between the tracks of the railway.

The Northern Corridor Integration Projects (NCIP) partner states, comprising Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, last month agreed to jointly mobilize funds to fast-track the development of the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) project.

This decision was made during a meeting of the Joint Ministerial Committee on SGR, held in Mombasa, Kenya.

The transport ministers reaffirmed their commitment to expediting the completion of the remaining SGR sections from Naivasha in Kenya to Uganda, Rwanda, South Sudan, and DRC.

Uganda is also expected to start the construction of Malaba-Kampala in September, subject to the availability of resources, and is in the final stages of negotiations with the proposed contractor, Yapi Merkezi.

URC is a corporate organization reporting to the Ministry of Works and Transport.

It was established under the mandate of the Uganda Railways Corporation Act, Cap331 to carry out railway, marine, and road services both in and outside Uganda for the carriage of Goods and Passengers.