Passengers on the Ilorin-Lagos train on Sunday urged the Federal Government to accelerate the rehabilitation of rail transportation to cushion the effect of the fuel subsidy removal.
A cross section of them spoke on the overcrowded train as it lumbered covering the relatively short distance in 16 hours—noted that an efficient rail transportation would have ameliorated the pains of petrol subsidy removal.
A civil servant, Mr Adebola Akanmu, said that the train would have been a better alternative for cushioning the effect of petrol subsidy removal, but there were inadequate coaches and the tracks were too challenging.
Akanmu noted that the train he boarded at 10 a.m. on Friday in Lagos, got to Ilorin at 2.30 a.m. on Saturday, adding that this was rather too slow for a trip that would have lasted less than four hours on a bus.
“Friday was my first time of boarding a train in my life, but it was a bad experience. Today (Sunday), I came again thinking it would be better, but the situation remained the same, except that I was fortunate to get a seat, unless standing on the first leg of the trip.
“But, if the coaches are filled up like this at Offa , what happens to passengers waiting at Oshogbo , Ikirun , Ibadan and Abeokuta, it means the congestion will be more than what was experienced on Friday”, Akanmu said.
Another civil servant, Mr Olanipekun Durojaiye, appealed to the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) management to run the train from Lagos to Ilorin at least twice a week, to reduce the congestion as many passengers were now embracing the service.
“If the trains are run twice a week—from Lagos to and from Ilorin– it will reduce this mad rush because many people cannot afford to pay their way in buses and cars due to increased fares, occasioned by the petrol subsidy removal”.
Passengers were hanging on to whatever they could grab, while many sat on the floor, even before the train left Ilorin on Sunday morning a replica of the situation when it left Lagos on Friday.
Durojaiye said he had a friend waiting to board the train at Ibadan, but had phoned to advise him to find an alternative as the coaches were already overfilled.
A female undergraduate, Miss Omowumi Olatoye, complained about her missing luggage on Sunday morning around Offa, and pleaded with the Nigeria Railway Corporation to beef up security on the train.
“I’ve lost a bag to thieves here on this train; but I am not alone as two or three others have had their handsets and wallets stolen since we left Ilorin”, she said.
Another passenger on the train, Mr Bolaji Aliyu, appealed to the NRC authorities to invest in public address system, through which they would be informing passengers on the train of the next railway station and other important information.
“This is a slow and tiring journey, people are bound to doze off. Yet, it would be unfortunate for anybody to miss his or her destination because of inadequate information dissemination,” Aliyu added.
When contacted on the telephone, the managing director of the NRC, Mr Adeseyi Sijuwade, said that it was obvious that demand for rail transportation was currently above the available facilities.
“What we are continuing to do is to rehabilitate more coaches, so that we can convey more passengers. The rush for our services, since the removal of petrol subsidy made road transportation more expensive, is understandable.
“More passengers have migrated from road transportation to rail transportation and we would strive to meet their demand in the shortest possible period”, he said.
Sijuwade, however, regretted that those who had bought tickets but could not get seats on the train, could only get their fares refunded as the Lagos-Ilorin passenger train service was only available on Fridays, with the return trip on Sundays.