– New fare inconsiderate, says Passengers
By Michael Olatunji
The management of the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) have announced a 25 percent increase in fare rate on the Mass Transit Train Service (MTTS) from Kajola/Ijoko in Ogun State to Iddo in Lagos.
The new rate which came into effect on Tuesday, saw the fare moved from N460.00 to N700.00.
The new fare regime has pitched the corporation against it’s passengers many of who complain that the new rates was inconsiderate and was slammed on them without any prior notice.
The passengers alleged that the management of the Corporation has shown more interest in running the narrow gauge trains on profit rather than meet the needs of passengers on board the mass transit train.
The passengers said the available train is barely able to cater for the surge and queried why no attempt has been made in the last one decade to add or repair any of the old locomotive and coaches to add to the two that has been working.
On the ones currently in operation, passengers identified that on many of coaches are bare of comfortable seatings, and none of the coaches were fixed with the lights and fans, toilets and windows to protect passengers from rain whenever there isl downpour.
A regular passenger of the daily Ijoko/Kajola to Iddo Lagos mass transit train Mr. Gideon Oludare said that the management of the corporation at the district level has no regard for the welfare of passengers who are faced with challenges of excreting or easing themselves when pressed because many of the passengers have taken over the toilets.
He advised the railway officials to ensure that passengers are not allowed to stay in the toilets whenever the train is in transit.
Apart from that Oludare said that some of the seats in the coaches have been damaged and are not covered with leather thus making it uncomfortable for passengers to seat for the long duration of transit.
Mr. Joseph Nnamdi, noted despite the income generated from over 10,000 passengers daily on the two mass transit trains, none of the coaches have to lights hence passengers are forced to enter and disembark the trains at nights improvising torches to brighten the darkness when the train makes a stop over at Agege and Agbado railway stations.
He also pointed out that sometimes the hook used to attach the coaches to the locomotive engines do detach in transit, adding that last Wednesday about 6 coaches attached to an Iddo to Ijoko bound train were detached in transit between Iju and Agbado railway station.
Nnamdi stated further that following the detachment, amidst the apprehension and fright it created in the heart of some of the passengers, the train driver had to reverse after stopping at Agbado before the detached coaches were reattached at power line.
Mrs Dorcas Olubambi said that train ticket rate should be prorated based on passenger destination and not flat rate adding that since the N700.00 per passenger rate was introduced passengers heading for Agege from Ijoko have opted to use commercial buses.
She suggested that the rate should be pegged at N500.00 per passenger so that passengers disembarking at stop overs and Iddo terminal pay a flat rate.
In his remarks the Lagos Railway district manager, Engr Tony Arase, said that the coaches are being refurbished in phases.
According to him, management is not unaware of the challenges and inconveniences passengers are facing inside the coaches, adding that most of these are being worked upon but it is based on funds availability.
He disclosed that the first phase of six coaches are being refurbished at Iddo and Loco workshops adding that as soon as work on the coaches is completed it will be attached to the existing coaches in the corporation’s fleet. Arase explained that after the first phase another batch of six coaches will be removed from operation and sent to the workshops for refurbishing so as not to completely ground train operation.