The Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) has announced the restoration of passenger and freight trains as well as an increase in trips across the country.
Its Managing Director, Fidet Okhiria, said in Lagos: “We are going to increase the number of train trips to six on Lagos-Ibadan, Warri-Itakpe, and Abuja-Kaduna, which means the trips will be three times to and three times fro, making six trips in a day.
“The trips will commence before the second quarter of 2024. Right now, they are running four trips; two up and two down across the board.’’
“What is limiting us is the night operations, and that is not the way train should operate. The train is meant to operate at all times. People may like to travel in the evening, but because of the security situation in the country, we limit ourselves to the daytime.
“We intend to bring back passenger and freight trains from Port-Harcourt to Aba, Lagos to Kano and Kaduna because of the dry ports”, he added.
According to him, the NRC experienced vandalism in the Warri-Itakpe area in 2023, but the problem was resolved two weeks later assuring that sabotaging of the rail tracks would be difficult while it was in use.
Okhiria predicted that when goods trains begin running across the nation, the price of commodities would drop significantly.
As indicated by the NRC boss, in the first quarter of 2024, the company would start offering passenger and freight train services between Port-Harcourt-Aba, Lagos, and Kano.
In addition to Funtua and Kaduna dry ports expressing interest in freight hauling, he said that Dala Dry Port has been requesting that NRC visit them and deliver cargo.
To shorten turnaround times and boost tax revenue for the government, Okhiria declared that the railway would collaborate with all of the nation’s dry ports.
According to him, NRC hired junior employees from levels four and six and was waiting on government approval to assign them.
“We hired the junior staff to improve operations,” he stated.
The NRC head also encouraged Nigerians to take an interest in rail travel even as he applauded government initiatives to link rail lines around the nation.
