Increased number of passengers supported by higher cargo volume helped the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) register 18.6pc increase in revenue to Ksh 21.4 billion in a year to December 2025.
Provisional data by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) indicate that cumulative revenue in twelve months of the year rose by Ksh 3.4 billion from Ksh 18.1 billion reported in 2024 owing to improved cargo tonnage haulage on the new track and better passenger traffic.
Leading Economic Indicator by the bureau shows that the cargo movement on SGR increased from 6.53 million tonnes in to 2024 to 7.43 million tonnes.
This helped push revenue from freight to Ksh 16.64 billion last year compared to Ksh 13.97 billion reported in 2024.
In twelve months of the year to December 2025, SGR passenger traffic grew to 2.7 million compared to 2.4 million a year earlier.
As a result, revenue from passenger services grew from Ksh 4.1 billion to Ksh 4.8 billion supported by stronger passenger traffic in December.
“Passenger traffic on the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) increased from 258,600 in November 2025 to 344,391 in December 2025, with revenue rising from Ksh 446 million to KSh 602.3 million,” noted the bureau.
Kenya Railways however suffered losses with suspension of the Nairobi-Kisumu Metre Gauge Railway (MGR) which had ben damaged. This saw the passenger traffic on the line decline to 2.7 million as revenue fell to Ksh 157 million.
“Passenger traffic on the Metre Gauge Railway (MGR) decreased from 244,825 in November 2025 to 227,030 in December 2025, with revenue rising from Ksh 13 million to Ksh 16.2 million,” said KNBS.
Freight revenue via the old line also declined by Ksh 21 million, from Ksh 1.89 billon to Ksh Ksh 1.87 billion. This as freight tonnage rose to 1.08 million tonnes from 1.02 million tonnes though a decline was noted during the December period.
“Similarly, freight tonnage via MGR declined from 82.4 thousand MT to 77.5 thousand MT, with revenue falling from KSh 144.0 million to KSh 141.1 million,” said the bureau.
KNBS says total cargo throughput at the Port of Mombasa during the year rose to 5.03 million metric tonnes.
“Total cargo throughput at the Port of Mombasa increased from 4.1 million metric tonnes in November 2025 to 4.5 million metric tonnes in December 2025,” said KNBS.
During the same period, export volumes rose from 445.5 thousand metric tonnes to 453.6 thousand metric tonnes, while imports increased from 3.3 million metric tonnes to 3.7 million metric tonnes.
On the other hand transshipment traffic declined from 330.6 thousand metric tonnes to 293.8 thousand metric tonnes.
