Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, has revealed that passengers will not pay more than N500 train fare from Abuja to Kaduna or vice versa, when the project is finally flagged off by next week Tuesday.
Amaechi disclosed this on Thursday, in Abuja, when he toured the rail project to ascertain its readiness for public use.
The Minister during a chat with some passengers at one of the rail stations at Shem, asked for their opinion on how much they thought government should be collecting, and thereafter pegged the fare at N500.
According to him, “the passengers have asked me to bring the fare down to N500 and I think I can do that,” he stated, noting that originally they (government) had planned to collect N900 for business class and N600 for economy class.
The Minister was accompanied by the national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), John Oyegun, who said the project is an indication that, indeed, change has come to Nigeria.
Oyegun stated that, “you know, we all sit in Abuja, we hardly know the reality of what is going on, I think the only way I can describe this project is that, it is the beginning of those things that the future holds under this present administration of change.”
Also speaking during the tour, the Managing Director, Nigerian Railway Corporation, Mr Fidet Okhiria, said the project was ready for public usage, though he noted that the speed of the train was slow at 30 kilometers per hour.