The Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) has announced an increase in the number of train trips between Lagos and Ibadan for the yuletide season.
NRC Lagos District Manager, Jerry Oche, who disclosed this in a chat added that the increased daily trips commenced from Monday, December 20 to four times daily.
Mr Oche said, “The increase will run for three weeks to accommodate expected upsurge in passenger traffic during the Yuletide. They said that the trains would operate from 8 a.m. from Dec. 20 to 4 p.m. on Jan. 9, and further decongest road traffic.
“The NRC also urged passengers to board the trains with a maximum of 12 kg luggage”.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, said that the Abuja-Kaduna train service generates a minimum of N300 million for the country every month.
Amaechi in his statement said, “We make N300 million per month from the Abuja-Kaduna train. Currently, we are running Lagos-Ibadan from the money we are making from Abuja-Kaduna rail service, at the end of the day, we pay back over N100 million to the federal government.”
Amaechi who was a former governor of Rivers State further disclosed that the government hopes to increase the revenue from the Lagos-Ibadan rail line with its plans to have about 16 trains running on that axis.
On the cost implications for the developments experienced on the rail system, the minister said the country is capable of meeting its loan requirements.
Earlier in the year, Amaechi had stated that the Federal Government had borrowed about $2.5billion for the construction of a railway linking Lagos to Ibadan.
Speaking further about the debts accrued in the course of developing the rail transport system, the minister expressed confidence that Nigeria has the capacity to pay back adding that the nation has commenced repayments.
He disclosed that more developments are coming to the rail sector which will further boost the revenue generated by the ministry and as such aid the government in settling its debts.
Amaechi also noted that the Kano-Maradi line and Port Harcourt-Maiduguri rail projects are expected to take-off by the end of January.
Recall that earlier in July, NRC revealed that the corporation generates an average of N327 million every month from its different routes.
The improved revenue is a result of the take-off of operations of some railway projects embarked upon by the federal government.
