By JONAH NWOKPOKU

The number of passengers patronising the Lagos to Kano inter-city rail service has significantly declined.

When Vanguard visited the Lagos Iddo terminus, a departure point for the Kano bound train, the terminus was deserted as few passengers turned up for the trip. Up until an hour before departure, there were a total of ninety six passengers on queue waiting to buy ticket. The platform also looked deserted. Before now, the terminus was always a beehive of activities with over 400 passengers milling around and jostling for ticket.

File photo: Passengers hanging on a moving train in Lagos at Ikeja Railway Station, Lagos…

When contacted, the Assistant Public Relations Officer, Nigeria Railway Corporation, Mr. David Ndanusa, said, the authorities are aware of the impact the incident would have on their patronage.

He said, “When things like this happen, it is normal for people to get scared. For instance, when the Dana Air crash happened, people got scared of flying Dana and it was just a matter of time, people started patronising them again. It happens everywhere, but that does not mean that the railway has ceased to be the safest means of transportation. What happened was just an isolated case. And it was not the authorities’ fault.”

Some people who spoke to Vanguard attributed the trend to safety concerns occasioned by train derailment at Barkin Kasua in Kaduna State, where a passenger lost his two feet and three others seriously injured

Olanipekun Ayodele who got to the terminus by ten o’ clock to help her mum get a ticket but found the station deserted on arrival said, “My mother told me how rowdy this place used to be and how getting a ticket is a serious challenge. So because of that, I arrived here by ten o’ clock to help her get a ticket but to my surprise, there were just a handful of passengers when I got here.

It is obvious, because of that accident; people no longer believe the train is as safe as claimed. It is also obvious that the people here are ones who didn’t hear about what happened.

Another passenger, Justice Ebeia, who is a post graduate student at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria and was headed to Kaduna, said that road transporters have begun exploiting the situation by dissuading people from patronising the rail.