Tanzania Railways Corporation (TRC)

Product Description

The Tanzania Railways Corporation is an organization established under the Railways Act No. 10 of 2017 with the main objective of providing quality and reliable railway transport services, managing, developing and ensuring the protection and safety of railway infrastructure in Tanzania.

The history of the Tanzania Railways Corporation can be traced back to 1948 when the East African Railways and Ports Corporation (EAR&H) was established. The East African Railways and Ports Corporation was formed in 1948 alongside the East African Community and was a public corporation that managed the railways and ports of Kenya, Uganda and Tanganyika and later Tanzania in the years before and after the independence of these countries.

After the dissolution of the East African Community, a new Railway Corporation (Tanzania Railways Corporation) was formed as a Public Corporation. The Tanzania Railways Corporation continued to assume overall responsibility for transport in Tanzania, thus continuing to provide rail transport services, marine transport services, road transport services and hotels and catering services. Transport activities in Tanzania continued using existing facilities, as most of the facilities were located in Nairobi, Kenya, which was the headquarters of the Community and also the headquarters of the East African Railways Corporation.

Due to the fact that efforts to make the Corporation profitable, especially after the ERP and RRP plans did not reach the expected levels in the late 1990s, donors decided to stop investing in rail transport and insisted on a privatization policy.

The objectives of Privatizing Railway Transport:

Engaging investors from the private sector
Involving management from the private sector
Reducing the government’s burden of organization by relying on the government budget
Incorporating modern technologies into practice
In 1998, the Government approved the privatization plan for the Tanzania Railways Corporation, which was expected to begin in April 1998 and end in April 2000. After a long process, on March 6, 2006, the Indian company RITES was notified of the winner and after all procedures were completed, including the establishment of the Tanzania Railways Company (TRL) and the Railway Resources Holding Company (RAHCO), the management of RITES was handed over to operate the Tanzania Railways transport services for a period of twenty-five years starting October 1, 2007. Indian RITES held 51% of the total shares and the Tanzanian Government held 49%.

However, the expected goals after privatization were not achieved, the Government of Tanzania decided to terminate the lease agreement in 2010 and from 22 July 2011 the company returned to government hands with one hundred percent (100%) ownership.

Reorganization of the Tanzania Railways Corporation (TRC)
In 2017, the Parliament of the United Republic of Tanzania passed the Tanzania Railways Act to merge the Tanzania Railways Company (TRL) and the Railway Resources Holding Company (RAHCO) and ultimately create the Tanzania Railways Corporation (TRC) under the new Tanzania Railways Act.