Kenya Railways Corporation cargo haulage surged in the three months to June, despite a decrease in the number of vessels arriving at the port of Mombasa.

Total cargo tonnage hit 378,977 tonnes in the month of June, against 383,109 tonnes recorded in May and 451,208 tonnes in April.

KR indicates in a report seen by People Daily that daily wagon supply fluctuated between 400 to 500 in the period under review, with the May and June period seeing depressed volumes due to lower vessel numbers.

To enhance cargo evacuations, Kenya Railways and the SGR operator, Afristar has ensured that the double-decker stacking of 80 wagons is utilized to full carriage capacity with each of the two trains conveying 152 TEUs per trip to the Inland Container Deport in Nairobi.

Meanwhile, a special tandem double engines train hauling 70 wagons of 140 TEUs per haulage has been added too to reduce any cargo pile up and make Mombasa port of choice for domestic and transit cargo.

Out of the total freight carried by the SGR operator Afristar in June, bulk cargo accounted for 115,920 tonnes, with container cargo registering a tonnage of 263,057 tons.

The SGR performance between June 2020 and June 2021 was remarkable with the total TEUs standing at 284,815, bulk cargo tonnage at 366,008 while the total tonnage for the fiscal year was pegged at 4,584,173 tonnes.