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Poor Roads Check Tanganyika's Progress

30th March 1951, Page 34
30th March 1951
Page 34
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Page 34, 30th March 1951 — Poor Roads Check Tanganyika's Progress
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TANGANYIKA is a large country covering about 376,000 sq. miles, 6i times the size of England and Wales. It is thinly populated by about 5i m. people, nearly all Africans. Generally speaking, these people are much more backward than the West Africans, and it is rare to find a native engaged in business. Most of the shops are run by Indians, who also supply the clerks and foremen, whilst the higher posts in the Government service and in trading concerns are

filled by Europeans. There is believed to be much mineral wealth in the country, but so far little has been done to take advantage of it, so that there are no industries worth mentioning and the territory depends almost entirely on its plant and animal products.

Vast stretches of the country are infertile or cannot bear cattle because of the tsetse fly, consequently the population is unevenly distributed. The capital, Dar-es-Salaam, and the ports on the Indian Ocean have a fair local density and there are substantial concentrations in the Northern and Lakes Provinces. Most of the European settlers live in the Northern Province or the Southern Highlands, where the high altitude makes for a much healthier climate than is to be found on the coast.

There is no doubt that the poorness of the internal communications is holding the country back, and more than one official report has drawn attention to this problem. The metre-gauge railway system is in three parts—the Central Line runs west from Dar-es-Salaam to the great lakes, with a few branches; in the north-east corner a line from Tanga runs inland to Moshi (on the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro) and to Arusha. This connects by a spur via Voi with the Kenya system. In the extreme south is the line from Mkwaya (on Lindi Creek) to Nactungwea, built mainly for the groundnuts ' scheme. The railways are part of the East African

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Railways and Harbours organization, owned jointly by the three territories of Kenya, Uganda and Tanganyika.

In 1941, the railways started bus and lorry services to link the Tanga and Central Lines at Korogwe and Morogoro, a distance of 176 miles over an extremely bad road. A year or so later, the Southern Highlands were linked by a 406-mile service from Dodoma on the Central Line to Mbeya, and another service of 303 miles from WO, farther west on the Central Line, also to Mbeya. More recently, the Arusha railhead has also been connected to Dodoma by a 277-mile service, and shorter services have been instituted between Arusha and Oldeani (100 miles); Mombo (north-west of Tanga) and Malindi (40 miles), and Itigi and Singida (75 miles).

Imposed on the Dodoma-Mbeya route is an IringaMbeya service working via Mufindi and Njombe, with an additional service Mbeya-Tukuyu. On the DadomaArusha route, goods traffic is carried only as far north as Kondoa Iringi, but parcels can be transported on the buses for the whole distance. Morogoro-Korogwe was also only a passenger and parcels service, and this has now been curtailed to work between Morogoro and Handeni (136 miles). As from January I, all vehicles on the Mombo-Malindi route were taken off.

The main-road service, Dodoma-Mbeya, runs twice weekly; that from Iringa to Mbeya, via Mulindi, four times weekly as far as Njombe and twice weekly on to Mbeya. Mbeya can be reached from itigi three times weekly, whilst there is a daily service from Mbeya to Tukuyu. Dodoma-Arusha, Arusha-Oldeani and ItigiSingida are served twice weekly. The Mbeya-Itigi buses travel through the night in both directions, but on the other long. routes overnight stops are made.

" Considering the difficulties of the terrain, average speeds are surprisingly high, reaching 21 m.p.h. on the Mbeya-Itigi run and 23 m.p.h. between Dodoma and Arusha. These speeds are calculated after deducting the time spent at major stops. In some cases, where excessively steep escarpments are encountered, substantially more time is allowed for coming down than for going up; for instance, from Arusha to Oldeani takes 4 hrs, 35 mins., including stops, whilst the journey in the reverse direction takes an hour longer.

Fares for third-class passengers are on the basis of 5 cents per mile (100 cents – is.); this is an uneconomic rate charged for political reasons and only Africans are allowed to take advantage of it. "Upper-class" fares were on the basis of 15 cents per mile, but it has been necessary recently to increase them to 20 cents per mile. Actual bookings are made in sections of approximately 10 miles and calculated to the nearest 10 miles. In 1949, 32,916 passengers and 31,523 tons of goods were carried.

