The maiden voyage of the Zambia’s long distance coach, the Royal Africa Luxury from Kitwe to Dar-es-salaam, seems successful, the bus docked at Mbezi terminal by 7.30 pm, after nearly 20 hours on road.
It was received with cheers at the ‘Magufuli Bus’ Station on Sunday evening of June 12, 2022 having traversed 1843 kilometres between Kitwe, in Zambia and Dar-es-salaam, Tanzania.
From now, the company’s target is to launch the longest journey in history, Dar-es-salaam to Johannesburg South Africa, by road, covering 3412 kilometers, likely to take 50 hours that should be four days and a half.
And the Zambian machine blew other local buses out of the water when it comes to speed.
The Southern route of Tanzania is the most competitive one as far as passenger buses are concerned.
This time, Royal Luxury did now haul a cargo trailer but in future, as more passengers enrol for its trips, maybe the baby will tag along.
The bus turned heads because the rear engine propelled vehicle happens to be a very long coach by Tanzanian Standards, stretching at 15 meters, tri-axle chassis.
In Tanzania most passengers buses measure between 9 meters and 13 meters.
The Zambia bus width should average at 3.7 meters.
It also has an extended frontal overhang typical for fully fledged European Standard buses.
For the maiden journey, Royal Africa Logistics bus company outfitted an Irizar i6s coach mounted onto a Scania Chassis.
The Scania bus is a Euro 6 EC Coach with 53 passenger seats.
The Zambian Coach has just raised the bar regarding what comfortable buses should be, without sacrificing highway performance.
Reports from the Zambian transport company indicate that, their Tanzania bound buses will be departing from Kitwe each Saturday, for their Dar routes.
From Dar-es-salaam the buses will take off on Tuesdays for starters.
However, the bus company intends to stretch the journeys from Tanzania to as far as South Africa, via Lusaka, Zambia.