Uganda Railways Corp: Our passenger services are secure

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Uganda Railways Corporation has assured its clients of maximum safety while traveling on their trains.

This follows a public statement by one passenger, Xavier Oluk, last Friday about the quality of travel and the safety on the passenger trains between Kampala and Namanve.

While approaching the Makerere University Business School-Nakawa stop, the locomotive is said to have moved backwards, seemingly against the driver’s control, causing a scare among the hundreds of passengers.

In the same complaint that circulated on social media, Oluk also complained of the discomforting congestion in the passenger coaches, as well as a delay by 25 minutes to set off, which, according to him, was because the operators wanted to ensure the coaches are all full.

For these, he called the train “a disaster in waiting”.

URC, which operates the five-wargon, 750-passenger capacity train, dismissed the the fears of a possible disaster and downplayed the incidents.

In a statement, URC admits experiencing “a technical problem” with the main locomotive which affected the evening passenger trip on Friday.

“Whereas this incident happened, the passenger train is not a threat to our clients as alluded to by the title of the message. Its safety record is very high,” URC says.

Oluk, who admits traveling regularly on the train due to its lower-than-road transpired costs as well as being faster, also complained that the train was uncharacteristically late (setting off from Kampala at 7.25 instead of 7.00pm), only to spend another 45 minutes at the MUBS stop when the engine fot a hitch.

He also claimed that the rails felf unstable, a fear URC has dismissed as uncalled for due to the new technology used in rehabilitating the lines, including replacing the steel sleepers with the more stable concrete sleepers.

“The line is more stable than ever before because it is fitted with concrete sleepers in accordance with international standards, coupled with other safety measures in place to ensure proper running of trains.”

Apologising for the delay on that day, John Linonn Sengendo, the head of communications at URC says the Corporation is committed to ensuringa safe, faster and comfortable service to our clients.

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