From 1947 to 1982, there was a 600 mm (1 ft 11+5⁄8 in) narrow gauge industrial railway within the boundaries of the Port of Bujumbura on Lake Tanganyika.
The aim of that project was to improve connections between the Great Lakes and the southern African 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) rail network.
[citation needed] By 2004, the Northern Corridor Transit and Transport Coordination Authority, based in Mombasa, Kenya, was promoting a project to link Kisangani with Mombasa using a new line from Kasese to Kisangani, with feeder lines linking Kasese with Goma and then via Bukavu to Kigali and Bujumbura.
[2][3] At a meeting in August 2006 with members of the Rwanda Patriotic Front, Chinese diplomat Wu Guanzheng confirmed the intention of the People's Republic of China to fund a study into the feasibility of constructing a railway connecting at Isaka with the existing metre gauge Tanzanian railway network, and running via Kigali in Rwanda through to Burundi.
[4] In January 2022, the governments of Burundi and Tanzania announced the planned construction of an electrified standard gauge railway, which will link the two countries.