Two years after the all the glitz and razzmatazz that heralded the official opening of the Abuja-Kaduna standard gauge rail line for passenger service, investigations by BusinessDay has revealed that the standard and quality of service that defined the system when it was commissioned is gradually falling.
Checks reveal that some of the challenges confronting are many, among which is ticket racketeering, double ticketing, and theft has characterised activities at the Idu – Rigasa service stations. There are also issues that border on the lack of coordination at the point of ticket sales, and poor hygiene.
During a recent tour on the train, it was observed that, at the point of ticket sale at the Kubwa station, there was no request for passenger identification, like in 2016 when the train commenced operations and was highly celebrated.
Concerns are now being raised that the development has grave security implication on passengers, as this opens the system to infiltration by criminal elements.
To confirm these fears, BusinessDay found that the police officers attached to secure and guard the station were just at the entrance to the station are only there without any sense of responsibility, with little or no attention paid to security- who was going in and out of the station.
Worried by the state of affairs of the service delivery, Nuhu Waya, former minister of state for power and one of the commuters of the Abuja-Kaduna train services who with our reporter called on the management to adopt a better way of handling ticketing.
He added that people do not have to queue up to buy ticket at the station. “Just as we do at the airline where people can buy ticket online, we don’t just have to come to here before we confirm that we are really travelling. That will ease the suffering of passengers and ensure that they get their seats, “but over all, it’s a good start,” he however stated.
He called for railway police that will be monitoring what is going on the train adding that the railway police have always been there since the days of Nigeria Railway Corporation and should be awakened.
“The security on the coach is quite satisfactory at least we are not confronting kidnappers in the train but conduct of our people should improve so that there should be quarrelling on the train over seating arrangement.”
At the Kubwa station, it was discovered as at 9:40am that, the beautiful toilet facilities installed there were not functioning, except for one of the taps at the corridor.
Arriving at the Kaduna station, there were no security checks as our correspondent walked in freely to the waiting room without any hindrances from supposed unarmed security men.
Some of the passengers, who spoke on their experience on the train advised that the ticketing system should be computerized to help curb the issue of ticket racketeering.
An angry commuter, who simply introduced himself as Frank confirmed that multiple tickets were sold for the same seat. “And now I paid for a seat and am standing. I don’t think they (railway management) are moving forward,” he fumed. “The quality of service is poor, they should look into it particularly ticketing because they are engaging in sharp practices,” Frank lamented.
Another passenger, Mohammed Ishaq however commending the rail management said, “It’s a fair service because it is serving the purpose it is meant to serve but as usual with this country there are lapses. “I think the government is not doing enough to monitor what they are doing because they are over selling tickets with the wrong dates on them. Just today they sold a ticket carrying yesterday’s date on it to my friend,” Ishaq revealed.
Raising concerns about the hygiene of the toilets in both Abuja and Kaduna stations, another regular user of the corridor, who pleaded anonymity advised, “don’t even dare to use the toilet in Kaduna because it is a whole mess and possibly could infect the user. As you can see, it is is only one of the taps that is running in Kubwa station but better than Kaduna. In Kaduna you will have to buy water outside to clean.”
The project, which cost the federal government a whopping sum of N317.3billion, is among the most expensive rail projects in Africa, according to experts.
The 186.5km Nigeria’s first standard-guage rail track connects the federal capital city Abuja with Kaduna state which enables faster movement of good and people between the two cities.
With the addition of eight coaches on January 5, 2018, the rail transport currently does four trips, conveying about 2000 passengers on a daily basis to and from the Abuja -Kaduna route.
MIKE OCHONMA AND STELLA ENENCHE, Abuja
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