The Standard Gauge Railway freight trains are expected to haul 8 million tonnes of cargo by next year.
This will be 25.8 per cent of total throughput of the port of Mombasa.
Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) Acting Managing Director Daniel Manduku recently said the port was expected to handle about 31 million tonnes of cargo this year.
Freight services hit new records on Wednesday this week after it operated 30 freight trains and four passenger trains within 24 hours.
“On Wednesday we operated 30 trains because of availability of cargo and enough equipment,” said Kenya Railway Coast Traffic Superintendent Thomas Ojijo.
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The SGR has resolved the teething problems it had at its launch, which were blamed on unavailability of equipment and low volume of cargo.
President Uhuru directed that the KPA managing director coordinate all agencies operating at the port to bolster efficacy in the SGR operation.
The SGR freight train is projected to haul 6 million tonnes of cargo to the Nairobi Inland Container Depot, whose capacity has been expanded to 450,000 teus at a cost of Sh21 billion.
