Train travel in

   South Africa

   Zimbabwe

   Zambia

How to travel by train in

Botswana . . .

How to travel by train in Botswana, including Gaborone to Francistown...

   Home     Site map     Search site     Links     Railpasses     Buy train tickets     Buy ferry tickets    Book a hotel     What's new    About me    E-mail    Guestbook

Africa

Middle East

   Iran
  Israel
  Jordan
  Syria
  Turkey

Asia

America

Australasia

Australia
New Zealand

London to China & Japan by Trans-Siberian Railway

or silk route


London to India overland


London to Australia without flying


European & overseas Railpasses


Explore Europe with InterRail


Taking your car: Motorail


Non-flying Holidays by train


Ski holidays by train


London to Paris by Eurostar


All about the real Orient Express


The luxury Venice Simplon Orient Express


The scenic Swiss Glacier Express


Auckland-Wellington on The Overlander


NZ's most scenic train: The TranzAlpine


Canada's Rockies on the Rocky Mountaineer


Bridge over the River Kwai


Britain's most scenic train ride The West Highland Line


Scotland's cruise train The Royal Scotsman


Buy train tickets & passes online at the Seat 61 Rail Shop


Buy ferry tickets online at the Seat 61 Ferry Shop


Book hotels online at the Seat 61 Hotel Shop


Resident in France?  Try www.seat61.fr


Comments?  Feedback?  Need more help? Email the Man in Seat Sixty-One! 


Sign the guestbook


Important note about the information on this site.

Webhosting by Hostroute

Thank you for visiting my site...

 

 Country information

Train operators :

Botswana Railway (BR) - no official website.

 

 

Time zone:

 

GMT+2 

Currency:

 

£1 = 10.5 Botswanan Pula.  $1 = 6.5 Pula.  Currency converter

Tourist information:

 

www.gov.bw     Tripadvisor Botswana page

Visas:

 

UK citizens do not need a visa to visit Botswana.   

Page last updated:

15 May 2010


 International trains...

South Africa to Botswana by train...

There are no trains from Botswana to South Africa, as the daily train to Mafeking and weekly train to Johannesburg were withdrawn in 1999.  However, you can take a comfortable train from Cape Town to Johannesburg (see the South Africa page for details), then there's a daily bus between Jo'burg and Gaborone leaving Johannesburg at 14:30 and arriving Gaborone at 21:10.  In the other direction, it leaves Gaborone daily at 06:30, arriving Johannesburg at 13:00.  For times, fares and online booking see www.intercape.co.za.

Zimbabwe to Botswana by train...

In 1999, the weekly Johannesburg-Gaborone-Bulawayo train was withdrawn and the daily Mafeking-Gaborone- Bulawayo 'blue train' was cut back in to run purely within Botswana, Francistown-Gaborone-Lobatse.  However, after an absence of 6 years, an international train service between Zimbabwe and Botswana restarted in June 2006, from Francistown to Bulawayo, 3 times a week.

 Francistown Bulawayo

            

 Bulawayo Francistown

Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday Monday, Wednesday, Friday
 Francistown  depart 09:00  Bulawayo depart 09:30
 Bulawayo arrive 15:00  Francistown  arrive 15:00

The train has standard class coaches with reclining seats.

The fare is 25 Pula one-way (£3 or $5).

For train connections to Gaborone and Lobatse (near the South African border) see below.

 
The train uses Zimbabwe's modern standard class coaches like this, complete with with TV entertainment(!)

Click for map of train routes


 Francistown - Gaborone - Lobatse

IMPORTANT:  All Francistown-Gaborone-Lobatse trains were cancelled from April 2009

A shock announcement in early 2009 was that Botswana Railways was to stop all passenger service indefinitely because of mounting losses.  The day train stopped running in 2006, and the last overnight train between Francistown, Gaborone & Lobatse ran on 1 April 2009.  See this article.

A daily overnight train with sleepers and restaurant car runs from Francistown to Gaborone and Lobatse.  If you have any feedback or further information about these services, please e-mail me.

