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{{Short description|British colonial railway in Uganda}}
{{About|the British colonial undertaking of 1896–1929|Uganda's state railway since 1977|Uganda Railways Corporation}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2018}}
{{Infobox company
| name       = Uganda Railway<br />Kenya Uganda Railways 
|image=Uganda Railway Poster (15069546274).jpg
| type       = [[Government-owned corporation]]
| founded    = {{Start date|1895}}
| defunct    = {{End date|1929}}
| successor  = [[Kenya and Uganda Railways and Harbours]]<br />[[East African Railways & Harbours]]
| key_people = [[George Whitehouse|Sir George Whitehouse]]
}}
{{History of Kenya}}
The '''Uganda Railway''' was a [[metre-gauge railway]] system and former [[United Kingdom|British]] state-owned railway company. The line linked the interiors of [[Uganda]] and [[Kenya]] with the [[Indian Ocean]] port of [[Mombasa]] in Kenya. After a series of mergers and splits, the line is now in the hands of the [[Kenya Railways Corporation]] and the [[Uganda Railways Corporation]].

== Construction ==
[[File:Kurve bei Mombasa.jpg|thumb|right|400 px|Near Mombasa, about 1899]]
{{quote box
| title =3
| quote = The official approach, British and local, to both slavery and free porter labour included a genuine belief that the man doing the work had real interests which deserved concern and protection. No such concern was evident among parliamentarians, missionaries or administrators for those at work on the construction of the Uganda Railway. It was decided to build the railway as quickly as possible; its construction was viewed almost as a military attack—casualties were inevitable and might be large if the objective were to be attained and momentum not lost.{{sfn|Clayton|Savage|1975|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=4szhDBSZehUC&pg=PA10 10–1]}}
| source = —Anthony Clayton & Donald C. Savage
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===Background===
Before the railway's construction, the [[Imperial British East Africa Company]] had begun the [[Mackinnon-Sclater road]], a {{convert|600|mi|km|adj=on|order=flip}} ox-cart track from Mombasa to [[Busia, Kenya|Busia]] in Kenya, in 1890.{{sfn|Ogonda|1992|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=4WAwtUYnNPwC&pg=PA131 131]}}

In July 1890, Britain was party to a series of [[abolitionism|anti-slavery]] measures agreed at the [[Brussels Conference Act of 1890]]. In December 1890, a letter from the [[Foreign Office]] to the treasury proposed constructing a railway from Mombasa to Uganda to disrupt the traffic of slaves from its source in the interior to the coast.<ref name=Whitehouse>{{harvnb|Whitehouse|1948|p=5}}</ref>

With steam-powered access to Uganda, the British could transport people and soldiers to ensure dominance of the [[African Great Lakes]] region.{{sfn|Ogonda|Onyango|2002|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=aFLdEiAdhesC&pg=PA223 223–4]}}

In December 1891 [[James Macdonald (British Army officer)|Captain James Macdonald]] began an extensive survey which lasted until November 1892. At the time there was only one caravan route across the length of the country, forcing Macdonald and his party to march {{convert|4280|mile}} across unknown routes with limited supplies of water or food. The survey led to the first general map of the region.<ref name=Whitehouse2>{{harvnb|Whitehouse|1948|p=2}}</ref>

The Uganda Railway was named after its ultimate destination, for its entire original {{convert|660|mi|km|adj=on|order=flip}} length actually lay in what would become [[Kenya]].{{sfn|Wolmar|2009|p=182}} Construction began at the [[port city]] of Mombasa in [[British East Africa]] in 1896 and finished at the line's terminus, [[Kisumu]], on the eastern shore of [[Lake Victoria]], in 1901.{{sfn|Ogonda|1992|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=4WAwtUYnNPwC&pg=PA131 131]}}

