Business
Train Services: NRC To Address Overcrowding
The Nigeria Railway Cor
poration (NRC) has acquired two trains and six coaches as part of efforts at providing better services and addressing overcrowding.
Mr Akin Osinowo, Regional General Manager, Lagos District, disclosed this while speaking with journalist in Lagos State, stressing that the acquisition would ensure efficient service delivery.
The district runs 16 trips daily in its Mass Train Transit (MTT) services and is usually overcrowded while some commuters sit on the train roof top due to limited number of coaches.
Osinowo said that one of the two special trains would be deployed to the Lagos District to meet commuters’ demands.
“In terms of congestion, yes, it is a big problem, there is no doubt about that especially for our services within Lagos, what we call our MTT services.
“And we can see this in terms of people hanging by the door and some climbing the roofs.
“However, there is hope in the sense that as we speak, NRC is getting ready to ship in two units of what we call Diesel DMUs.
“These are like special train fully air-conditioned that will be run, at least, we know that one of them will be deployed in Lagos District.
“That will give us more frequent services, better services in terms of comfort and an increase in the number of passengers that we can carry.
“So, before the end of the first quarter this year Lagos State will start enjoying a better service from NRC.
“Another thing we are expecting is six air conditioned coaches and these coaches will also be deployed not only on our inner city services but also the intra city services.
“Again this is going to be in addition to the existing coaches.”
Speaking on the overcrowding of Lagos MTT services, Osinowo said that most of the existing coaches were old and thus affecting the number of trips they could make.
“One of the things we need to appreciate is that our rolling stock which is our fleet of coaches is very old. If the situation were ideal, probably a large percentage of them should have been scrapped.
“It is giving kudos to the ingenuity of our engineers to still keep some of these coaches working. There are things that come with running an old stock; there will be frequent break downs.
“Because safety is a number one issue with us, then the frequency of maintenance is also high, so we don’t manage a coach if there is 10 percent or five percent for a coach to be okay we will withdraw it from service and make sure we repair it.
“And because of the age of these coaches, the withdrawal from service is frequent.
Kenya made it a clean sweep at the Berlin Marathon with Sabastian Sawe winning the men’s race and Rosemary Wanjiru triumphing in the women’s.
Sawe finished in two hours, two minutes and 16 seconds to make it three wins in his first three marathons.
The 30-year-old, who was victorious at this year’s London Marathon, set a sizzling pace as he left the field behind and ran much of the race surrounded only by his pacesetters.
Japan’s Akasaki Akira came second after a powerful latter half of the race, finishing almost four minutes behind Sawe, while Ethiopia’s Chimdessa Debele followed in third.
“I did my best and I am happy for this performance,” said Sawe.
“I am so happy for this year. I felt well but you cannot change the weather. Next year will be better.”
Sawe had Kelvin Kiptum’s 2023 world record of 2:00:35 in his sights when he reached halfway in 1:00:12, but faded towards the end.
In the women’s race, Wanjiru sped away from the lead pack after 25 kilometers before finishing in 2:21:05.
Ethiopia’s Dera Dida followed three seconds behind Wanjiru, with Azmera Gebru, also of Ethiopia, coming third in 2:21:29.
Wanjiru’s time was 12 minutes slower than compatriot Ruth Chepng’etich’s world record of 2:09:56, which she set in Chicago in 2024.