Passengers Express Mixed Feelings Over Free Train Ride

Passengers have expressed mixed feelings over free train ride introduced along interstate rail routes during the Yuletide, saying it was timely but lamented that the boarding process was cumbersome.

This came as the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) said some passengers connived with its officials to book more than once in order to transfer the code generated to other passengers who could not book online at the train stations.

The passengers in reaction to the gesture of the federal government to reduce financial burden of transiting by rail/road before, during and after the Christmas and New Year celebrations, said many who wished to enjoy the free train ride could not do so as it was difficult to book online.

Mrs Abiodun Fayemi, a passenger said, “I had to book two days ahead of my trip from Lagos to Ibadan adding that “I boarded at Agege railway station after the officials of the corporation authenticated the code number issued after booking online.”

She commended the federal government for its intervention which removed the burden of high transport fares amidst current hardship faced by Nigerians due to the fuel subsidy removal.

For Mr Edwin Ogboh “I tried to book online to travel from Kaduna to Abuja but was informed the train was overbooked.”

He suggested that the frequency of the train should be increased from two per day to four to meet the demand of interested passengers.

The managing director of the corporation, Engr. Fidet Okhiria, however, said the management observed some passengers booked for more than one ticket thus denying other passengers the opportunity to do so online.

He said the decision to regulate the process of boarding the train through online booking was aimed at bringing some degree of sanity, noting that some passengers still abused the process.