===Engineering===
[[File:Uganda Railway. Mombasa to Port Florence. (WOMAT-AFR-BEA-196-1).jpg|thumb|Uganda Railway. Mombasa to Port Florence ]]
The railway is {{RailGauge|1000mm|lk=on}} [[Track gauge|gauge]]<ref name="treves-57">{{cite book |last=Treves |first=Frederick |title=Uganda for a holiday |publisher=Smith, Elder & Co. |location= London |year=1910 |pages=57 |url=https://archive.org/stream/ugandaforaholid00trevgoog#page/n95/mode/1up |access-date=2009-11-30}}</ref> and virtually all [[Single track (rail)|single-track]] with [[passing loop]]s at stations. 200,000 individual {{convert|30|ft|m|0|order=flip|adj=on}} rail-lengths and 1.2 million [[Railroad tie|sleepers]], 200,000 [[Fishplate|fish-plates]], 400,000 [[Rail fastening system#Chair screws|fish-bolts]] and 4.8 million steel [[Rivet|keys]] plus [[steel]] [[girder]]s for [[viaduct]]s and [[causeway]]s had to be imported from India, necessitating the creation of a modern port at [[Kilindini Harbour]] in Mombasa. The railway was a huge logistical achievement and became strategically and economically vital for both Uganda and Kenya. It helped to suppress [[slavery]], by removing the need for humans in the transport of goods.<ref>{{cite EB1911|first=Frank Richardson |last=Cana |wstitle=British East Africa |volume=4 |pages=601–606}}</ref> 

===Management===
{{Infobox UK legislation
| short_title           = Uganda Railway Act 1896
| type                  = Act
| parliament            = Parliament of the United Kingdom
| long_title            = An Act to make provision for the Construction of a Railway in Africa, from Mombasa to the Victoria Nyanza, through the Protectorates of Zanzibar, British East Africa, and Uganda.
| year                  = 1896
| citation              = [[59 & 60 Vict.]] c. 38
| introduced_commons    = 
| introduced_lords      = 
| territorial_extent    = 
| royal_assent          = 14 August 1896
| commencement          = 
| expiry_date           = 
| repeal_date           = 
| amends                = 
| replaces              = 
| amendments            = 
| repealing_legislation = [[Statute Law Revision Act 1950]]
| related_legislation   = 
| status                = repealed
| legislation_history   = 
| theyworkforyou        = 
| millbankhansard       = 
| original_text         = 
| revised_text          = 
| use_new_UK-LEG        = 
| UK-LEG_title          = 
| collapsed             = yes
}}
In August 1895, a bill was introduced at [[Parliament of the United Kingdom|Westminster]], becoming the '''{{visible anchor|Uganda Railway Act 1896}}''' ([[59 & 60 Vict.]] c. 38), which authorised the construction of a railway from Mombasa to the shores of Lake Victoria.{{sfn|Whitehouse|1948|p=3}} The man tasked with building the railway was [[George Whitehouse]], an experienced civil engineer who had worked across the [[British Empire]]. Whitehouse acted as the Chief Engineer between 1895 and 1903, also serving as the railway's manager from its opening in 1901. The consulting engineers were [[Alexander Rendel|Sir Alexander Rendel]] of Sir A. Rendel & Son and Frederick Ewart Robertson.{{sfn|Whitehouse|1948|p=15}}
===Workers===
The construction of the Uganda Railway between Mombasa and Lake Victoria relied heavily on imported labour from [[British Raj|British India]]. Recruitment was overseen from [[Karachi]], with [[Lahore]] serving as the main centre for sourcing workers from Punjabi villages.<ref name="ClaytonSavage2">Clayton, Anthony; Savage, Donald C. (1974). ''Government and Labour in Kenya 1895–1963''. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-7146-2886-7.</ref> More than 30,000 labourers were contracted, the majority from [[Punjab]] and [[Gujarat]], particularly [[Sikhs]] and [[Gujarati people|Gujaratis]].<ref name="Aalders20212">Aalders, J.T. (2021). "Building on the Ruins of Empire: The Uganda Railway and the Making of Modern Kenya." ''Third World Quarterly'', 42(8): 1628–1645. doi:10.1080/01436597.2020.1741345. S2CID 225184402.</ref> Officials turned to Indian labour because African recruitment was limited by resistance to colonial mobilisation and by the perception that Indians possessed more experience in railway construction.<ref name="Ruchman20172">Ruchman, S.G. (2017). "Colonial Construction: Labor Practices and Precedents." ''African Studies Review'', 60(2): 97–118. doi:10.1017/asr.2017.53. S2CID 158465963.</ref>

