Southern Tanzania has always depended on its roads. Trucks carry cashews from Newala, maize from Ruvuma, and timber from Lindi to Mtwara or Dar es Salaam, rattling over long stretches of tarmac and gravel. But in planning circles, another vision keeps resurfacing: a Southern Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) that would connect Dar es Salaam to Mtwara and Mbamba Bay on Lake Nyasa.
The idea is bold. It promises to cut travel times, lower freight costs, and anchor southern Tanzania in the country’s wider rail revival. It would carry cashew harvests, heavy LNG equipment, and even bulk minerals like coal and iron ore. For a region often called “peripheral,” it offers the possibility of becoming central to Tanzania’s economic future.
Yet for now, the SGR remains a dream. Roads continue to bear the burden, and questions loom: can Tanzania raise the billions needed? And if it does, will rail compete with or complement the roads already transforming the south?
The Big Vision
The Southern SGR is part of Tanzania’s grand railway ambition. The national SGR network already stretches from Dar to Dodoma and Mwanza, with spurs under construction toward Kigoma and Burundi. The southern extension, estimated at US$5.5 billion, would connect Dar to Mtwara, with branches extending into the mineral-rich areas of Liganga and Mchuchuma, and inland to Mbamba Bay.
The strategic logic is clear. Roads are expensive for heavy cargo; rail is cheaper and more sustainable over long distances. A southern line would take pressure off the Dar–Mtwara trunk road, move LNG construction materials at scale, and provide exporters with an alternative to road convoys.
For Tanzania’s planners, it’s not just about efficiency, it’s about balance. By providing the south with its own modern rail artery, the SGR would rebalance decades of underinvestment and firmly tie the region to national growth.
Roads vs Rail, A False Choice?
So far, the South’s progress has come on wheels, not rails. The Dar–Lindi–Mtwara highway has been upgraded, cutting journey times from more than 12 hours to under eight. The Mbinga–Mbamba Bay road was surfaced in 2024, improving access to the lake port. These roads are already changing the region’s economic rhythm.
However, rail doesn’t have to be seen as a competitor. Rail and road serve different purposes. A cashew farmer in Tandahimba still needs a feeder road to bring nuts to market; the SGR cannot reach his orchard. At the same time, a bulk shipment of LNG equipment or iron ore is far more efficiently hauled by rail than by convoys of trucks.
The real choice isn’t between rail and road, it’s whether Tanzania can integrate them. Roads deliver the last mile; rail carries the heavy loads across the long haul. Together, they could turn the south from a bottleneck into a growth corridor.
The Regional Angle
The Southern SGR is not just a Tanzanian story; it’s a regional one. If extended to Mbamba Bay, the railway could link directly into Malawi and Mozambique, transforming the Mtwara Development Corridor into a proper cross-border artery. For Malawi, which often relies on long and congested routes through Beira or Durban, access to Mtwara via rail would be a game-changer.
Tanzania has already shown how regional rail can attract financing. In 2023, the African Development Bank committed US$696 million to the Tanzania–Burundi SGR connection, recognising its potential to integrate East African trade. A southern line could build on that momentum, positioning Tanzania as the logistics heart of SADC’s north–south corridor.
But regional integration is as complex as it is promising. Cross-border coordination means aligning financing, customs procedures, and construction standards, no easy feat when neighbouring governments face their own priorities. Without that alignment, a Tanzanian line to the border could end up stranded, waiting for connections that never come.
Even so, the appeal is clear: a southern SGR would not only anchor Tanzania’s exports but also turn Mtwara into a port for the hinterland, serving Malawian and Mozambican traders as much as Tanzanians.
The Energy Dimension
For Tanzania’s energy ambitions, rail is not just an option; it may be a necessity. The proposed US$40 billion LNG project near Mtwara will require the movement of vast quantities of heavy machinery, steel, and construction materials. Roads alone cannot bear that load without prohibitive costs and damage.
A Southern SGR line could ease that strain, moving bulk cargo from Dar to Mtwara far more efficiently than fleets of trucks. Once operational, the LNG industry itself would depend on reliable logistics for workers, equipment, and exports. Rail could cut costs, reduce delays, and make Tanzania’s LNG more competitive globally.
This is why the corridor is more than just a transportation plan; it is also an energy infrastructure plan. Roads can connect local farms and towns, but for LNG and mining, only rail can realistically deliver the scale required. Without it, the South’s most ambitious projects risk being hobbled by their own logistics chains.
Obstacles and Risks
Yet ambition meets reality. The southern SGR’s US$5.5 billion price tag is staggering, and no financier has yet stepped forward with a firm commitment. The AfDB and China have expressed interest, but Tanzania’s priority remains completing the central and western lines that are already under construction. For now, the south sits in the waiting room.
There are also risks of duplication. Without integrated planning, Tanzania could build parallel systems that strain budgets rather than complement each other. Maintenance is another concern: even existing trunk roads deteriorate quickly under heavy use; adding rail creates new demands for long-term funding and technical expertise.
Finally, politics looms large. Grand projects can stall when administrations change or when regional priorities shift. For southern communities, the fear is familiar: that the SGR remains a promise on paper while their daily lives still depend on muddy feeder roads.
The Human View: What People Expect
For villagers in Mtwara and farmers in Newala, the Southern SGR often feels like a story for someone else. They hear about billions in investment, feasibility studies, and international lenders, but their daily struggles revolve around feeder roads that still flood in the rains. “We want a road that survives one season before we hear about trains,” one farmer in Tandahimba put it.
This tension reflects a broader truth: grand infrastructure doesn’t always trickle down. Rail might reduce national freight costs, but unless feeder roads deliver crops to collection points, smallholders will not feel the benefits. For now, most people in the south still measure progress in hours shaved off by new roads, not in trains that may or may not arrive.
Still, the dream of rail sparks pride. For residents who have long felt left behind, the prospect of a modern railway humming through their region is a symbol of recognition. It suggests that the South is finally part of the national story, not a forgotten appendage. The human view is therefore twofold: scepticism about promises, but hope that the trains, if they come, will carry more than cargo; they will carry belonging.
Dream or Direction?
The Southern SGR embodies both Tanzania’s ambition and its dilemmas. It is bold, expensive, and regionally transformative, but also uncertain, underfunded, and politically distant. For now, it is more dream than direction.
But the dream matters. It frames a vision where the South is not defined by remoteness, but by connectivity. Where LNG projects, cashew exports, and mineral flows move not only on roads that buckle under weight, but on rails designed for scale.
The choice for Tanzania is not between rail and road, but whether to invest in them together, in synergy. Roads deliver the last mile; rail carries the heavy haul. Only by building both can the country truly bind its southern periphery into the national core.
If the dream stays on paper, the South will remain peripheral. If it turns in the right direction, the Southern Corridor could become the line that redraws Tanzania’s economic map.
