FG pegs Abuja, Kaduna fares at N500
Stories by Ayoniu M. Agbabiaka
Abuja
Ahead of the planned commissioning of the Abuja, Kaduna train transport service by President Muhammadu Buhari, residents of Garam, in Tafa local government area of Niger state, a community that shares border with Kuduru, a suburb of Bwari Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), have called on the federal government to situate at least one train station in the area to ease their movement.
There are only train stations in Kubwa, FCT and a village near Jere, Kaduna state, leaving residents of Bwari Area Council and environs out of the train services when fully operational.
The residents further said situating such facility as the railway station in the community would not only ease traffic movement, but help to boost economic activities and eventually the growth and rapid development of the area.
Speaking to journalists at the weekend, one of the leaders in Garam community, Joshua Ishaku, said: “We will be glad to have government remember us in this area. Building a rail station for us will be appreciated; we are looking forward to it.”
Minister of Transportation, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, had disclosed that the federal government had fixed the cost of travelling on the newly completed Abuja to Kaduna rail lines at N500 per passenger per trip on the economy class.
Fielding questions from newsmen after the final inspection of the project which is due for inauguration by President Muhammadu Buhari this week in Abuja, he said the test run had been on for more than a month with passengers being ferried from Kaduna to Abuja free-of-charge.
He said: “From the experience that we have all seen today, we are set to go. This test run exercise has been on for over a month.
We said it was going to run for two weeks but we allowed it for six weeks so that everybody can use it.”
According to him, from Tuesday next week after the commissioning by the president, government will then begin to charge passengers N500 per passenger per trip on the economy class.
On why the fare had been pegged at that amount, he said: “As you can see we sought the opinion of the passenger before fixing the fare, they suggested N500 on economy and I will do just that.
“The reasons we did not commission earlier is because we wanted the train to run for at least a month and check if there will be any problem, but we have done that for over a month and there was no problem.”
