Uganda Railways Cooperation (URC) has continued traveler train administrations in the wake of shutting them during the new 42-day lockdown.
While reporting the lockdown in June, President Yoweri Museveni suspended both private and public vehicle as an action to contain the second influx of COVID-19.
On July 30, 2021, Museveni lifted the lockdown permitting the resumption of both private and public vehicle under the severe recognition of Standard Operating Procedures-SOPs.
Presently, URC has continued traveler train administrations utilizing the Namanve-Kampala and Kampala-Port Bell courses making five excursions day by day. The main outing begins in Namanve at 7 am showing up in Kampala at 7:45 am while the subsequent mentor leaves Kampala at 8 am to Portbell showing up quickly.
In the evening, another mentor leaves Kampala at 4:30 pm and arrives at Namanve at 5:15 pm. Another leaves Kampala at 4:50 and arrives at Portbell at 5:20 pm. At 5:20 pm, another mentor sets off from Namanve to Kampala and shows up at 5:50 pm. During ordinary tasks, the mentors make 10 excursions, four among Namanve and Kampala and six among Kampala and Port chime. Stephen Wakasenza, the Chief Commercial Officer at URC, says that they have been running preliminary meetings since Wednesday to make certain about the preparation of the mentors to continue activities and evaluate successful methods of guaranteeing consistence with the SOPs including physical separating.
Last year, after the March lockdown URC deferred continuing traveler train administrations for over four months for dread that travelers probably won’t notice SOPs, which would transform it into a wellspring of COVID-19 transmission. Charles Kateeba, the Managing Director of URC then, at that point disclosed to Uganda Radio Network that they had made an evaluation and discovered that it was still exceptionally hazardous to open up.
Wakasenza says that they have cut the quantity of travelers by the greater part to guarantee social removing. Before the flare-up of the COVID-19 pandemic, more than 4000 individuals utilized the mentors to travel. There are 5 mentors with 4 handling on the Kampala Namanve course and one on the Kampala Portbell course.
Each Coach has a sitting and standing limit of between 120 to 150 travelers yet is as of now permitted to take a limit of 65 travelers. Within the train has been set apart with numbers to direct travelers on where to sit or remain in recognition of social distance.
The quantity of sitting travelers is shown on the divider while for standing travelers, the numbers are on the floor. Wakasenza says that they have climbed the tolls from Shillings 1000 to 3000 to fill the hole left by diminishing the quantity of travelers. Travelers pay cash at the vehicle office at the station and are given a receipt which they can present to a mentor monitor while on the train.
Wakasenza says the organization will get four new trains soon and fix 10 different mentors to help their armada. There is likewise a proposition for the extension of the train administrations to the Greater Kampala Metropolitan region. The Kampala Railway project is proposed to be created on the 53-km Mukono-Kampala-Bujuuko in addition to a 8-km branch to Port Bell.
