Mr Fidet Ikhiria, the Acting Managing Director of the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) has announced that the Abuja-Kaduna train service recorded a gross income of N5.1 million within the first two weeks of operation.

This disclosure was known to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) while travelling on the train from Abuja to Kaduna on Saturday. The Managing Director of NAN, Mr Bayo Onanuga and the Editor-in-Chief, Mr Ado Lawal, were also on board.

It would be recalled that the Abuja-Kaduna Rail Service was commissioned and opened for commercial operation on the 26^th of July 2016 by President Muhammadu Buhari.

Mr. Ikhiria stated further:

“In the first week of operation, we made N2.2 million; in the second week, we made N2.9 million. This is the third week of operation; the last week report showed that we had almost 5,000 passengers in six days.

”We have capacity for 320 passengers per trip; for now, the maximum we can carry per trip is 320. So, for a day, the maximum number of passengers we can have is 1000.

“Some passengers with economy class tickets are coming to sit on the first class coach because the economy class is filled up. We are going to do more enlightenment on this at the station and communities levels.

“The slow speed of the train is to avoid accidents as people living close to the tracks have yet to get used to the movement of train,’’ he explained.

“By next week, our scanners will be in place; I am also discussing with Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) to deploy more men.”

Okhiria said efforts were also being made to install internet facilities in the train and beef up security at the stations and on board the train.

“We have armed policemen on board and some security personnel without uniform,” he said

 

Source: NAN

Comments

comments