The railway road services started off with a mixed bag of used Fords, Chevrolets, Internationals and Bed fords. Many of these failed to stand up to the exacting conditions and after the war some ex-military Dodges and some new Bedforrls were bought. The Bedfords were 5-tonners, all the previous vehicles being of 3-ton capacity. Only the chassis were bought and the bodies were built in the railway workshops. This practice has continued with more recent purchases and, on close inspection, the railway origin of the bodies is noticeable.

Washboard Roads With increasing experience, the management decided that heavier machines were necessary, both to carry economic loads and to stand up to the shockingly bad conditions. These have to be sampled to be appreciated. Tarmacadam is confined to most of the main roads in the township of Dar-es-Salaam, one or two short lengths in other towns and about 18 miles north of Arusha towards the Kenya border. Most of the untarred " allweather " roads are horribly corrugated, with frequent pot-holes and after a heavy shower usually become slippery and dangerous.

Poor surfaces are not the only hindrance to operation. In some districts, notably in the Southern Highlands, the gradients and hairpin bends are astonishing. , For example, in going south from Dodoma, the road, after crossing the Ruaba river, rises in 39 miles from 4,000 ft. above sea-level to 7,500 ft; it then descends in the next 33 miles to 5.500 ft. at Mbeya. Taking the northern road thence towards Itigi, the first 14 miles involves a climb to over 8,000 ft. and then a continuous drop for 39 miles to 4,000 ft. at the Lupa river.

When climbing, the road is often cut in the face of the rack, so that on one side there may be a sheer drop of two or three thousand feet and one has a nasty feeling on approaching a blind bend on the outside when the road is wet, especially as there is usually only just room for two vehicles to pass. A heavy lorry and trailer hurtling down in the opposita direction could easily knock one off the road and this is by no means an uncommon occurrence.

Albions Doing Well

hi the light of their experience, the railways have in the past 12 months concentrated on Albion 6-tonners and 10-tonners, and I understand that these are standing up well to the work—so long as the African drivers do not attempt to tinker with the pumps and injectors. A big improvement in availability is expected following a change in the undertaking's internal organization. Overhaul work has been taken away from the railway workshops at Dar-es-Salaam and is .now being done.

in new shops which are being put up and equipped -at lringa, 162 mites south of Dodoma. Dar-es-Salaam is 280 miles from Dodoma, so much time and expense were wasted in sending vehicles there by rail under the old arrangements.

Complete responsibility for the road services in the three territories and in all departments, engineering as well as traffic, has now been placed on the superintendent of the line, whose office is in Nairobi, Kenya.

The reader will, perhaps, wonder why it was necessary to send the railway road vehicles to Dar-es-Salaam by rail. There is no direct road from Dodoma to the capital and the circuitous route by which vehicles can get through is out of use for several months of the year.

Even when it is available, large vehicles cannot use it because of a ferry over the Ruvu river. This has a weight limit of 3,1 tons and, although the authorities are prepared to stretch a point and perhaps allow up to 4 tons under favourable conditions, all large and medium-sized vehicles have to have their loads taken off

before they can go over.

There will be a big improvement when the new Moro goro road is finished in two or three years' time. This will be about 120 miles long, tarred.

' and with bridges capable of carrying at one time a lorry weighing 16.2 tons gross with three two-axled trailers each weighing 5.4 tons gross. The bugbear of -the Ruvu will thus be completely

avoided.

Actually, it is impossible to go more than 40 or 50 miles from Dar-es Salaam in any direction without encountering a ferry, so that in effect

the capital is cut off from the rest of the territory by road for half the ).rear. In some, cases not only is

the ferry itself inadequate but the approaches are bad. There is one, for example, over the Kingoni, four miles west of Bagamoyo. It is approached over a swamp by a narrow causeway. only wide enough in one or two places for passing, and with 18 culverts and bridges in the four miles, most of them narrow plank constructions without side rails.

Similar difficult conditions exist all over the country, but the Public Works Department is striving manfully to bring about a better state of affairs within the scope of the somewhat limited budget allowed it. In addition to the new Dar-es-Salaam-Morogoro road, another major improvement now nearing completion is an entirely new road in the Northern Province between the important centres of Arusha and Moshi; this itself will be a tarred road about 43 miles long. It will eventually be extended at its western end up to the Kenya border towards Nairobi, superseding the 18 miles of existing road which possesses the only tarred surface in the country outside a few of the towns. At the new road's eastern end it will be extended to Taveta on the Kenya border.

