Passengers To Pay N500 Transport Fare As Abuja-Kaduna Railway Begins Operations July 26
Abuja-Kaduna Railway Train Coaches[/caption]
The Minister of Transportation, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, on Thursday said train passengers will pay a token sum of N500 as transport fare per trip on the economy class while travelling on the newly completed Abuja to Kaduna railway.
Amaechi made the revelation while fielding questions from journalists, after the final inspection of the project which is due for inauguration by President Muhammadu Buhari next week, July 26, in Abuja
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.
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“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 inaugurate it 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.”
On the fencing of the railway lines from Abuja to Kaduna, the minister said it will commence when the money is sourced, adding that the contract has been awarded. “We are looking for money but we will soon get money within the next three months then the fencing would start.
“We are expecting new locomotives and when it comes, we will then make arrangement in 2017 budget to buy more coaches so that we can have one of the trains stopping in all the stations and the other doing Kaduna to Abuja.”
