The Tanzania-Zambia Railway Authority (TAZARA) said on Wednesday that it recorded a remarkable improvement in traffic revenue collection in the financial year which started from July 1, 2022, to June 30, 2023.
The TAZARA said in a statement that the remarkable improvement in revenue growth was primarily driven by a surge in the traffic average haul, following the reopening of the Chambeshi Bridge in September 2022.
The statement said during this financial year, collected revenue amounted to 26.78 million U.S. dollars, marking a notable increase from the 24.28 million dollars earned in the last financial year.
However, the authority could not reach the planned target in traffic volumes due to the closures at the Chambeshi Bridge along with challenges arising from equipment reliability issues, said the statement.
According to the statement, the total freight volumes moved on the TAZARA line dropped from 337,475 tonnes in the last financial year to 324,903 tonnes in this financial year.
Meanwhile, the cumulative count of passengers across the various types of passenger trains witnessed a 1 percent decrease, with the figure dropping to 2,710,104 passengers during this financial year, compared to 2,738,452 passengers documented in the preceding financial year. The primary limitation confronting passenger services remained the constrained availability of train coaches, said the statement.
The statement added that the volume of interstate passengers traveling between Tanzania and Zambia surged by 14 percent, rising from 469,551 passengers in the last financial year to 534,603 passengers in this financial year, which was attributed to the reopening of the Chambeshi Bridge and a concurrent rise in bus fares.
