The TAZARA celebrates its 50th anniversary: ​​traveling on the railway that connects Tanzania and Zambia | Transportation

Dar es Salaam, Tanzania to Kapiri Mposhi, Zambia — At Dar es Salaam train station, hundreds of passengers sat amid piles of luggage as a still breeze blew through the open windows. Shortly before their scheduled departure at 3:50 p.m. aboard the Tanzania-Zambia Railway Authority (TAZARA) Mukuba Express train, news crackled across the tannoy: the train would leave two hours late.

A collective groan was heard from the crowd, and under the dizzying roof of the station, pigeons came and went, disappearing into the holes left by the rotting ceiling tiles. But no one was really surprised. Given the train’s reputation for unreliable service, passengers knew that in the event of a two-hour delay, the TAZARA was virtually on time.

The railway runs from Tanzania’s largest city, through the country’s southern highlands and across the border to Zambia’s copper provinces, finally arriving at the town of Kapiri Mposhi, about 1,860 kilometers (1,156 miles) away. This is a journey which, according to official timetables, should take around 40 hours.

For regular passengers, it is an inexpensive way to reach parts of the country that are not located near major highways. For foreign tourists, it’s a unique way to experience Tanzania’s landscapes away from bustling cities and crowded safari parks, provided they are not in a rush. A first-class sleeper car to Mbeya, a travel hub and border town just east of Zambia surrounded by lush mountains and coffee plantations, costs just over $20.

This year the railway celebrated its 50th anniversary, but it struggled for most of its existence, requiring foreign investment for basic maintenance and failing to transport the amount of goods for which it was built. Irregular maintenance and limited investment have seen its infrastructure and cars deteriorate after decades of use.

It is difficult to determine exactly where a trip aboard the TAZARA will take place at any given time, due to the myriad of delays and breakdowns that make each trip uncertain. Simple derailments due to poorly loaded carriages and deteriorated tracks are common, not to mention occasional, unfortunate brushes with nature: in August, the service was canceled after a passenger train hit an African buffalo while passing through Tanzania’s Mwalimu Julius Nyerere National Park.

But since the start of 2025, TAZARA has been plagued by more serious incidents – and fatalities – that reveal the desperate need for an overhaul of both aging infrastructure and poor safety management. In April, two locomotives being transported from Zambia to a workshop in Mbeya for repairs derailed on a bridge in southern Tanzania, killing both drivers.

Two months later, in June, a train derailed in Zambia and was hit by the “rescue train” sent to help. The collision killed a TAZARA employee and injured 10 staff members and 19 passengers, according to a press release from the railway company.

Citing “unexpected operational challenges,” passenger service was briefly suspended in early September. It turned out that the few operational locomotives the TAZARA could put into service were stranded in Tanzania, after a fire damaged one of the hundreds of bridges along the line.

But big improvements are on the horizon for TAZARA, thanks to a major investment from the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC), which has pledged $1.4 billion to refurbish the aging railway over the next three years. Although continued passenger service is mentioned in the agreement, construction work will require some breaks in regular service once the project is completed.

Most of the money will be spent on track rehabilitation, but $400 million will be spent on purchasing 32 new locomotives and 762 railcars, “significantly increasing freight and passenger transportation capacity,” according to a TAZARA statement. In exchange, the Chinese state-owned company will receive a 30-year concession to operate the TAZARA railway and will recoup its investment before handing over day-to-day management to the Tanzanian and Zambian authorities.