Contracts nominally promised wages of twelve [[Indian rupee|rupees]] per month, rations, medical care, and return passage.<ref name="ClaytonSavage2" /> In practice, historians emphasise that the working environment was extremely harsh. Aalders notes that the railway was built under "extremely harsh conditions", exposing thousands of Indian workers to disease, [[famine]], and hostile terrain.<ref name="Aalders20212" /> Aselmeyer similarly describes "deplorable living conditions, low wages, and hazardous working conditions", and argues that colonial commemoration of the line as an engineering feat obscured the suffering it entailed.<ref name="Aselmeyer20222">Aselmeyer, Norman (2022). "Ruin of Empire: The Uganda Railway and Memory Work in Kenya." ''Journal of Educational Media, Memory, and Society'', 14(1): 108–128. doi:10.3167/jemms.2022.140102.</ref> Long hours, inadequate rations, overcrowded housing, and exposure to diseases such as [[malaria]] and [[dysentery]] led to widespread illness and mortality. Accidents such as landslides, explosions, and falls added to the toll, as did attacks from wildlife, most famously the [[Tsavo Man-Eaters|Tsavo lions]].<ref name="ClaytonSavage2" /> Historians estimate that several thousand Indian labourers died during the construction period.<ref name="Aselmeyer20222" />

Labour relations were marked by coercion and resistance. Ruchman notes that desertion was common and considered a major threat to progress, prompting administrators to impose repressive measures including surveillance and restrictions on workers' movements.<ref name="Ruchman20172" /> Colonial reports also recorded high rates of desertion, illness, and breakdowns under the pressure of indenture.<ref name="Ruchman20172" />

The railway's employment system entrenched a [[racial hierarchy]] that shaped the colonial economy. The Europeans occupied senior management and technical posts, the Indians worked as clerks, artisans, and supervisors, while the Africans were forced to carry out the hardest and least remunerated tasks.<ref name="Ssebaana20252">Ssebaana, Alex (2025). "Railways as Sites of Identity Formation and Creation: The Case of the KUR and EAR&H in the Jinja–Busoga Region." ''East African Journal of History and Gender'', 2(1): 45–66. doi:10.37284/eajhg.2.1.3525.</ref> Scholars argue that these divisions not only structured the construction workforce but also shaped the colonial labour market for decades afterwards, embedding inequalities that outlasted the railway itself.<ref name="Aselmeyer20222" /><ref name="Ssebaana20252" /> The arrival of Indian workers also laid the foundation for a permanent [[Indians in Kenya|Indian community in East Africa]], as many remained after their contracts expired, establishing themselves as traders, artisans, and clerks.<ref name="Aalders20212" />[[File:South Africa-Uganda Railway001.jpg|thumb|Reproduction poster of an advertisement for the railway.  Note [[Railway coupling#Norwegian|chopper]] coupling.]]

===Law and order===
To maintain law and order, the railway instituted a police department. The force was uniformed and drilled and armed with [[Martini-Henry]] rifles.<ref name=US10>{{harvnb|Whitehouse|1948|p=10}}</ref> The force was composed of Indians and two officers were lent by the Indian government to drill and superintend the force. A maximum of 400 constables were recruited, and the force was handed over to the Protectorate government on completion of the railway.<ref name=US10 />

=== Resistance ===
At the turn of the 20th century, the railway construction was disturbed by the resistance by [[Nandi people]] led by [[Koitalel Arap Samoei]]. He was killed in 1905 by [[Richard Meinertzhagen]], ending the Nandi resistance.<ref name="end">{{cite news | newspaper=The East African | date=21 September 2009 | url=https://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/magazine/-/434746/660876/-/view/printVersion/-/32dc3d/-/index.html | title=End of Lunatic Express | archive-date=21 June 2020 | access-date=5 April 2020 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200621192236/https://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/magazine/-/434746/660876/-/view/printVersion/-/32dc3d/-/index.html | url-status=dead }}</ref>

