FG lists conditions for passengers ahead of Abuja-Kaduna train resumption

The Federal Government has said the Abuja-Kaduna train services will resume within seven days.

Minister of transportation, Mua’zu Sambo, said this on Sunday while inspecting and test-running the train route.

Sambo had earlier said operations would resume on the corridor this November.

The continued delay in resumption sparked speculation that services would recommence on Monday.

But in the latest update, the minister said the Abuja-Kaduna train operations will not resume on Monday (today), but in the next seven days.

Sambo said this was to enable passengers to get used to the new requirements for boarding the train.

“The issue of whether the train will start tomorrow or not, we have not said the train services will start tomorrow. I want to be very categorical about that,” he said.

“Now, we have introduced a new system before you buy a ticket.

“Your purchase of a ticket requires you to provide a phone number and a national identification number in order to profile, because that is the beginning of the security checks.

“So, at any point in time when a train moves from one station to another, we know who and who is on board.

“If you don’t have a national identification number you are not going to board our train. It is as simple as that.

“If you are a minor, an adult will pay for you and will register for you and an adult can only register for not more than four minors.”

Sambo added that the public needed to be kept abreast of the new developments before operations begin.

“Now, we want to give sufficient time for the Nigerian public to listen to these and assimilate this new system because if we start tomorrow, a lot of people will be disgruntled.

“Definitely between three, four, five days, certainly not more than a week,” he said.

The Minister further assured Nigerians that they are 90 percent ready with their plans, adding that the remaining 10 percent of measures “would be achieved in a couple of days for full resumption of train services”.

He added that certain concrete measures that are feasible include ticketing.