False: Trains Do Not Move On Motor Vehicle Roads in Uganda As Suggested In The Video
Claim
A video shared on TikTok by Shamil Cruz falsely implies that trains in Uganda have started moving on tarmac roads instead of train tracks. This is false.
The post garnered over 7433 likes, 518 comments, 241 saves, and 544 shares.
In the video, road users stop and wait for the train to pass
The claim reads, “When did trains start using roads in Uganda?”
The facts
A train has a well-connected track on which it passes. This network is called a railway network. They rely on a network of rails for support and guidance for movement.
They are built with wheels customized to fit and move on the rails, and the track is built to accommodate them, not the road, as it is designed for vehicles and others.
Trains are heavy and are not designed for road travel, like the road widths, bridges and tunnels, and in the event they move off the track, they overturn.
Trains have wheels which are shaped to move on rails and not the road; however, those with tyres also have wheels to help them navigate once on the rail.
Evidence:
We did a Google search with keywords like “train moving on road in Uganda” as seen in the video we are fact-checking.
The results were of the same video, shared by different accounts across different social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and YouTube, here and here.
Most online community people were still wondering about the possibility of a train moving on a normal vehicle road, while others turned the video into a meme.
While watching the video, towards the end, we noticed a white and red X (railroad crossing) sign indicating that it is a level crossing. This signpost is universally used as a safety measure at points where a train and a vehicle intersect to avoid accidents.
While some specialised vehicles, like road-rail vehicles, can transition between road and rail, they are not typical trains.
They are usually used for maintenance and may only operate on rails during engineering possessions when the line is closed to regular traffic, which is not the case with what we are seeing in the video; it is an actual train moving on a rail.
When we carefully examined the video, we noticed that there was actually a railway, though it was not clear in the video. The railway system in Uganda is too old (constructed in 1896 from Mombasa and finished in 1901), and different routes are currently undergoing rehabilitation, as reported here, here, here, and here.
Verdict
False. The train in the video is moving on a train track at a level crossing area, not on the motor vehicle tarmac road as implied in the online video. Kindly dismiss the claim, and should you ever find yourself at a road or railway crossing, take good measures as explained here.