Other major improvements are scheduled for the next few years, including a new tarred road from Tanga to Korogwe, a number of new bridges and a strengthening of existing trunk and main-road bridges so that they can take a lorry weighing 12 tons gross plus a trailer weighing 8 tons.

There are few proper buses in the country, but the conveyance of passengers by lorry is general and people manage to travel great distances by this means. The largest road transport undertaking in the Territory after the railway-owned fleet is Tanganyika Roadways, Ltd., which has had a meteoric rise in three years from two vehicles to about 135, including trailers.

a2 The oldest continuously established road transport business in the country is that of the Tanganyika Transport Co., Ltd., commonly known as Teeteeco. This was started in the 1920s by Mr. Carnegie Brown, now a member of the Legislative Council, and has ever since provided a reliable service, running in the dry season at least twice a week from Lindi to Songea and at least once a week from Lindi to Dar-es-Salaam.

Mr. Brown sold the business some years ago to a group of Indians. The fleet now consists of 35 lorries and two trailers, including five Commer 5-ton oilers and a number of other new vehicles. There are several other owners operating more or less casually between Lindi and Songea, of which the most regular is probably Messrs. Osman, of Songea, who have four Bedford buses and six new Austin 5-ton lorries.

Enterprise Rewarded

In the Northern Province, Harchand Singh has built up a reputation for reliability with his daily passenger service from Arusha to Dodoma; his fleet numbers 12 5-tonners and two Bedford buses. This is an interesting case of a man, once employed as a chauffeur, who risked all the small amount of money he had (plus some he borrowed) on a used lorry just before the war and has since done so well that in addition to his transport business he now owns considerable property, including a cinema.

Indians have a great urge to start in business as hauliers and the great number of failures does not deter others from getting hold of an old vehicle, working it to death at cut-throat rates and then "going broke."

Unlike Kenya and Uganda, Tanganyika does not operate anything akin to the British licensing system. The Transport Ordinance, 1937, which set up a Licensing Authority, has never been implemented, so that anyone can start up in transport, and with indifferent police control over vehicle fitness, the position is even more unsatisfactory than it was in Great Britain prior to 1930 and 1933.

The view of the Government is that Tanganyika needs more road transport and, therefore, no restriction should be imposed at present. This attitude misses the points that lack of control means unrestricted competition on the heavy traffic routes, whilst other routes are left not served at all. or only badly so, and the fierce competition prevents the establishment of reliable services by responsible operators on whom traders can rely. Furthermore, there is no inducement to the long-term planning and investment which are necessary if a really worth-while nation-wide haulage system is to be developed, and if regulation were introduced at this comparatively early stage, many of the difficulties found in other countries in sorting out an excess of transport would be avoided.

The Dar-es-Saiaam Motor Transport Co., Ltd., is one of Commander Hare's Overseas Motor Transport group. It started operations on November 1, 1949, and in its first year carried over 2,800,000 passengers on its 20 Guy single-deck buses. The company has a monopoly of passenger work within the Dar-es-Salaam municipal boundary, and until it can pay a 3 per cent. dividend on its capital, is entitled to a subsidy from the Council.

Seven services are run, and the longest of these is a cross-town Journey of about 8 miles, which takes 35 rains. Four services work at peak hours only. Service 3, on which the bulk Of the African passengers travel, does not carry first-class passengers and is the only one which runs at a regular headway throughout the day. Three other routes also touch the African quarter. Seventeen vehicles are required for the full peak-hour time-table. Services start about 6 a.m. and tail off after 8 p.m. The last bus reaches the garage about 9.30 p.m., except for some specials, which are put out to serve the late picture houses.

Fares are high for first-class passengers as they work out at between 2d. and 3d. a mile, with a minimum of 30 cents. Second-class fares are roughly half. Ordinary bell-punch tickets are used, and I was told that the company was satisfied that it is losing little revenue through fraud. Surprise checks are made by inspectors and, of course, the area is fairly compact and easy to supervise. There is a greater likelihood of loss through inability to collect fares at peak periods, and when I was there an experiment was about to be made. with T.I.M. machines to see if the issue of tickets can be speeded up. It would seem that the fares-collection problem, so urgent at home, even has its counterpart in Tanganyika, although operational circumstances may be much different


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