Kitwe Man to Travel to Livingstone by Train

By Kalata News

Lusaka 14/03/24 – A KITWE man has decided to risk it all and do a Kitwe to Livingstone trip on a Zambia Railways train.

Bivan Saluseki, a Kitwe resident and local tourist, said he has been wanting to do this journey for a long time and had included this on his bucket list.

“Been preparing for this. A train journey from Kitwe to Livingstone. I am starting off on Friday from Kitwe at 16:00 hours and the expected time of arrival – Livingstone – is 02:00hrs Sunday ‘train willing’” he informed his friends and relatives via social media.

According to route planner Rome2Rio, Zambia Railways operated train takes 19h 4m from Lusaka to Livingstone and takes approximately 14h 56m from Kitwe to Lusaka. This makes this journey a total of 34 hours (approximately 1 day and half).
Kitwe is located in Zambia at the longitude of 28.22 and latitude of -12.81. Livingstone is located in Zambia at the longitude of 25.86 and latitude of -17.86.

“Made a call to the Zambia Railways Kitwe office today. It’s K450 first-class sleeper and K430 second sleeper. I have psyched my mind and prayed over it. I have counselled myself. I can do it. I did Kapiri – Dar Es Salaam with the late photojournalist Eddie Mwanaleza in four days some years ago. This one though, I’m told the speed is the biggest enemy,” he added.

According to Saluseki, in 2020, the Alliance for Community Action measured the speed at which the train moved in Zambia. The train left Lusaka at 09:23hrs on a Saturday and arrived in Livingstone at 04:08hrs on a Sunday taking 18hrs on the rail. On the return trip, the train left Livingstone at 20:24hrs on a Monday and arrived in Lusaka at 21:28hrs on a Tuesday traveling for 24 hours.

He said tracker showed that the train travelled at an average speed of 20km/h covering an estimated distance of 465.552km with the highest speed attained being 36km/h. The Unit also decided to calculate the speed of the train using the mathematical formula for calculating average speed, which is speed = total distance divided by the total time taken to travel. The calculation indicated that the train on the trip to Livingstone moved at an average speed of 25.86km/h while on the return trip it moved at a speed of 19.38km/h.

Saluseki laments “The average speed of both legs of the journey was 22.62 km/h! Some funds should have been used to increase the speed to at least 80km/hour, I’m told under the Euro Bond. Good that there are works aimed at improving railway safety, reducing derailments & transit time through the uplifting of Temporary Speed Restrictions (TSR). Let’s do this. It’s fun by train.”

Saluseki will be joining a group of local train lovers and adventures, who includes British High Commissioner to Zambia Nick Woolley, who have decided that despite the Zambia Railways trains being known to be old and slow, and their rail trucks being rickety and unreliable, they will risk it all and enjoy this excruciating but picturesque journey.

Last year the High Commissioner Wolley retraced his British adventure spirit by taking the Zambezi Express from Living stone to Lusaka and still managed to arrive in Lusaka in one piece and unfazed.

It is yet to be seen if the gurus at Zambia Railways will take advantage of the interest in trains by local travellers and adventurers to improve on their fleet and tracks so traveling can be both an experience and luxury.
For speed lovers, the Zambia Railways trains with a maximum speed of below 60km per hour is a not go area when one compares the existence of speed trains like the TGV in France or the bullet trains of China and Japan.