The Nigeria Railway Corporation (NRC) may have lost millions of naira to the temporary suspension of train services on the Abuja-Kaduna route.
It was learnt that the corporation generates over 12 million daily from passenger tickets.
The suspension was due to the attack on some portion of the rail tracks by suspected bandits.
NRC yesterday confirmed that an explosion which occurred on the rail track affected a Kaduna-bound train on Wednesday night.
It, however, said efforts were being made to resume train services as soon as possible, adding that appropriate measures, checks and maintenance were being carried out.
It was learnt that the corporation may have lost the N12 accruable from daily ticket sales.
Transportation Minister Rotimi Amaechi in an interview last year disclosed that NRC makes about N120 million in a month.
He said: “In a month (pre-COVID-19), we get about N120 million, and if we run at half capacity, we will realise N60 million. It means that we need another N60 million to complete the running cost.”/
Daily, the train service from Abuja to Kaduna and Kaduna to Abuja embarks on five trips respectively with twelve coaches.
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The coaches have spaces for both the business and economy classes.
While the economy class can convey 88 sitting passengers per coach, the business class coach can convey 56 passengers.
At the peak period, tickets are sold for N3000 and N6000 for both economy and business.
During the normal hour, tickets are sold at the rate of N2, 600 and N5, 000 respectively.
The Nation was told by an official at the train services that the coaches are always fully booked at the weekend but experience low patronage on week days.
Analysing the likely loss, a frequent traveller on the route, Mr. Johnson Kolo, said: “Going by what I have witnessed in the past, I think the number of loss economic cannot be quantified as it will have a direct and indirect impact on NRC, passengers and business operators along the corridor.”
Commenting on the loss, a source within the NRC said: “Abuja-Kaduna train service generates over N12 million daily from the sale of tickets. Now that the service has been suspended, we don’t know how long it will take before we get things back on track but we are hopeful that we would resume soon.”