By Steve Agbota [email protected] 08033302331
On Monday, hundreds of passengers aboard the KA2 train from Kaduna to Abuja were stranded in Dutse, Kaduna, as the train conveying them developed faults few minutes into the journey.
The breakdown of the train reportedly kept the passengers stranded in the bush for over three hours before a rescue locomotive was sent from Idu station in Abuja.
In recent times, passengers have been complaining about the incessant breakdown of trains along Kaduna and Abuja rail corridor. Each time this happened, it would take hours before a rescue locomotive would be sent.
As the recurrence of the breakdown continues, those patronising the rail transport system have began to lose confidence in the $1.457 billion Abuja- Kaduna rail services, which was commissioned by President Muhammadu Buhari in 2016.
Experts in transportation system who spoke with Daily Sun said that if passengers lose interest in the trains, there would be problems, which would affect repayment of the loans collected to build the infrastructure.
Between November 18 and 20 last year, Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, had to apologise to Nigerians for a breakdown on the Abuja-Kaduna rail locomotives.
“I want to apologise to Nigerians over what happened at the Abuja-Kaduna rail station. We now have new locomotives and we have called the Chinese because we never expected the mechanical fault at this early stage.
“On behalf of the Federal Government, the Ministry and the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC), we apologise to Nigerians and I have instructed the NRC to fix it or invite the Chinese. If this is happening now, then they should bring back our old locomotives, it will just affect turnaround times because we get the new locomotive to increase the turnaround time,” he said.
After the Monday’s breakdown, the management of the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) issued a statement to also apologise to some passengers who were stranded on the Abuja-Kaduna rail corridor following the breakdown of its train.
However, Nigerians who patronised the trains are tired of receiving apologies from NRC even as they alleged that the trains brought into Nigeria are refurbished. They said new trains cannot be breaking down at early stage of its operations. One of the passengers, a castor oil exporter, Zainab Abib, who was stranded on Monday spoke with Daily Sun said that said the train developed fault around 7:am and it took NRC over three hours before they brought a rescue locomotive.
She said: “I don’t see the reason why it would take over three hours to rescue us from that bush where the train broke down. Anything could have happened in this criticial period of insecurity in the country.
“As a matter of fact, Nigeria is not yet there and we are not prepared. Who knows if these trains are refurbished before they brought them here? Who know their origin? Even the government who is responsible for the delivery might not have full history of these trains because new ones cannot be breaking down anyhow.”
Daily Sun learnt that a similar issue occurred on Saturday where passengers spent six hours to get to Abuja. The passengers left Abuja at 6:pm and they did not get to Kaduna until 11:pm.
A worker in NRC, who does not want his name to be mentioned in print, said that the issue is a national problem; it is the problem of Nigeria.
“The problem is that when you have one or two trains plying when you don’t have much and when you have a bird of rolling stock. So when such thing happens, you find it difficult to get any relief immediately,” he said.
He said politicians are assembly these things for political gains and the rest of them, adding that there are so many things that are left undone in the rail system.
“Between that Kaduna and Abuja, If not for anything, looking at the distance, there are supposed to be more than one, two and three of what we called relief locomotive. So when there is a breakdown like that, within 30 minutes, they send the engine to go and pullout the other one.
“We also have the issues of stop stations when you have a very long distance before you have another station; it becomes difficult to have quick and timely restoration of movement. If you look at the old stations, before you go to any 10 and 15 kilometers, you see another stations. Locomotive engine will be station there in case if there is any breakdown or something, they will go out fast and do something immediately,” he added.
He said the solutions to some of the problems is to construct additional more stations, bring more chains and engines, officially, there should be an official provision on the cost of accident and restoration of movement.
Also speaking with Daily Sun, an expert in the transport industry, Charles Okorefe, said trains are engines and engines have capacity to breakdown for a number of reason, which include lack of maintenance, overused, saying that it could also be a result of old age because nobody really know how old or the age of these trains brought to Nigeria.
“What people knew is that trains are brought into Nigeria and everybody is happy that we have trains running. But the questions we have not been asking is how old are these trains? Because definitely they are not new. Are they refurbished? Do we have a regular maintenance regime for these trains? These are questions that should come to mind and also those who are running the train, how well trained are those to handle such sophisticated equipment?
“A lot of question needs to be answered and the best people to answer are those at the affairs of the Federal Ministry of Transport and also the Nigerian Railway Corporation because they are the ones in charge of the rail in Nigeria. Now you want to juxtapose that with the massive loans that have been taken. If the trains are not functioning well and we are relying on the returns of the sales of tickets and haulage to pay back. How are we sure this will actualise at the end of the day because very soon people will begin to abandon those trains due to breakdown.
“So if they are not carrying capacity in terms of passengers and freight, then what becomes of the huge loans that the nation is collecting to develop such infrastructure. There are lots of questions that need to be answered. Like I said, trains are machines that can break down. Even new vehicles do break down. But for train to be breaking down twice in a week is not acceptable because something has to be done.”