==Tsavo man-eating lions==
{{main|Tsavo Man-Eaters}}
The incidents for which the building of the railway may be most noted are the killings of a number of construction workers in 1898, during the building of a bridge across the [[Tsavo River]]. Hunting mainly at night, a [[Tsavo Man-Eaters|pair of maneless male lions]] stalked and killed at least 28 Indian and African workers – although some accounts put the number of victims as high as 135.<ref>{{cite news | url=http://www.railwaygazette.com/news/single-view/view//man-eating-lions-not-as-many-dead.html | title=Man eating lions – not (as) many dead | work=[[Railway Gazette International]] | date=27 November 2009 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100815081127/http://www.railwaygazette.com/news/single-view/view//man-eating-lions-not-as-many-dead.html | archive-date=15 August 2010 | df=dmy-all }}</ref>

==Lunatic Express==

The Uganda Railway faced a great deal of criticism in Parliament, with many parliamentarians decrying it as [[White elephant|exorbitantly expensive]].  Whilst the concept of cost-benefit analysis did not exist in public spending in the [[Victorian Era]], the huge capital sums of the project nevertheless made many sceptical of the value of the investment.  This, coupled with the fatalities and wastage of the personnel constructing it through disease, tribal activity, and hostile wildlife led the Uganda Railway to be dubbed a ''Lunatic Line'':

{{blockquote|text=<poem>
What it will cost no words can express,
What is its object no brain can suppose,
Where it will start from no one can guess,
Where it is going to nobody knows,
What is the use of it, none can conjecture,
What it will carry, there is none can define,
And in spite of [[George Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston|George Curzon]]'s superior lecture,
It is clearly naught but a lunatic line.</poem>
|author=[[Henry Labouchère]], MP
|source=<ref>{{cite news|last1=Muiruri|first1=Peter|title=End of road for first railway that defined Kenya's history|url=https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/article/2001241674/end-of-road-for-first-railway-that-defined-kenya-s-history|work=The Standard|date=31 May 2017|language=en}}</ref>
}}

Political resistance to this "gigantic folly", as [[Henry Labouchère]] called it,<ref name="Labouchère 30Apr1900">{{cite web |url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1900/apr/30/uganda-railway-consolidated-fund |title=UGANDA RAILWAY [CONSOLIDATED FUND]. HC Deb vol 82 cc288-335 |author=Henry Labouchère |author-link=Henry Labouchère |work=[[Hansard|Parliamentary Debates (Hansard)]] |access-date=10 March 2012 |date=30 April 1900 |quote=I am opposed entirely to this sort of railway in Africa, and I have been opposed to this railroad from the very commencement because it is a gigantic folly. .&nbsp;.&nbsp;. This railroad has been, from the very first commencement, a gigantic folly.}}</ref> surfaced immediately. Such arguments along with the claim that it would be a waste of taxpayers' money were easily dismissed by the [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservatives]]. Years before, [[Joseph Chamberlain]] had proclaimed that, if Britain were to step away from its "manifest destiny", it would by default leave it to other nations to take up the work that it would have been seen as "too weak, too poor, and too cowardly" to have done itself.<ref name="JChamberlain 01Jun1894">{{cite web |url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1894/jun/01/class-v |title=CIVIL SERVICES AND REVENUE DEPARTMENTS ESTIMATES, 1894–5: CLASS V. HC Deb vol 25 cc181-270 |author=Joseph Chamberlain |author-link=Joseph Chamberlain |work=[[Hansard|Parliamentary Debates (Hansard)]] |date=1 June 1894 |access-date=10 March 2012}}</ref> Its cost has been estimated by one source at £3 million in 1894 money, which is more than £170 million in 2005 money,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/currency/default.asp |title=Currency converter |publisher=[[The National Archives (United Kingdom)|The National Archives]] |access-date=10 March 2012}}</ref> and £5.5 million or £650 million in 2016 money by another source.<ref name =Economist1843/>

Because of the wooden [[trestle bridge]]s, enormous [[chasm]]s, prohibitive cost, hostile tribes, men infected by the hundreds by diseases, and man-eating lions pulling railway workers out of carriages at night, the name "Lunatic Line" certainly seemed to fit. [[Winston Churchill]], who regarded it "a brilliant conception", said of the project: "The British art of 'muddling through' is here seen in one of its finest expositions. Through everything—through the forests, through the ravines, through troops of marauding lions, through famine, through war, through five years of excoriating Parliamentary debate, muddled and marched the railway."{{sfn|Churchill|1909|pp=4–5}}

