The minister of Transportation, Mu’azu Jaji Sambo has said the Abuja-Kaduna train service will no longer resume today as earlier scheduled.
The minister, who stated this while on an inspection train ride from Abuja to Kaduna yesterday, said the resumption will be extended by one week to allow the passengers be properly enlightened on the new process of obtaining tickets and other requirements.
The minister also stated that the line is fully secured and ready for operations but with the new requirements for ticketing, there is need for a little extension of time maybe by days or at most, one week.
According to him, “The issue of whether the train will start tomorrow or not, we have not said the train services will start tomorrow (Monday) I want to be very categorical about that. Now, we have introduced a new system before you buy a ticket. The purchase of a ticket requires you to provide a phone number and a national identification number in order to profile because that is the beginning of the security checks.
“So, at any point in time when a train moves from one station to another we know who and who are on board. If you don’t have an NIN you are not going to board our train. It is as simple as that. if you are a minor, an adults will pay for you and will register for you and an adult can only register for not more than four minors.
“Now, we want to give sufficient time for the Nigerian public to listen to these and assimilate this new system? Because if we start Monday, a lot of people will be disgruntled.”
