Nigeria: Railway - 405,048 Travellers Recorded in Two Months.

Lagos — At least 405, 048 passengers travelled by trains in January and February, 2016, document from the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) has shown.

The figure obtained by Daily Trust indicates that while 207, 286 used the rail transportation in January; 197, 762 Nigerians travelled by trains in the second month of the year.

These comprise of passenger movement on all the NRC trains including the Lagos-Kano passenger train, Lagos-Ilorin intercity passenger train, Offa-Kano intercity passenger train, Minna-Kaduna Mass Transit Train (MTT), Kano-Portharcourt Intercity passenger train, Abba-Portharcourt MTT and the MTT operating between Lagos and Ogun states.

Already, the Ogun state government partnered with the NRC to provide free train ride for indigenes of the state from Lagos to Osun while the passenger traffic also rose during the season.

The corporation also expects a boost in the passenger movement with the planned commencement of standard gauge service from Kaduna to Abuja in May. The coaches for the planned operation have been brought in.

Spokesman of the NRC, Abdulraouf Akinwoye yesterday told our corrspsondent that the corporation had put in place ample security at all the train stations to stave off any attack.

These include the Railway Police Command, the Private Security guards and the Man-O-War personnel jointly providing security in the system.