Nigeria has been trying to revive the railway system in recent years, and while efforts have been made (arguably or not), there have been several incidents of trains breaking down ‘in the middle of nowhere’ and passengers being stranded.
There have also been security challenges especially sabotage of rail tracks, and all of these combined affect the confidence some people may have to utilise the train services.
BusinessDay pulled up reports on obstructions to train services within the last year, and there were six of such, most of them, having to trains stopping suddenly due to technical issues.
Ibadan to Lagos -10th March 2022
This was the most recent incident, when a journey of two and a half-hours took longer than expected, when a train conveying passengers from Ibadan to Lagos abruptly stopped after running out of diesel. It took hours before diesel could be taken to the train although it was also later claimed that ‘the train didn’t run out of diesel, the fuel gauge only malfunctioned’.
Kaduna-Abuja Train -29th June 2021
For three hours, hundreds of passengers on the Kaduna-Abuja (KA 2) train were trapped at Dutse following a technical fault. The train, which left Rigasa train station in Kaduna at 6:40 am, developed a fault five minutes after takeoff. After about 15 minutes, the trip was resumed, only for the train to break down again at the Kakau substation.
Abuja to Kaduna – 9th July 2021
It took over 3 hours to fix a mechanical and electrical fault in a train conveying people from Kaduna to Abuja leaving passengers stranded in the middle of the forest. A journey that should take 2hours 45mins, ended up taking double the time to its destination.
Read also: Why the railway system has failed in Nigeria
Abuja to Kaduna train – 21st October 2021
The Nigeria Railway Corporation (NRC) suspended train services along the Abuja –Kaduna route after being attacked with explosives and opened fire by terrorists.
Lagos to Ibadan – 12th February 2021
Train movement from Ibadan-Lagos was temporarily halted due to the alleged removal of railway tracks by some vandals.
Kano to Lagos – 31st January 2021
The train service was reported to have broken down due to mechanical failure. The train left Kano for Lagos state on January 31, 2021 a journey that was to take 30hours30mins (1day, 6 hours, 30mins). The mechanical problem started at 9am a few kilometres to Zaria, Kaduna state. Passengers were stranded for over 32 hours in literally, the middle of nowhere.
