My wife and I had hoped to travel by Railway Systems of Zambia (RSZ) train between Livingstone and Lusaka in August 2010. Unfortunately, we were unable to, but I thought it might still be useful to post an update on RSZ here.
Livingstone – Lusaka - Kitwe
RSZ have cancelled the Livingstone – Lusaka express (which had previously run twice a week, overnight but only with economy class seats – no sleepers).
This means the only service left on this line is a twice-weekly ‘ordinary’ train that runs Livingstone – Lusaka – Kapiri Mposhi – Kitwe, and vice versa. It leaves Livingstone and Kitwe in each direction on Mondays and Fridays. Journey time unknown, but probably 36 – 48 hours.
Although we did not travel on this train, we saw the southbound Kitwe – Lusaka – Livingstone train go through while we were in Kapiri Mposhi. It was due in at 16:22 (departing at 16:42), but was running about 40 minutes late.
The train consisted of ~8 economy-class carriages and a couple of luggage vans. There are no compartments on this train: all the carriages have open seating, with bays of 6 seats on one side of the aisle, and 4 on the other. There are luggage racks above the seats.
The train was fairly full (but not excessively overcrowded).
Livingstone – Mulobezi:
I think there is still a service between Livingstone and Mulobezi (on what used to be the Zambezi Sawmills Railway). There was a notice about this on a side-building in the station yard in Livingstone, but I didn’t manage record any details. We didn’t travel on this line.
