The Federal Government has planned to increase train ticket for Abuja-Kaduna route, after Thursday’s commissioning of additional coaches by President Muhammadu Buhari, according to Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi.
“There are two things I know the president likes, I have mentioned one, the second one, is after commissioning even the passengers agree that the cost of transportation to Kaduna via the railway is a bit too cheap.
“So there will be a need to increase the price of the cost and then there will be more comfort. More comfort in the sense that when you have excess seats multiply by the number of passengers that will come, then anybody that wants to racketeer will have to eat the tickets himself,” the minister said on Tuesday.
“So, there will be a need to increase the price and then there will be more comfort.
“More comfort in the sense that when you have excess seats multiplied by the number of passengers that will come, then anybody that wants to racketeer will have to eat the tickets himself,’’ he added.
He stated that the new coaches, when inaugurated, would bring the total number of coaches to 14 on the Kaduna-Abuja route.
According to the minister, one of the locomotives will be dedicated to direct trip from Kaduna to Abuja non-stop (that should be doing 1hr:15 or 1hr:20 minutes non-stop).
He said this would enable those “living in Kaduna and working in Abuja to actually come to work on time. If you leave at 6.00 a.m by 7:15 a.m, 7:20 a.m you should be in Abuja.’’
Currently the Executive Class ticket now for N1,500 (the new price might be N3000) while the Standard Class which currently sells for N1050 may go up to N1,200 or N1,500.
The first two modern locomotives for the Abuja-Kaduna standard gauge rail line was purchased at N1.1 billion by the Goodluck Jonathan’s administration
