Tanzania’s electric railway carries 2.5 million passengers
Passenger numbers on the Dar es Salaam–Dodoma line rose 22%, and the railway company no longer needs salary subsidies.
Key points
- Tanzania’s electric standard gauge railway carried 2.51 million passengers between Dar es Salaam and Dodoma from July 2025 to March 2026, up 22.4% on a year earlier.
- The Tanzania Railways Corporation is financially stable enough to stop receiving government salary subsidies from the 2026/27 fiscal year.
- The Mwanza–Isaka section was 68.77% complete, and the full SGR network is planned to run 2,809km.
Tanzania's electric standard gauge railway (SGR) is proving popular. Between July 2025 and March 2026, it carried 2.51 million passengers between Dar es Salaam and Dodoma, up 22.4% on the same period a year earlier, Transport Minister Makame Mbarawa told Parliament in May.
The line also carried 102,452 tonnes of cargo over the same period.
A railway company in better shape
The Tanzania Railways Corporation has become financially stable enough to stop receiving government salary subsidies from the 2026/27 financial year.
The network is growing
- The Dar es Salaam–Morogoro and Morogoro–Makutupora sections are substantially complete, with passenger services running.
- The Mwanza–Isaka section, towards Lake Victoria, was 68.77% complete.
- The full network is planned to run 2,809 kilometres, including lines towards Kigoma and Burundi.
- A $1.277 billion concessional loan has been secured for remaining sections.
Why it matters
Tanzania launched East Africa's first electric train service in 2024. Fast, reliable rail cuts travel times and road congestion and could link the Indian Ocean to landlocked neighbours. Kenya is restarting its own SGR extension, and rail is becoming central to African trade.
Sources
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