Bulawayo (New Ziana) – Passenger rail services in the country will remain suspended because of aged and damaged infrastructure which require massive repair, an official of the National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) said on Tuesday.

NRZ public affairs and stakeholder relations manager, Andrew Kunambura said some of the infrastructure of the railway operator, particularly tracks, had degraded so much to be able to offer passenger rail services safely.

“Our tracks need major repair works and there are many cautious along the rail – what we call potholes in rail terms. When a train approaches a cautious area, they reduce speed to 10 km per hour. How long will it take for a train to travel a distance from Harare to Bulawayo on such a speed on cautious field track?” he asked.

He said as popular as commuter trains are in towns and cities, they will remain suspended until the faulty railway infrastructure is repaired.

“The cautious field track is often affected by derailments. A derailment involving a cargo train is certainly different from one involving passengers. We may end up losing lives while some passengers may be injured during a derailment,” Kunambura said.

Meanwhile, he said the NRZ was working to increase its freight capacity back to volumes of 18 million tonnes a year achieved in the 1990s.

At present, the NRZ was only moving around three million tonnes a year, a far cry from the huge volumes it carried in its heydays.

A combination of vandalised infrastructure and under-funding have crippled the NRZ’s operations in recent years, resulting in businesses resorting to expensive road freight services.

New Ziana