Samson Echenim 
An Abuja-based passenger has called out the Nigeria Railway Corporation (NRC) over its poor services on the Abuja-Kaduna Railway.
Specifically, the passenger lamented deliberate corporate denial of tickets for passengers on certain classes, refusal to reschedule tickets for passengers and unkempt restrooms, as well as clear lack of general maintenance of the coaches.
A staff of a federal agency in Abuja, the passenger who pleaded anonymity told The Nigerian Economy that seats are reserved for unknown passengers on certain classes, but the passengers never show up, as seats on such classes are found empty in the course of the journey.
“You try to book a ticket online, but you’re told that seats are not available for some classes. However, you get onboard and discover that seats are empty. On a coach that should have close to 40 persons, you will find only four to seven persons,” the passenger told The Nigerian Economy.
The Abuja-Kaduna train service has the Economy Class, which costs N3,000 for a seat; The Business Class A – N6,500; The Business Class B- N6,500; and The Executive Class for which ticket is N9,000.
Passengers boarding a train on the Abuja-Kaduna Railway service.
The passenger used Coach E00002S Business Class B and Coach SPA0004 Business Class A on two different journeys being his travel to Kaduna on Sunday 9th and return to Abuja on Thursday 13th March.
Also, the passenger lamented that the service does not accept to reschedule tickets for passengers who may have cogent reasons to reschedule their journey to a another time or date.
“Another unhealthy thing again is that once you book and have to reschedule, it is not possible. Your money is gone. You have to buy another ticket for a new date. Once inside the train, you should do without using the restroom because the restrooms are bad and need to be fixed. The maintenance is bad,” the passenger lamented.
He however said the air conditioners in the Business coaches were very good.
“The ACs onboard work well and this is a positive for me, but the complaints I raised are major problems they need to fix urgently,” he noted.
Managing Director, Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC), Kayode Opeifa
The NRC spokesman, Mahmood Yakub declined comments on the issues when he was contacted by our correspondent to respond to the passenger’s complaints.
Highlighting possible reasons for having significant cases of no-shows on the train, a transport and logistics expert, Jimoh Odunlayo, said the NRC could be making reservations for some public officials without payments. He cautioned that a similar practice was what killed the Nigerian Airways and called on the new management of the NRC to check the unhealthy business practice.
Odunlayo said: “When you want to book a ticket and you’re told that seats are not available, but you later discover that the seat are empty, it shows that they have reserved the seats for some people, possibly government officials who never show up. It could also mean that there is a practice of permanently reserving the class for these government officials, whether they make use of the service or not.
“A similar practice was what they were doing at the Nigerian Airways. Public officials would even fly the airline without paying. Today, Nigerian Airways is history. This kind of problem keeps resonating in government-owned companies and that is why they don’t do well.
“I understand that there is now a new managing director of NRC. He should move swiftly to check this issue, correct everything that is wrong on the Abuja-Kaduna route, in order to quickly improve on the service.”
President Bola Tinubu appointed an astute tranport manager, Mr Kayode Opeifa managing director of the NRC in January. At assumption of office, Opeifa promised a total revamp of the NRC and railway transportation in Nigeria.
He made quick impact when he secured the cooperation of APM Terminals, Apapa to move cargoes from Apapa Port in Lagos to the NRC freight yard in Moniya, Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.
Nigerians have hailed his early result for taking advantage of the low-haniging fruits in the railway subsector and for his competence to effect the desired change in the railway corporation.
However, the development on the Abuja-Kaduna Railway service showed that there are still major deficiencies in the railway service that need his urgent attention.
