Feb 17th 2021- Travelers from Kisumu and Malaba to Mombasa will from September get seamless train services, linking the newly built standard gauge rail line and the refurbished meter gauge track.
The train from Kisumu will terminate its journey in Nakuru and its passengers transferred to the one from Malaba for the rest of the journey to Naivasha where they would board the locomotive on the SGR.
“Passenger operations from Mai Mahiu to Malaba via Longonot through a revamped meter gauge train for visitors to western parts of Kenya will start in September,” Kenya Railways Coorporation managing director Philip Mainga said. He added that the seamless services will commence once the construction of a rail line linking the SGR to the older railway track at Longonot is completed.
The construction of the new link between Mai Mahiu to Longonot will cost Sh5 billion while the rehabilitation of old rail tracks from Longonot to Malaba will cost Sh2.5 billion.
Kenya Railways says that some Sh2.5 billion will be used to compensate land owners.
Construction of the new 23.5-kilometre link line from Naivasha to Longonot started in August 2020 while rehabilitation of the Longonot to Malaba metre gauge railway line started in October.