By JONAH NWOKPOKU & WILLIAM JIMOH

The Federal Government’s effort towards rehabilitating the railway sector may not yield any positive result if the current trend of poor service delivery and management continue, Vanguard’s investigations revealed.

Investigations revealed that poor service delivery by staff of the Nigeria Railway Corporation, in addition to inadequacy of coaches to meet demands, poor management issues like inability to control the crowd and allowing touts to infiltrate the ticketing process are hampering Federal Government’s rehabilitation efforts.

Some of the passengers who patronize the railway have expressed concerns about the poor service delivery and called for improvement.

According to Mrs. Utman Sanusi, a senior civil servant, who was making her second trip in the Lagos to Kano train service that commenced, last month, little has changed from the old way the railway operated in the past. Technical challenges, she said, is still hindering smooth operation.

Train users in Lagos

“I boarded a Lagos bound train last week and the journey would have been a smooth one but a a coach derailed at Minna and they had to remove the affected part which took us some time. When we got to Ilorin, there was another mechanical fault that also took us sometimes for them to correct. These resulted to our arriving Lagos very late.” Mrs. Utman recounted.

Mrs. Utman who complained about the braking system which had become very loose that they had to be tied with ropes said the authority needed to pay more attention to safety of the passengers by making sure that the trains are in perfect conditions.

“All these pipes they are tying with ropes is not good because it is as if they are saying that they are taking the passengers’ lives for granted. I think since they are just re-starting and embarking on such a long distance journey, all these problems ought not to occur considering the large number of people that are involved. Supposing more derailment occurred that day, many people would have died and remember we are talking about lives. Passengers’ lives need be given priority.”

Another passenger who preferred anonymity complained of the sprawling condition of the trains and the terminus and the need for passenger orientation.

“It amazes me that many people just enter the train without knowing class they have paid for. Many people paid for second-class but when they enter, they get into first-class and then police will start arresting them. And they are ignorant of this things, it is the workers that are not doing enough in this aspect.

And these trains are not well maintained, if you look at the toilets for instance, they are very dirty. This is not supposed to be the case. There ought to be a person stationed permanently on each of the coaches to clean it.

“Also, just take a look at this compound; this is not what should be the condition of a railway station. From what I can see now, having a goat even here is very wrong. If the only way to restrict all these things is to get a perimeter fence, let them do it. You can see many other people that are just passing by, they should be restricted. There should not be a thoroughfare here. Many people will enter through all these unguarded routes and join the train without paying and when the ticket checkers come; they will bribe the checkers.” He said.

Speaking further, Mrs. Utman however urged the corporation to pay more attention to the management of the railway if it intends to properly revitalize the sector.

“The corporation needs to give priority to efficient management because if things continue this way, just like the power and energy sectors, the huge amount of money spent on this rehabilitation may not amount to anything tangible.”

Also making a recommendation, Alhaji Bagudu Mohammed, who was making his first trip since the long haul train service commenced last month, said, the corporation should employ competent hands to ensure smooth operation of the railway.

“When I heard that graduates would be handling the trains, I was happy but from what is glaring now, I don’t think that is the case. So, to me, if the government dose not want to waste money invested in the rehabiliataion of this sector, let them employ competent hands.”

However, the Assistant Director, Public Relations, Mr. David Ndanusa, who noted that the era of tieing the braking system “hose pipe” with rope will soon be over admitted that there was train derailment but not a passenger train and that the authority has set up a committee to investigate the incident.

“This use of rope is temporary and I am assuring you that all these hose pipes will be replaced very soon but still you can use rope to prevent it from dangling because it is written even in the manual that; if you are short of the normal manufacturer’s parts,  specific type of rope is acceptable .” Mr. Ndanusa said.

On the derailed train, he said, “the train that was reported to have derailed is not a passenger train but a cargo train, and this is due to heavy rain recorded on that route.

It is a normal occurrence when we have such situations. And a panel has been set up to look into that. We don’t joke with such things whenever they happen.” He explained.

In a similar vein, one of the corporation’s officials who preferred anonymity and who blamed the poor service delivery on inadequate infrastructure said they are depending on the federal government for a lot of improvement needed in the sector.

“You know the railway has been relegated for a very long period of time. That’s the cause of some of the challenges we have here but things have started coming up again. Also, you know there is nothing that you spend on railway that is enough, because this is a capital intensive project. Look at everything here, the tracks and the coaches, everything is money and they are not even enough. But we are trying to manage with whatever we have on ground. So we are looking up to the federal government for a lot of improvements that we need in this sector.”