The Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) has lamented the vandalisation of its rail tracks, saying it has lost 100,000 clips on Lagos-Ibadan and Abuja-Kaduna train services.
NRC said the vandalisation has been a serious challenge to its operations even as it is working hard to restore the vandalised tracks.
Managing Director, NRC, Fidet Okhiria, stated this, yesterday, in Lagos at the corporation’s quarterly media interactive session.
Okhiria also said the organisation lifted 63,000 passengers on the free train ride currently sponsored by the federal government.
He encouraged passengers to make use of the services by booking their tickets online 48 hours before travel time.
He also mentioned that the corporation was working on engaging more staff from levels four to six to ensure the safety of passengers on board.
He said the good thing is that this government has come up with a free train ride that was started on the 22nd.
“And it is still ongoing. It is a 15-day operation. And we are advising our people to ensure they get tickets online. All our station tickets have been closed so that we don’t have to rush. Since we are online at various train services, we are trying to encourage our people to go online.
“Even when we come back to commercialised operation, they should be able to get their tickets online. So that they don’t come to the station and say somebody cheated them,” he said.
He mentioned that the corporation is concluding all plans to ensure the Lagos-Kano service begins operations next year with all things put in place.
Okhiria noted that the corporation has not increased its fare prices since the removal of subsidy.
He said: “We still operate on the same fare because we are supposed to be providing service to Nigerians. And that’s our mandate. And that’s what we are doing. Government is 100 per cent supporting us to ensure we maintain our mandate.
“The free train that we are running, they are providing money for fuel. And that’s why we can run. We gave them what will take us to run, and they gave us 100 per cent of it. We appreciate the government.
“And we are also trying to ensure we meet up. That’s why I told my men to be on duty. Whether Christmas or no Christmas, it’s time to serve Nigerians. Anything different could be found and sabotaged. So, our men have no validity for us.”
“And we are trying to ensure that if you think there is a government place to provide free train service, we do it to our maximum best. And also, we continue from there. We will try and increase the number of times we run, although the major thing that has led to this is the cost of oil. So, we will try our best to meet the demands of our people.”
The Guardian
