Kenya Railways has today introduced a second trip on the
Madaraka Express Passenger Service. The new service which will depart the
Nairobi and Mombasa Termini at 3:30 pm will act as an express train and
complement the existing morning service which will now transform into an inter
county train service.
The new development will
also see the Corporation revise the current train schedule, with the morning
inter-county train departing Mombasa and Nairobi stations at 8:00 am and making
a stopovers at each of the seven intermediate stations along the Mombasa to Nairobi
stretch of the Standard Gauge Railway project which are Athi River, Emali, Kibwezi, Mtito Andei, Voi, Miasenyi
and Emali. Kenya Railways has already successfully operated the Voi and Mtito Andei stations, with the
rollout of full operations at all stations expected to allow all residents in
the counties traversed by SGR to enjoy
our service.
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| Transport, Infrastructure, Housing and Urban Development Cabinet Secretary James Macharia |
Transport, Infrastructure, Housing and Urban Development
Cabinet Secretary James Macharia said that the new service is part of measures
to increase access and lower the cost of transport across the country.
“By introducing an additional
service we hope to make it more difficult for middle men to take advantage of
Kenyans by doubling the availability of train tickets as well as the daily
train capcity. The SGR is a government project paid for with taxpayer funds and
it is therefore unacceptable for anyone to acquire tickets and seek to extort
Kenyans through higher prices.” CS. Macharia added. “Anyone found to be
interfering with the service or seeking to exploit Kenyans, will be dealt with
in accordance with the law.”
Kenya Railways Managing Director Mr. A. K. Maina said
that the new service is aimed at providing the type of service the public has
demanded since the passenger train was launched. He said that the operations of
the inter-county train will ensure that residents in the counties traversed by
the Standard Gauge Railway line now enjoy the train services as they go about
their daily business.
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| Kenya Railways Managing Director Mr. A. K. Maina |
“With the roll out of the second service
Kenya Railways and the operator will be able to full gauge the demand for
travel on the line in the interest of introducing the final frequencies and
service schedules.” Mr. Maina Added. “The Madaraka Express has already had
significant impact on both domestic and international tourism, in this regard
Kenya Railways is also working with the Operator to gauge the expected increase
in demand during the upcoming festive season with a view to creating
provisional train services to meet the expected increase in demand.”
The Madaraka
Express Passenger service has been in operation for five months following a colorful
commissioning ceremony by H.E. President Uhuru Kenyatta. To date the service has
transported approximately 337,000 passengers and the numbers are growing by the
day.
The Corporation
has also been engaged by the Kenyan Government to transport relief food from the
Port of Mombasa to the ICD. This has served as the testing phase for the
Freight service and to date approximately 120,000 tonnes of cereals have been
transported. The Corporation has also announced that the testing phase for
commercial cargo is set to commence in November and the full commercial
operations on the freight service will commence in 2018. The freight service is expected to lower the cost of cargo transport by up
to 35% between the port of Mombasa and the Nairobi Inland Container Deport. It
is expected that this cost saving will be passed on to consumers with the cost
of transport and logistics thought to account for up to 40% of the cost of
goods and services.
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