Tanzania revives Santa Claus train to serve Northern Zone Passengers during Christmas and New Year Holidays
Tanzania is reviving the old locomotive engines to start undertaking trips to the country’s Northern Zone regions during the Christmas and New Year Holidays season.
The Tanzania Railways Corporation (TRC) chugging diesel-powered train which usually travels between Dar-es-salaam and other upcountry precincts usually do not provide passenger services to the Northern Zone regions.
This is because residents of Arusha and Kilimanjaro regions prefer more rapid moving modes of transport, in this case, passenger buses. It only gets new lease of life during Christmas, thus nicknamed Santa train.
In other times of the year, people rely on more than 20 passenger transporting companies serving the Dar-es-salaam-Arusha route via Moshi, sometimes extending the trips to Nairobi Kenya.
The firms have been deploying between them, more than 70 buses in total, all traveling day and night.
However, during end of year periods, the number of passengers travelling from Dar-es-salaam to other regions is usually on the increase, with many scrambling for whichever means of transport available to take them to highlands.
The goal here this time is just to celebrate the festivals in villages with relatives.
The Tanzania Railways always therefore finds reasons to revive Northern train routes linking the vibrant coastal city of Dar-es-salaam with Arusha, Kilimanjaro and Tanga regions during Christmas times.
TRC management in Dar-es-salaam says, from December 9, 2024 all the way to the second week of January, 2025 the old chugging train will be pulling 18 passenger wagons with capacity to haul between 1000 and 1200 people per trip, heading north.
While the Northern train is a far-cry from the newly commissioned, modern Standard Gauge Railways (SGR) electric propelled vehicles when it comes to speed and comfort, end-of-year holiday travellers usually don’t mind spending 18 hours on the tracks, as long as it gets them there in time for the holidays.
Plus, drink services, including beer, are usually available on board, the Rudolf-reindeer dragged train, thus making the long slow journey to be slightly enjoyable.
Plus, compared to the faster buses, trains are relatively safer, moving slower and enjoying their own tracks in the secluded, mostly night rides, though as fate will have it, in early 2023 one of the trains derailed, killing one person.