The Nigerian Railway Corporation’s Managing Director, Mr Fidet Okhiria, announced that starting in 2024, the company will run six trains every day on the Standard Gauge Train throughout the country.
In an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Lagos State on Monday, Okhiria revealed.
The train was designed to run around the clock, he said, but the current state of affairs in the nation has shortened the turnaround time.
According to him:
“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,” he said.
“We intend to bring back passengers and freight trains from Port-Harcourt to Aba, Lagos to Kano and Kaduna because of the dry ports.”
cc: Punch Ng