The modern term ''Lunatic Express'' was coined by Charles Miller in his 1971 ''The Lunatic Express: An Entertainment in Imperialism''.  The term ''[[The Iron Snake]]''{{sfn|Hardy|1965}} comes from an old [[Nandi people|Nandi]] prophecy by Orkoiyot Kimnyolei: "An iron snake will cross from the lake of salt to the lands of the Great Lake to quench its thirst.."{{sfn|Matson|2009}}

== Extensions and branches ==
[[File:Uganda railways assessment 2010 - Flickr - US Army Africa (6).jpg|thumb|Uganda Railway is {{RailGauge|1000mm|allk=on}}.]]Disassembled [[Ferry|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''). An {{convert|7|mi|km|adj=on|order=flip}} 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 {{convert|900|mi|km|order=flip|abbr=on}} 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.<ref>{{cite web|title=Investing in Uganda's Mineral Sector|url=http://www.ugandainvest.com/mining.pdf|access-date=20 June 2010|archive-date=1 June 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100601210624/http://www.ugandainvest.com/mining.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref> and extended to it to [[Arua]] near the  border with [[Zaïre]] in 1964.

==Inland shipping==

===Lake Victoria===
{{main|Lake Victoria ferries#Steamers}}
Almost from its inception the Uganda Railway developed shipping services on [[Lake Victoria]]. In 1898 it launched the 110 ton {{SS|William Mackinnon}} at Kisumu, having assembled the vessel from a "knock down" kit supplied by [[Bow, McLachlan and Company]] of [[Paisley, Renfrewshire|Paisley]] in Scotland. A succession of further Bow, McLachlan & Co. "knock down" kits followed. The 662 ton [[sister ship]]s {{SS|Winifred}} and {{SS|Sybil}} (1902 and 1903), the 1,134 ton {{SS|Clement Hill}} (1907) and the 1,300 ton sister ships {{SS|Rusinga}} and {{SS|Usoga}} (1914 and 1915) were combined passenger and cargo ferries. The 812 ton [[SS Nyanza (1907)|SS ''Nyanza'']] (launched after ''Clement Hill'') was purely a [[cargo ship]]. The 228 ton {{SS|Kavirondo}} launched in 1913 was a [[tugboat]]. Two more tugboats from Bow, McLachlan were added in 1925: {{SS|Buganda}} and {{SS|Buvuma}}.<ref name=ClydeBuganda>{{cite web |last1= Cameron |first1= Stuart |last2=Asprey |first2=David |last3=Allan |title=SS Buganda |work=Clyde-built Database |url=http://www.clydesite.co.uk/clydebuilt/viewship.asp?id=22799 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120616110816/http://www.clydesite.co.uk/clydebuilt/viewship.asp?id=22799 |url-status=usurped |archive-date=2012-06-16 |access-date= 2011-05-22}}</ref><ref name=ClydeBuvuma>{{cite web |last1= Cameron |first1= Stuart |last2=Asprey |first2=David |last3=Allan |first3=Bruce |title=SS Buvuma |work=Clyde-built Database |url=http://www.clydesite.co.uk/clydebuilt/viewship.asp?id=22800 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120616110822/http://www.clydesite.co.uk/clydebuilt/viewship.asp?id=22800 |url-status=usurped |archive-date=2012-06-16 |access-date= 2011-05-22}}</ref>

===Lake Kyoga, Lake Albert and the Nile===
The company extended its steamer service with a route across [[Lake Kyoga]] and down the [[Victoria Nile]] to [[Pakwach]] at the head of the [[Albert Nile]]. Its Lake Victoria ships were unsuitable for river work so it introduced the [[Paddle steamer#Types of paddle steamer|stern wheel paddle steamers]] {{PS|Speke}} (1910)<ref name=Janus>{{cite web |url=http://janus.lib.cam.ac.uk/db/node.xsp?id=EAD%2FGBR%2F0115%2FY30468L |title=Cambridge University Library: Royal Commonwealth Society Library, Mombasa and East African Steamers, Y30468L |work=Janus |publisher=Cambridge University Library |access-date=23 May 2011 |archive-date=11 May 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170511122103/https://janus.lib.cam.ac.uk/db/node.xsp?id=EAD%2FGBR%2F0115%2FY30468L |url-status=dead }}</ref> and {{PS|Stanley}} (1913)<ref name=Janus/> for the new service. In the 1920s the company added {{PS|Grant}} (1925)<ref name=Janus/> and the [[Paddle steamer#Types of paddle steamer|side wheel paddle steamer]] {{PS|Lugard}} (1927).<ref name=Janus/>

