The Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) through its annual Economic Survey Report, has revealed that the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) revenues rose in 2023 by twelve per cent.
According to the report the revenue from passenger movement through SGR rose by 11.7 per cent from Ksh2.6 billion in 2022 to Ksh2.9 billion in 2023.
The rise in the revenues could be attributed to the increase in the number of passengers through the SGR which rose by 14.1 percent..
According to the figures released by the KNBS, the number of passengers rose from 2,392 million in 2022 to 2,729 million in 2023, a factor that can be attributed to the increased use of SGR during the holiday seasons.
Additionally, the report cited that the volume of cargo transported via SGR rose by 7.3 per cent from 6.09 million tonnes in 2022 to 6.53 million tonnes in 2024.
This increase in cargo transport resulted in the increase of the revenue collected from cargo haulage from Ksh12.67 billion in 2022 to Ksh14.7 billion in 2023.
On the other hand revenues from cargo transported through the Meter Gauge Railway increased from 787,000 tonnes in 2022 to 1 million tonnes in 2023.
The increase was partly attributed to the operationalization of the SGR Longonot link, which enabled the movement of cargo from the Internal Container Depot (ICD) Naivasha to the Malaba border point.
Revenue generated from freight haulage rose by 65.1 percent from Ksh1.2 billion in 2022 to Ksh 1.9 billion in 2023.
This is partly attributable to the increase in the transportation of steel products along the MGR line.
Further, the number of passengers via MGR increased from 3,430,000 million in 2022 to 3,454,000 million in 2023 with the majority utilizing the Nairobi Commuter Railway (NCR) services.
The revenue increase announcement follows an upgrade for the railway service as Kenya is set to receive 300 wagons from China in February 2024 meant for the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) in a move aimed at boosting the Madaraka Express Freight Service.
