Lake Victoria ferries

Lake Victoria ferries are motor ships (earlier examples were steamboats) carrying freight and passengers among Uganda, Tanzania, and Kenya on Lake Victoria. The main ports on the lake are Kisumu, Mwanza, Bukoba, Entebbe, Port Bell and Jinja.

By the mid-20th century, the East African Railways and Harbours Corporation operated regular sailings clockwise around the lake from Kisumu, using rail ferries that carried rail wagons loaded directly from rail tracks extended on the jetties at Kisumu, Port Bell and Mwanza. The rail network linked to the Indian Ocean ports of Mombasa and Dar es Salaam which allowed countries of the African interior such as Uganda and Rwanda to transport freight to and from world markets. Typical journey times were 13 hours between Port Bell in Uganda and Kisumu in Kenya, and 19 hours between Port Bell and Mwanza in Tanzania.

After 2006, most railway wagon ferry services ceased operating, and the rail tracks at the jetties saw little use. In 2012, Rift Valley Railways restarted operation of the rail wagon ferry service between Port Bell and Mwanza using the refurbished MV Kaawa.

As of April 2013, Tanzania Railways' Central Line is operating freight and passenger rail services from Mwanza to Tabora, Dodoma and Dar es Salaam while Rift Valley Railways operates rail freight services only from Kampala to Mombasa. The railway line from Kisumu is not operating.

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Wikipedia