 Francistown Gaborone Lobatse

            

 Lobatse Gaborone Francistown

Suspended * Suspended** Suspended *  Suspended**
 Francistown  depart 10:00   21:00  Lobatse depart -   19:10
 Gaborone arr / dep  16:24   06:30  Gaborone arr / dep  10:00   21:00
 Lobatse arrive -   08:25  Francistown  arrive 16:25   06:45

* The daytime train hasn't run since October 2006, when a number of coaches were damaged in a derailment.  See article

** Ceased running on 1 April 2009, after which there will be NO TRAINS AT ALL on this route.  They are unlikely ever to resume.

On board the trains...

The overnight train has 4 classes of accommodation: 

  • 1st class (also known as Sleeper class) has comfortable sleeping berths in 2-berth & 4-berth compartments (fully air-conditioned, allegedly with a shower at the end of the corridor though this may be locked off), see the photographs below.

  • 2nd Class is similar, but with 3-berth & 6-berth sleeping compartments.

  • Club class has fully-upholstered air-conditioned reclining seats.

  • Economy Class has more crowded and basic seating, also air-conditioned. 

The daytime train has two classes of accommodation:  First Class with air-conditioned airline-style reclining seats and Economy Class with basic upholstered seats, also air-conditioned.

Fares & how to book...

Buy tickets at the station - there's no known way to book from outside Botswana.  The ticket office normally opens about an hour before departure. 

  • Gaborone to Francistown:  1st class sleeper 128 pula (£15 / $29), 2nd class sleeper 107 pula (£13 / $25), Club class seat 37 pula, economy seat 28 pula (£4 / $7). 

  • Lobatse to Gaborone:  1st class 39 pula, 2nd class 28 pula, club class 9 pula. 

  • Lobatse to Francistown:  1st class sleeper 141 pula, 2nd class sleeper 122 pula.

Children under 7 travel free, children under 12 travel at half fare.

1st class sleeper, Francistown - Gaborone - Lobatse train in Botswana   2nd class sleeper, Francistown-Gaborone-Lobatse train   Economy seats, Francistown-Gaborone-Lobatse train.
1st class sleeper, bunks folded out, bedding yet to be provided.   2nd class sleeper (upper & middle bunks folded away)   Economy class seats...

All photos courtesy of Paul Carey...


 Thomas Cook Overseas Timetable

The famous Thomas Cook Overseas Timetable has train, bus and ferry times for every country in Africa, Asia, North and South America and Australasia.   It is published every two months.  

It's an essential publication for any serious traveller, and an inspiration for armchair travellers!  

It costs around £13.99 from the bureau de change section of any branch of Thomas Cook, or you can buy it online at www.thomascooktimetables.com (look for 'Timetables').  Alternatively, you can buy the twice-yearly  Independent Traveller's edition at Amazon.co.uk also with shipping worldwide.

Tomas Cook Overseas Timetable     

 Guidebooks

To get the most from a trip to Southern Africa, you'll need a good guidebook - and I think the Lonely Planet guides are about the best ones out there.

Buy Lonely Planet Southern Africa online at Amazon

Or buy direct from the Lonely Planet website, with shipping worldwide.

 


 Hotels & accommodation

Find a hotel in Botswana...

A guidebook like the Lonely Planet or Rough Guide will point you at some good hotels in each town or city when you get there.  Alternatively, you can pre-book hotels in most cities through www.hotelscombined.com, just use the search box below. It's not a hotel booking website, but a free search tool which checks all the main hotel booking sites for you (AsiaRooms, Asiativ.com, Opodo, Expedia, Travelocity, LateRooms and many others) to find the cheapest hotel rates on the net.  Set up in 2005, it's an amazing system and probably the best place to start for booking any hotel online worldwide.

 

Search all major hotel

booking websites at once...

Hotel reservations? Find the right hotel first. Compare here.

Powered by Hotelscombined.com  

 

Back to home page