The Nigerian government has resumed the Abuja-Kaduna train service after eight months of inactivity.
Meanwhile, fare prices have been increased for all classes of coaches.
Though the new prices have not been publicly announced by the Nigerian Railway Corporation, the train service operators, they have been effected online on the online ticketing App of NRC.
The new pricing template details reveal that the Inside Standard Coach (economy) that used to cost N2,600 now costs N3,600, representing a N1,000 increment.
The business class now costs N6,500 as against the N5,000 it cost previously while the Executive Class now costs N9,000 as against the N6,000 previously charged.
According to reports, the sum of N6.6 billion might be lost by the country as a result of the 251 days shutdown.
During a recent function, the Director of NRC, Fidet Okhiria, disclosed that the government lost around N113 million to inactivity on the route for over eight months.
While saying that many Nigerians also suffered losses indirectly due to the halt of operations on the route, Okhiria said: “The last time we checked that was between the months of February to August. We have lost about N113 million, using what we earned between January and March as a working document.”
Findings revealed that coaches plying the Abuja-Kaduna rail line could carry between 900 and 1,000 passengers per trip. Before the suspension, an average economy ticket sold between N2,800 and N3,000, while VIP tickets were sold for N6,000.
NRC makes at least N2.7 million per trip at the rate of N3,000 per ticket. When added to the 124 VIP passengers at N6,000 per ticket, the total money realized per trip is about N3.3 million.
The Abuja-Kaduna Train Service (AKTS) does eight trips daily, which generates around N26.2 million daily. It gives about N6.6 billion when multiplied by 251 days.
Also, the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics (NBS) corroborated this finding when it announced that NRC recorded around 72 per cent loss of revenue in the second quarter of 2022 as their revenue reduced by N1.48 billion in the second quarter (Q2) of 2022.
According to the data, which was published on its website, 953,099 passengers used the railway in the first quarter of 2022 but the number of railway passengers recorded in the second quarter was 422,393.
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