By Fidelis Ugbomeh
There was massive turnout of passengers across all the Nigerian Railway Corporation’s standard gauge railway corridors before and during the recently celebrated Eid-el-Kabir festival with some passengers expressing their mixed experiences on board the trains.
Amidst the euphoria of massive turnout of passengers in response to increase in frequency of trains, a viral report in the social media positing that some rail clips were removed at the Warri-Itakpe railway corridor was promptly debunked by management.
During this period, a casualty was also recorded penultimate Monday at densely populated Agege under bridge where a passersby alleged to be under influence illegal drug popularly referred to as “kolos” was crushed to death in the morning by a Lagos-Ibadan bound passenger train
Narrating his experience, one of the passengers Mr. Ola Aina said the additional train service introduced especially along the Lagos-Ibadan standard gauge railway corridor was timely considering the fact that people always travel during festive periods to celebrate with their families and loved ones.
“When I got information about the special train service from twice to thrice daily I compared the cost and comfortability of traveling from Lagos to Ibadan by road to rail and concluded that it was cheaper and more comfortable to travel by rail,
“I commend management for its foresight and suggest that more awareness should be created and additional frequencies added to curtail the upsurge in demand associated with travels during festive periods”, he said.
Another passenger Mr. Olumide Akande who boarded the train from Lagos stated that “I entered the train for the first train in the morning at about 8.00a.m penultimate Sunday but could not disembark at Abeokuta due to poor management of exit and entry of passengers
“I later disembarked at Omi-Adio, a journey of about 30 minutes from Abeokuta and had to pay additional fare by roadvto travel back to Abeokuta to celebrate with my friends and family members”
Akande therefore, suggested that the scheduled time for stop over at train terminals enroute from Lagos Ibadan and vice versa should be extended from 5 to 10 minutes so as to give enough time for exit and entry of passengers on special trains during festive periods.
Mr. John Obot posited that apart from announcing the next stop over stations during transit as currently obtains, corporation should be video clips of cultural dance or drama through the television monitors in each of the coaches so as to entertain passengers on board.
He noted that, penultimate monday morning during the public holiday at about 8.25a.m a Lagos-Ibadan bound train crushed a man to death with the body parts flung into different directions.
“What surprised me most was that some people around when the accident occured made away with the mangled body parts of the deseased”, Obot said.
However, Lagos district manager of the corporation, Engr. Augustine Arisa advised passengers to either book on line or physically at the train terminal of departure adding that such passengers should arrive the terminals 30 minutes before departure.
He said that the train has schedule of movement and stop over saying, passengers destined to drop enroute during stop overs should tidy up their luggages 30 minutes before arriving the station of destination.
This according to Arisa, will enhance prompt disembarkment at the station of destination instead of waiting for the train to stop before packing their luggages.
He explained further that the Lagos-Ibadan standard gauge passenger trains has a schedule of 5 minutes stop over at each train station enroute Obafemi Awolowo railway terminal in Moniya noting that the train is expected to move after 5 minutes except if there is an emergency.
The district manager enjoined passersby to use the pedestrian bridges located at some strategic locations along the railway corridor adding that the act establishing the corporation stipulates that train has the “right of way”.
On the removal of clips by yet to be identified persons along Warri-Itakpe railway corridor, managing director of NRC Dr. Kayode Opeifa in a statement assured of safety of passengers onboard Warri-Itakpe train during and after the sallah period describing the report as false.
According to him, the identified incident involving temporary removal of rail clips at a specific location along Warri-Itakpe railway corridor was detected during routine check and rectified by maintenance team of the corporation.
“All necessary safety and operational protocol were strictly followed to ensure that no threat was posed to passengers or integrity of the train operations,” Opeifa reaffirmed.
He stated further that the corporation is committed to highest standard of safety and security in all its operations adding that the tracks and rolling stocks are under constant surveillance and maintenance.