The Nigerian Railway Corporation has announced that the long-awaited electronic ticketing (e-ticketing) on the standard gauge network will commence next week.
Disclosing this while fielding questions at the Television Continental (TVC) on Tuesday, October 25, the Corporation’s Managing Director, Fidet Okhiria, said the last leg of the testing of the platform will be accomplished today, (Wednesday), when it is expected to go live to a restricted number of people, for last-minute glitches before it would be opened to the general public.
According to him, e-ticketing will put an end to the challenges observed in the present practice where passengers must appear in person at train stations before they can obtain tickets, adding that e-ticketing would ensure that passengers are able to buy their train tickets at least 48 hours to their proposed departure date and this could be done from the comfort of their homes or offices.
He said: “The e-ticketing is the way to go, it is the way to secure our money and our investments, because as you buy your tickets it goes to the government coffers directly. We have it in Abuja-Kaduna and we are also going to have it at Lagos-Ibadan and Itakpe-Warri. By the end of the month, our passengers should start using it.”
Okhiria disclosed that the disciplinary committee which was sitting on the matter of some of its staff caught on camera collecting fares for a ride in the train in Ibadan, on the Lagos-Ibadan Standard Gauge has been dismissed in accordance with the extant rules of the corporation.
He also announced that the train speed on the Lagos-Ibadan Standard Gauge will soon be increased from 40 kilometres per hour to 80 km per hour. He warned all those trading on the tracks to stop forthwith as the new speed regime has taken immediate effect.
He explained that the train has operated the Lagos-Ibadan speed train at 40km/hr, since when it was commissioned in 2021 by President Muhammadu Buhari. He said the designed speed of the track is 150km, adding that the corporation will not continue to shortchange itself by running the tracks at below-installed capacity.
He said adequate announcements would continue to be made at all the train stations at Yaba, Oshodi Agege, and all the stations within the Lagos environs to ensure that people are well educated and sensitized to avoid trading, playing or conducting any activity on the train tracks.
Okhiria stated: “We are going to be increasing our speed, especially within Lagos. I’m also using this opportunity to tell our brothers and sisters playing on the tracks to stop it. Right now we are doing 40 kilometres, we are going to be moving to 80 kilometres because the tracks are designed for 150 but we won’t mind going gradually to 120km per hour, especially within Lagos.
“People should be aware of that and those who cross the tracks should be aware of that and they should obey the level crossing lights and obey our signalmen. We have gone out to start making public announcements already at Oshodi, Yaba, Mushin at Agege, telling them that the speed of the train is going to go up as we cannot continue to shortchange ourselves if the train is designed to run at 150km people should avoid the permanent way, it is not a place trade.”
On the e-ticketing, Okhiria said: “Right now, we are putting to test the e-ticketing on Lagos-Ibadan standard gauge and thereafter, Itakpe-Warri, so that people can buy the tickets from the comfort of their homes and offices from their phones or other devices simply by downloading the applicable app. This will help reduce human interference and ensure that all revenues of the corporation go straight into its account with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).”
He said the e-ticketing will reduce the number of people who come to the stations to buy tickets and reduce exposing passengers to staff who may want to induce them by collecting lower fare rates, thereby robbing the corporation of its revenue.
Okhiria said: “We will be going live by Wednesday, but that does not mean it will be released to members of the public yet, but would be open to some people for final testing before finally releasing it to the public. This is for us to ensure that the money goes straight to our CBN account. We have been on this in the last two weeks and we are on the final lap of introducing it to members of the public.”
Okhiria who chairs the disciplinary committee that sat to review the culpability of the staff caught on the video that went viral last month said the four staff implicated in the video admitted to guilt when confronted with the evidence, but could only say they eventually paid the money into the corporation’s coffer.
He said: “What they did was in line with the Corporation’s rule book wrong as no staff is permitted to sell tickets on the train. The only ticket you can sell on the train is the penalty ticket, so they are found guilty and would be summarily dismissed in line with our extant rules to serve as a deterrent to other members of staff.”
He further disclosed that seven others who were implicated in the matter have been recommended for demotion and would also be barred from promotion to serve as a deterrent to others.
Speaking on the issue of the “alleged stolen coaches in Borno” Okhiria said there was no truth in the story, adding that the corporation has been moving all coaches from wherever they are stationed to the closest maintenance yard where they could be repaired ahead of their deployment to where they would be needed.
This, he said is in line with the need to support the government’s policy by making mass transit trains available to Nigerians to reduce the pains of Nigerians suffering from the removal of fuel subsidy by the government.
He explained that this was what the corporation intended to do by moving some coaches from Maiduguri to the Jos Maintenance Yard for necessary repairs before they would be deployed to wherever they would be needed on the network.
“Sadly however, about 20 tyres of the coaches were shot at and destroyed and we are already in touch with the Borno state government on this and especially to let them know that its officers obtained all the necessary approvals before attempting to move the coaches from Maiduguri.”
Okhiria expressed happiness that more states are already showing interest in providing intra-city train services to their people, listing Kano, Kaduna, Plateau, and Kwara among states that are already discussing with the corporation for metro train operations. He expressed optimism that the Borno State government will rise from the avoidable disagreement over this removal of the coaches will also key in and introduce train service to her people in Borno State.
He said the corporation has come up with an operational framework, which has been approved by its board which states willing to make use of the national network within their territories could make use of, adding that right now, states and individuals can buy coaches and wagons on the nation’s network and the corporation will be too willing to give such entities the terms of operations.
He said the more the nation’s tracks are kept busy, the more it would be difficult for saboteurs to vandalise them thus drawing the nation back on the march to becoming a rail-friendly nation.
