Economy

Syokimau station offers day-long free train rides

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Passengers inside the train at Syokimau on November 13, 2012. PHOTO/STEPHEN MUDIARI

Passengers using Syokimau station are enjoying day-long free rides and parking services, a day after the Sh400 million project was commissioned by President Kibaki.

The railway’s management said the complimentary service was meant to help customers familiarise with the new station’s operations and to quench curiosity.

The average ticket cost at stations is Sh100 for a one-way trip while the parking fee for ten hours is also Sh100.

Read: New commuter rail service to ease traffic jam)
“Most of our students have not been on a train before and this was the perfect opportunity,” said Redempta Ndunge Maundu, the director of Moserene Academy in Athi River.

Ticket marshals at the station said that they would begin charging passengers starting Thursday.

Season tickets will be limited to specific periods and these attract discounts while ‘combo’ tickets are for customers taking up parking, train travel and other services all in one ticket.

Six refurbished trains will be doing five round trips a day and KRC estimates that these locomotives would transport approximately 20,000 passengers a day.

The first of five trips from Syokimau is scheduled for 7:05am with the last one into town being at 6:35 in the evening.

For passengers heading the opposite direction, the first of five trains will leave the Railway Station ramp at 8:10 in the morning while the last one for the day will head out at 8:45pm.

Syokimau station is part of a larger Sh24 billion ($300 million) project envisioned to interlink all the key sections of Nairobi with a railway network converging at the city’s central business district (CBD).

El-Noor General Contractors built the station.