The Governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir El Rufai has expressed support the Federal Government for increasing the fare on Abuja-Kaduna train service from N3,000 Business class to N6,000 and N1500 Economy class to N3,000.
The governor said on Saturday at the launch of the 10 new coaches and two locomotives recently acquired by the Transport Ministry to boost passenger capacity on the rail service.
According to him, “I think it is appropriate to increase the fares. I have always been of the view that the fares were too low and that’s what lead to racketeering because if you don’t get the ticket, you will buy it from middlemen at twice the normal price, so it’s quite right and I support the decision.”
The governor said with the right price now, passengers will be discouraged from going to middlemen for tickets.
He stated that “We are very grateful to the Federal Government particularly to the Minister of Transportation for the decision. We support it strongly, we requested the Federal Government to suspend the train service at the time of onset of Covid-19 pandemic and we believe it is time to resume the train service.
“We had written a request weeks ago when we relaxed the lockdown we have been briefed on all the measures put in place by the Federal Government to ensure physical distancing, hygiene and sanitary observance to protect everyone so we are looking forward to it.
“We were told that the number of frequencies has been increased because more people will use the train.”
El Rufai further stated that “the train is secure and well protected even the Abuja-Kaduna highway is well protected. There has been no kidnapping case since October last year, so I am not worried about security. But I want to appeal to the people using the train to ensure they keep physical distancing, wash their hands, as coronavirus is still much around, infections are rising and fastest way to get it is a congested train.
“We must be very careful and not insist on going on the train if it’s filled to capacity, and everyone must wear their face mask before entering the train.”
He appealed to the Nigerian Railways Corporation (NRC) and the Minister of Transportation to computerise and make electronic the purchase of the ticket to cut out middlemen and all those that buy tickets and hoard them so as to resell at higher prices.
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