Extensions and Branches
Disassembled ferries were shipped from Scotland by sea to Mombasa and then by rail to Kisumu where they were reassembled and provided a service to Port Bell and, later, other ports on Lake Victoria (see section below). A 7 miles (11 km) rail line between Port Bell and Kampala was the final link in the chain providing efficient transport between the Ugandan capital and the open sea at Mombasa, more than 900 miles (1,400 km) away.
Branch lines were built to Thika in 1913, Lake Magadi in 1915, Kitale in 1926, Naro Moro in 1927 and from Tororo to Soroti in 1929. In 1929 the Uganda Railway became Kenya and Uganda Railways and Harbours (KURH), which in 1931 completed a branch line to Mount Kenya and extended the main line from Nakuru to Kampala in Uganda. In 1948 KURH became part of the East African Railways Corporation, which added the line from Kampala to Kasese in western Uganda in 1956. and extended to it to Arua near the border with Zaire in 1964.
The focusing effect of railway junctions and depots created many of the interior's modern towns and ports, such as:
- Eldoret, originally called "64" after its distance, in miles, from the railhead at the time
- Jinja, a city and port close to the outlet of Lake Victoria, the source of the River Nile
- Kisumu, a city and port on Lake Victoria allowing ferry transport between Kenya, Tanganyika (modern Tanzania) and Uganda
- Kitale, a small farming community in the foothills of Mount Elgon
- Nairobi, started as a rail depot, becoming the capital of Kenya.
- Nakuru, where the main line splits, one branch going to Kisumu and the other to Uganda
- Port Bell, a rail-linked port, near to Kampala, on Lake Victoria allowing ferry transport between Kenya, Tanganyika and Uganda
Read more about this topic: Uganda Railway
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