Trains across East Africa
NaN routes and 8 operators across 7 countries Fares and travel times below come from the same engine that answers the search box.
2,312 Trains routes run across East Africa, reaching 106 places in 7 countries through 8 operators On the 16 busiest of them, priced on October 10, 2026, the cheapest fare is €22.34 and the fastest trip is 1h 45m door to door. A median route runs 252 km.
Trains in East Africa, in numbers
What we actually sell, counted rather than claimed.
- 2,312Routes we sell
- 578Corridors
- 106Places served
- 7Countries
- 8Operators
- 2,200Domestic routes
- 112Cross border routes
- 0Routes out of the region
- 252 kmMedian route
- 1,088 kmLongest route
How the modes compare across East Africa
Every mode measured on the same 16 corridors in East Africa, priced on October 10, 2026 for one passenger.
| Mode | Corridors priced | From | Door to door | CO2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Flight | 3 | €49.70 | 4h 7m | 105.8 kg |
| Train | 16 | €60.02 | 3h 51m | 17.3 kg |
The corridors that matter in East Africa
Ranked by how much service runs, then priced. The country and city pages carry the rest.
| Route | From | Fastest | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kabwe to Lusaka train | €22.34 | 1h 45m | 108 km |
| Singida to Tabora train | €35.54 | 2h 30m | 214 km |
| Tanga to Morogoro train | €41.04 | 2h 56m | 251 km |
| Bishoftu to Dessie train | €43.24 | 3h 7m | 274 km |
| Arusha to Dodoma train | €53.14 | 3h 25m | 329 km |
| Livingstone to Lusaka train | €54.24 | 3h 40m | 375 km |
| Arusha to Zanzibar train | €55.89 | 3h 40m | 418 km |
| Kigoma to Tabora train | €57.54 | 3h 41m | 355 km |
| Moshi to Morogoro train | €62.49 | 4h 11m | 388 km |
| Mombasa to Nairobi train | €63.04 | 4h 1m | 442 km |
| Morogoro to Arusha train | €64.14 | 4h 22m | 399 km |
| Kibaha to Arusha train | €72.39 | 4h 48m | 452 km |
| Tabora to Arusha train | €74.59 | 4h 50m | 465 km |
| Nazrēt to Djibouti train | €83.39 | 5h 18m | 543 km |
| Bariadi to Zanzibar train | €106.49 | 6h 51m | 688 km |
| Bariadi to Dar es Salaam train | €111.44 | 7h 24m | 737 km |
Countries in East Africa
Every country in East Africa we sell in, most routes first.
| Country | Routes | Places | Operators |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tanzania | 772 | 22 | 1 |
| Kenya | 612 | 42 | 1 |
| Zambia | 444 | 16 | 1 |
| Ethiopia | 436 | 16 | 1 |
| Djibouti | 112 | 16 | 1 |
| Mozambique | 36 | 5 | 2 |
| Madagascar | 12 | 5 | 2 |
When to book in East Africa
The same search run at seven lead times across 3 corridors in East Africa.
- €126.843 days
- €142.247 days
- €83.3921 days
- €57.5445 days
- €99.8984 days
- Cheapest lead time
- Across the routes we sampled the typical fare is lowest around 45 days ahead, at €57.54.
- How much it moves
- The gap between the cheapest and most expensive lead time is 60 percent. At the most expensive point the typical fare is €142.24, 7 days out.
How far people travel to get here
Every origin we sell by Trains, grouped by how far it is in a straight line.
| Distance | Routes | Share | Nearest of them |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 200 km | 1,040 | 45% | Kakamega, 40 km |
| 200 to 600 km | 1,068 | 46% | Choma, 203 km |
| 600 to 1,500 km | 204 | 9% | Bariadi, 605 km |
Rail operators
The carriers with the largest networks inside East Africa.
Train destinations
Other ways to travel across East Africa
Common questions about Trains across East Africa
How many Trains routes does Orlero sell across East Africa?
2,312 of them, across 7 countries reaching 106 places through 8 operators
How much does travelling by Trains cost in East Africa?
On the 16 busiest Trains corridors in East Africa, priced on October 10, 2026, the lowest fare is €22.34 and the median is €60.02.
Is Trains the fastest way across East Africa?
On the corridors we priced, train takes a median of 3h 51m door to door, against 4h 7m by Flight. Both figures include reaching the terminal and leaving it at the other end.
Which countries in East Africa have Trains routes we sell?
Tanzania, Kenya, Zambia, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Mozambique, Madagascar.
Who runs the Trains services in East Africa?
Kenya Railways, Tanzania Railways, Zambia Railways, China Railway Group, CFM, Caminhos de Ferro do Moçambique, among 8 carriers we sell across East Africa.
When should I book travel across East Africa?
Fares on the corridors we sampled bottom out about 45 days before departure. Booking then rather than 7 days ahead was 60 percent cheaper on this sample.
How far apart are the places we sell in East Africa?
The median route runs 252 km in a straight line and the shortest is 40 km. The longest we sell is 1,088 km, from Dar es Salaam to Kigoma.
Where these numbers come from
Places, coordinates, operators, which operator serves which pair, and every distance on this page are real and come from open data. Where a corridor has a filed timetable the departure times are real too, and ferry fares are the prices the operators publish themselves.
Where no operator publishes a fare for a corridor, the price here is our own estimate, worked out from the real distance and the real operator through a fare curve that follows lead time, day of the week and season. It tells you roughly what the journey costs. It is not a seat anyone has agreed to sell, and the payment step will not take it.
Defined in full at Door to door, Fares
- Regions
- A region is a set of countries, and a route counts for it when either end is inside it. Countries are grouped from their ISO code alone, so the map grows with the data and nothing here is drawn by hand.
- The sample
- Fares, travel times and carbon are measured on the 16 highest ranked corridors in this region, spread across it rather than taken from the top, so the figures describe the region and not its busiest country.