Kenya’s government has agreed to buy 11 second-hand DMUs from Mallorca metre-gauge operator Serveis Ferroviaris de Mallorca (SFM) for use by Kenya Railways’ Nairobi commuter rail services on five routes radiating from the capital.
The deal is worth 1.5 billion Kenyan Shillings ($1.5million) and is reportedly around a tenth of the cost of buying new trains. As well as more services, nine additional stations are planned and some loco-hauled stock will be retained and modernised.
Electrification of single-track routes on Mallorca at 1,500V DC from Enllaç to Manacor (31km) and Sa Pobla (12km) was completed in January at a cost of around €47m, meaning the CAF-built Class 61 DMUs dating from 1995 were surplus. Operator SFM is using its EMU fleet to operate through services to and from Palma. The first of the trains are expected to arrive in Kenya in June, and are parts of plans to increase capacity on commuter services in the capital from 13,000 to 132,000 passengers a day by 2022.
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