To go by train from Lusaka to Dar-es-Salaam you have to go by two companies; Zambia Railways Lusaka-Kapiri Mposhi and Tanzania-Zambia Railway New Kapiri Mposhi(2 km from ZR Kapiri Mposhi)-Dar-es-Salaam TAZARA. Rather ironically, the Chinese fulfilled an essential part of the dream of Cecil Rhodes by building the TAZARA railway to Dar-es-Salaam, to enable Zambia to export its copper without using South Rhodesia and South Africa. The TZR has had or have plans of a through train Lusaka-Dar-es-Salaam but so far such a train has never existed. The problem with a train journey Lusaka-Dar-es-Salaam today is that the only train to Kapiri Mposhi (three times weekly) is a train from Livingstone to Kitwe. The ZR trains are really very late, on my journey we for example passed Lusaka at 1 a.m. instead of 7 p.m. and arrived Kapiri Mposhi at 2.30 p.m. instead of 2.50 a.m. The best thing to do therefore, if you want to avoid standing hours on the Lusaka railway station, is to go down to Livingstone and take the train from there.
The ZR leaves Livingstone at 9 a.m. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, supposedly Lusaka at 7 p.m. the same day and arrives Kapiri Mposhi at 3 a.m. on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. The train has Sleepers, with 2 berth compartments, 2nd class, with 2+2 reclining seats, 3rd class and a bistro car.
The TZR train leaves New Kapiri Mposhi at 2.54 p.m. Tuesdays and Fridays and is supposed to arrive at Dar Thursday and Sunday morning respectively, so as you see there is only one connection that fits (if the ZR is not more than 11 hours 40 minutes late!); the Monday dep. from Livingstone with the Tuesday dep. from New Kapiri Mposhi. The trains ("Mukuba Express" and "Kilimanjaro Express"
has 1st class, with 4 berth compartments, 2nd class, with 6 berth compartments, 3rd class and dining car.
The TZR neither answers mail nor faxes anyway, so you will have no use of their address. Zambia Railways were the only (of the South African SPOORNET, the ZR, the TZR, the Tanzania Rail Corporation and the Kenya Railways) who answered my letters. Write to Zambia Railways, Manager Passenger L Mwanza, Fax +260 5 22 44 11.
Personal experience: The ZR train left Livingstone half an hour late, at 9.30 a.m.. I have never seen a less maintained train (and I have travelled by rail in sixty-two countries). The sleeping compartment door was difficult to close and just as difficult to open, the windows were partly crashed, the fans and light did not work, there was no water in the sleeping car and the toilet was a hole in the floor. We were supposed to arrive Kapiri Mposhi at 2.50 a.m. At 11 a.m. the next day I started to loose hope of reaching my train to Dar-es-Salaam, as our engine had been detached from the train to be repaired and we still were quite some distance from Kapiri Mposhi. At 14.30, 11 hours and 40 minutes late, we arrived Kapiri Mposhi and I still didn’t know exactly when the TAZARA train for Tanzania was supposed to leave. Kapiri Mposhi on the ZR line is no station, just some tracks out in the field, but the train staff got me a taxi, and the taxi driver knew the TAZARA train would leave at 14.54, and it was only 2 km to New Kapiri Mposhi station, from where these trains leave.
The TZR train runs through a beautiful landscape, and in Tanzania I saw a lot of antelopes, buffaloes and giraffes. Already when leaving New Kapiri Mposhi the “Mukuba Express” (Copper in the Bemba language) was two hours late. We were supposed to arrive Dar-es-Salaam Thursday morning. In the afternoon the engine broke down, one station from Dar-es-Salaam. Everybody, except a young Bermudan-English couple with two small children and a lot of luggage and I, went the last 10 km or so by minibus. Finally a new engine arrived and pulled us in to Dar-es-Salaam TAZARA at 6. p.m.
