The Mass Transit Train Service (MTTS) from Kajola/Ijoko in Ogun State to Iddo in Lagos State now has rates that have been increased by 25%, according to the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC).
The fare increased from N460.00 to N700.00 due to the new tariff, which went into effect on Tuesday.
The organization and its passengers are at odds over the new fare policy after many claimed that the old price was careless and used to be thrown on them without warning.
The administration, according to the passengers, was more interested in running the narrow-gauge trains for profit than in catering to the needs of the mass-transit riders.
They started the accessible instruct was once barely in a position to cater for the surge and queried why no strive had been made in the final decade to add or restore any of the historic locomotive coaches, to add to the two that had been working.
Lagos Railway District Manager Tony Arase, said the first phase of six coaches was being refurbished at Iddo and Loco workshops, noting that “as soon as work on the coaches is completed, they will be attached to the existing coaches in the corporation’s fleet.”
He said after the first phase, another batch of six coaches would be removed from operation and sent to the workshops for refurbishing so as not to utterly ground train operation.
TechEconomy understands that one of the major factors that contribute to the hike in fares is the cost of diesel because trains require diesel to operate.
The cost of diesel has gone up by more than three times and it is costing us to mount human and material security that it requires to keep the trains operating.