== Safari tourism ==
[[File:Uganda Railways - Theodore Roosevelt.jpg|thumb|Former U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt (seated, at left) and friends mount the observation platform of a Uganda Railway locomotive]]
As the only modern means of transport from the East African coast to the higher plateaus of the interior, a ride on the Uganda Railway became an essential overture to the [[safari]] adventures which grew in popularity in the first two decades of the 20th century. As a result, it usually featured prominently in the accounts written by travelers in British East Africa. The rail journey stirred many a romantic passage, like this one from former U.S. President [[Theodore Roosevelt]], who rode the line to start his [[Smithsonian–Roosevelt African Expedition|world-famous safari]] in 1909: {{cquote|The railroad, the embodiment of the eager, masterful, materialistic civilization of today, was pushed through a region in which nature, both as regards wild man and wild beast, does not differ materially from what it was in Europe in the late [[Pleistocene]].<ref>Roosevelt, Theodore, 1909, ''African Game Trails'', [[Charles Scribner's Sons]], page 2</ref>}}

Passengers were invited to ride a platform on the front of the locomotive from which they might see the passing game herds more closely.  During Roosevelt's journey, he claimed that "on this, except at mealtime, I spent most of the hours of daylight."

== Current status ==
[[File:Old Train yard in Nairobi.jpg|thumb|left|Former train still in use (2017)]]
[[File:Mombasa - Nairobi metre gauge railway outside Voi.jpg|thumb|Most parts of the old metre gauge line have been neglected and overgrown with bushes.|alt=Picture showing the old metre gauge railway line neglected and overgrown with bushes.]]
After independence, the railways in Kenya and Uganda fell into disrepair. In summer 2016, a reporter for ''[[The Economist]]'' magazine took the Lunatic Express from Nairobi to Mombasa.  He found the railway to be in poor condition, departing 7 hours late and taking 24 hours for the journey.<ref name =Economist1843>{{Cite news|url=https://www.1843magazine.com/features/the-lunatic-express|title=The lunatic express|last=Knowles|first=Daniel|date=2016-06-23|newspaper=The Economist|access-date=2016-07-15|archive-date=11 May 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170511031213/https://www.1843magazine.com/features/the-lunatic-express|url-status=dead}}</ref>  The last metre-gauge train between Mombasa and Nairobi made its run on 28 April 2017.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Ruthi|first1=William|title=Last ride on the Lunatic Express|url=http://www.nation.co.ke/lifestyle/DN2/Last-ride-on-the-kenya-Lunatic-Express/957860-3917650-vpvga7z/index.html|work=Daily Nation|date=8 May 2017|language=en-UK}}</ref>  The line between Nairobi and [[Kisumu]] near the Kenya–Uganda border has been closed since 2012.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://riftvalleyrail.com/inter-city/|title=Inter-City|publisher=Rift Valley Railways|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131004232107/http://riftvalleyrail.com/inter-city/|archive-date=4 October 2013|df=dmy-all|access-date=16 September 2018}}</ref>

From 2014 to 2016, the [[China Road and Bridge Corporation]] built the [[Mombasa–Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway]] (SGR) parallel to the original Uganda Railway.  Passenger service on the SGR was inaugurated on 31 May 2017.  The metre-gauge railway is still used to transport passengers between the new SGR [[Nairobi Terminus]] and the old metre-gauge train station in Nairobi city centre.

