City to city routes: NRZ awaits Government approval to resume

Nomthandazo Mtonga, Sunday News Reporter
THE National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) is yet to resume inter-city passenger train services more than two years after it was stopped as part of travel restrictions put in place due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Although the Government has relaxed some Covid-19 restrictions including inter-city travels, the parastatal said it was still waiting for the green light from the Government to resume the service.

NRZ spokesman Mr Martin Banda said the parastatal was busy refurbishing coaches that would be used once the Government has given them the go ahead to resume inter-city passenger train services.

Some of the coaches are, however, used for commuter transport where the company has partnered with Zupco to offer affordable travel in cities.

“The Government banned inter-city travel because of Covid-19 and we have not yet been told to resume.

But in the meantime we are refurbishing coaches that will be used.

The only available city-to-city train is the tourist train and trains for hire,” he said.

Tourist trains are said to bring more income to the company as well as the nation in the form of foreign currency.

Mr Banda said the available coaches were still undergoing refurbishment which is also being delayed by lack of resources. Small-scale farmers and vendors who transported their products using the train have also been affected by the inter-city travel ban.

Traders at Luveve Station in Bulawayo said business has gone down because they used to rely on traffic from the Bulawayo-Victoria Falls train.

A vendor in Luveve, Miss Lisa Ncube, who had a stand at the market next to the train station said her business was greatly affected by the cancellation of the train service.

“During those days when the train was available my business was flourishing.

I remember how I did not struggle to sell anything because I could even trade clothes I was selling for vegetables which I would re-sell for more profits.

Now I just make a living out of selling tomatoes.

It is not easy to survive with children with such a small income,” she said.

Some of the routes that NRZ serviced included Harare-Bulawayo, Harare to Mutare and Bulawayo to Chiredzi.

NRZ also ran a train service to Francistown in Botswana.