Uganda Railways Goods Sheds: From cargo hubs to idle assets

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Kampala, Uganda | URN | Uganda once had railway warehouses busy enough to handle hundreds of thousands of tonnes of cargo a year. URC also had one of the best parcel systems, handling heavy commercial logistics and large-scale cargo across Uganda and Kenya.

The goods sheds stored imported merchandise, handled exports, generated rental income and absorbed cargo when other railway stations ran out of space.

In 2006, Rift Valley Railways took over a railway system that included 16 goods sheds in Uganda, alongside stations, workshops, depots and other public assets.

Twenty years later, some of those cargo facilities are struggling to perform the function for which they were built.

The Auditor General has found Kampala’s Goods Shed Inland Container Depot non-functional, dilapidated and underutilised, with the government losing potential revenue from cargo handling and storage.