| dc.description.abstract | Railway transportation is one of the oldest forms of transportation that created links to populated
and unpopulated parts of the world with railway tracks constructed through remote areas in earlier
days. The ever-growing utilization of science and technology has been implemented in railway
transportation to reduce travel time and increase passenger comfortability. African countries such
as Tanzania acquired a railway network during the colonial era with the government performing
few modifications to cater to evolving passengers’ needs. There are still setbacks in generating
adequate information on how the railway sector progresses and how railway information is
disseminated to the public. This study utilizes information technology and provides means for
railway data collection, analysis, and information dissemination in Tanzania through the use of
web and mobile applications. The study was conducted through the collection of data from
Tanzania Railway Corporation (TRC) headquarters in Dar es Salaam intending to understand the
overall performance of the railway sector in terms of data acquisition and information
dissemination. The research looked into ways in which Tanzania differs from railway systems that
are statistically improved with Great Britain being the casing point and found use of fewer railway
attributes being collected and analyzed. This prompted the development of an improved railway
information system which used mixed approach in data collection involving interviews with TRC
staff, questionnaires distributed among passengers, and document reviews. From system
requirements acquired, android and web applications were successfully developed which create a
gateway to railway information, provide visual presentations of collected data from day-to-day
railway operations, create up-to-date maps of the Tanzania railway network, and foster higher
accuracy data collection.. The evaluation of the developed system showed great acceptance as a
way forward for railway data capturing, analyzing and dissemination in the near future. Inclusion
of GIS techniques proved to be of importance in creating awareness of Tanzania railway network
to the public with participants having a higher percentage of agreement in the matter. In general
acceptance, the system received more than 75% approval rating prompting more usage of railway
data attributes as evaluation keypoint in railway transportation within Tanzania. | en_US |