Research has shown that expectations and hopes for the transformations that the Uganda railway would bring about are similar to contemporary visions about the changes that would happen once East Africa became connected to high-speed fibre-optic broadband.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Graham|first1=Mark|last2=Andersen|first2=Casper|last3=Mann|first3=Laura|date=2014-12-15|title=Geographical imagination and technological connectivity in East Africa|journal=Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers|language=en|volume=40|issue=3|pages=334–349|doi=10.1111/tran.12076|issn=0020-2754|url=http://opendocs.ids.ac.uk/opendocs/handle/123456789/12889|doi-access=free|url-status=dead}}</ref>

==In popular culture==
[[File:Uganda railways assessment 2010-12.jpg|thumb|Jinja railway station with a Uganda Railways diesel locomotive.]]

A documentary on the construction of the line, ''The Permanent Way'', was made in 1961. John Halkin's 1968 novel, ''Kenya'',  focuses on the construction of the railway and its defence during the First World War. The construction also serves as the backdrop to the novel ''Dance of the Jakaranda'' (Akashic Books, 2017) by Peter Kimani, and appears early in the novel ''A History of Burning'' by Janika Oza (2023).

The Tsavo [[Tsavo maneaters|man-eating lions at Tsavo]] feature in a factual account by [[John Henry Patterson (author)|Patterson]]'s 1907 autobiographical book ''[[The Man-eaters of Tsavo]]''. They are part of the plot of the 1956 film ''[[Beyond Mombasa]]'', ''[[The Ghost and the Darkness]]'' in 1996, and ''[[Chander Pahar (film)|Chander Pahar]]'', a 2013 Bengali movie based on the 1937 novel by [[Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay]].

Several other films have featured the Uganda Railway, including ''[[Bwana Devil]]'', made in 1952. In addition, the 1985 film ''[[Out of Africa (film)|Out of Africa]]'' utilizes its railway equipment in several scenes, albeit out of place.

==See also==
{{portal|Trains|Kenya|Uganda}}
*[[Kenya Railways Corporation]]
*[[MacKinnon-Sclater road]]
*[[Rail transport in Kenya]]
*[[Transport in Uganda#Railways|Transport in Uganda]]
*[[Uganda Railways Corporation]]

==References==

===Footnotes===
{{reflist}}

===Bibliography===
{{Refbegin|30em}}
* {{cite book |author-link1=Mohamed Amin |last1=Amin |first1=Mohamed |last2=Willetts |first2=Duncan |last3=Matheson |first3=Alastair |title=Railway Across The Equator: The Story of the East African Line |date=1986 |publisher=The Bodley Head |location=London |isbn=0370307747}}
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*{{Patience-SteamEA}}
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*{{Ramaer-SteamLocosEAR}}
*{{Ramaer-Gari la Moshi}}
*{{Robinson-WorldRailAtlas-7}}
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* {{cite journal |publisher=The Uganda Society |journal=The Uganda Journal |location=Kampala |date=March 1948 |pages=1–15 |volume=12 |issue=1 |title=The Building of the Kenya and Uganda Railway |url=https://www.wdl.org/en/item/13809/view/1/5/ |first=G. C. |last=Whitehouse }}
{{refend}}

==External links==
{{commons category|Uganda Railway}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20200821092618/http://www.greywall.demon.co.uk/rail/Kenya/nrm.html History of the Uganda Railway]
*[http://www.fsmr.org.uk/EAR31.html {{frac|1|4}} scale replica of EAR 31 class steam locomotive "Uganda" at Stapleford Miniature railway in the UK]
* {{citation |chapter-url=http://www.railwaywondersoftheworld.com/through-desert-jungle.html |chapter=Through desert and jungle |title=Railway Wonders of the World |year=1936 |pages=193–199 |editor-first=Clarence |editor-last=Winchester }} illustrated description of the Uganda railway

{{EAR locomotives|state=collapsed}}
{{Kenya topics}}
{{Authority control}}
{{coord missing|Kenya|Uganda}}

[[Category:Uganda Railway| ]]
[[Category:Rail transport in Uganda]]
[[Category:Rail transport in Kenya]]
[[Category:Rail transport in East Africa|U]]
[[Category:Economic history of Kenya]]
[[Category:Economic history of Uganda]]
[[Category:Uganda Protectorate]]
[[Category:Kenya Colony]]
[[Category:Metre-gauge railways in Uganda]]
[[Category:Metre-gauge railways in Kenya]]
[[Category:1896 establishments in Kenya]]
[[Category:Railway companies established in 1896]]