Demand for Abuja-Kaduna train tickets is overshooting supply as passengers resort to the use of rail due to heightened kidnapping, armed robbery and cattle rustling along Abuja-Kaduna road.
“I do not use Abuja-Kaduna road again because anything can happen. Where will I get N10 million to give the kidnappers if they hold me hostage? So, I have to come here as early as 8am to buy a ticket for the train leaving at 10.40am,”Mohammed Aminu Abdusalah, who works in Court of Appeal, Kaduna, told BusinessDay at Rigasa train station on Monday.
The Abuja-Kaduna standard gauge railway was built by China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation and it covers a distance of 186.5 km. The railway, which has nine stations and a designed speed of 150 km per hour, links the capital city Abuja and the north-western state of Kaduna.
BusinessDay took a train from Kubwa rail station in Abuja to Rigasa station in Kaduna and back to Idu station in Abuja. It was found that Nigerian professionals and foreigners are comfortable using the train because it is safer and faster than the major highway linking both cities. A train boarded by BusinessDay journalist at 7.55am at Kubwa train station berthed Rigasa at 9.23 am. This is faster than a journey by road which often takes between two and a half and three hours.
Apart from insecurity, the cost of using rail is cheaper than road. A train ticket from Abuja to Kaduna or otherwise costs N1, 050, which is N450 cheaper than journey by road.
“I use the train because there is no traffic gridlock, no insecurity issues and the ease with which we get to our destination is great,” said Indrajit Sikh, an Indian engineer who works in southern Kaduna.
The demand for train tickets is much higher between Friday and Sunday when passengers visit relatives and friends in the two cities. However, BusinessDay findings reveal that racketeers often have their way at the train stations on Sundays, buying tens of tickets from the staff of the Nigerian Railway Corporation and reselling to desperate passengers at between N1, 500 and N2, 000. On Sunday, December 3, we found that the staff of the Corporation hoarded tickets from desperate passengers who came as early as 9am to buy tickets for the coach leaving at 12.30pm. The Nigerian Railway Corporation has only one coach, which leaves Idu and Kubwa train stations in Abuja at 6.30am and 7.am respectively between Monday and Saturday.
The coach plies the railway once every Sunday at 12.30, which increases the desperation of passengers to get tickets but opens doors for racketeers.
“I was number 45 on the list of people on the economy class but the coach contains 88 people. So, ordinarily, I should have got a ticket but no way. Nobody knows when they sell first-class,” Abdul Mohammed, one of the stranded passengers told BusinessDay.
Shola Gbamboye, one of the regular train users, said the situation has continued to occur as there is only one coach serving millions of passengers.
“If you have more coaches, you make more money and reduce racketeering,” Gbamgboye said.
He suggested that government should hand over the rail to the private sector to increase efficiency. The Abuja-Kaduna rail is also aiding the movement of small-scale traders who move their goods to and from Abuja.
Sanusi Monguno moves at least five baskets of onions from Kaduna to Abuja every two days via rail and he makes at least N4,000 bar expenses each day.
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“I buy onions and supply baskets of it in Jikwoi, Karu and other parts of Abuja. It is cheaper in Kaduna but expensive in Abuja,” Monguno told BusinessDay.
Rigasa is hitherto unknown till now, even though it is seen as the largest political ward in Nigeria. Business activities are picking up in the once sleepy town as land speculators have raised prices five-fold. “One plot of land used to be sold for N300,000 here before the train station started, but it now goes for N1.5 million. It will be higher next year,” said 37-year-old Shuaib Alhaya, who owns a small shop close to the train station in Rigasa. Kidnappers and armed robbers are having a field day on Abuja-Kaduna road. In early June, the police confirmed that five persons driving along Kaduna-Abuja axis were attacked– Three of them were robbed and the other two kidnapped.
In July, Zakari Mohammed Sada, a former board member of the Fiscal Responsibility Commission, was kidnapped along Abuja-Kaduna expressway.
ODINAKA ANUDU
